Rocks are often fascinating for kids. They come in so many different colors, and some are sparkly, and some are pretty or clear or spotted, and a lot of them look like the gravel in the driveway.
Unfortunately, it is this last part that causes many adults and parents brush off a kid's interest in a pebble as a boring rock. Even the well-meaning homeschooling parent often overlooks the humble pebble, treating earth science as an afterthought or a less-important scientific sibling to biology or chemistry or physics. This is a missed opportunity. All the sciences are dependent upon each other, and earth sciences are an easy and gentle way to introduce your kids to nature, cultivate skills of observation, and even act as a "gateway drug" to a lifelong love of science and nature. When I was a small child, my grandmother, a hardcore mineral collector with many rare, world class specimens in her collection, gave my sister and I wooden collection boxes with a few nice specimens, and took us along on a few rockhound expeditions. Combined with my parents that encouraged my budding love of driveway pebbles and other interesting things to be found out-of-doors, little did anyone know it would eventually lead me to a couple degrees in geology and a hand lens in every backpack. So, suffice it to say, I have strong opinions about how to teach our kids about geology and earth sciences.
And I'm not too shy to share, haha!
Parents, the single most important thing to encourage an interest in earth sciences in your kids, is to go outside and look around. (This also works for interest in lots of other topics, too, but I'm trying to stay on track here.) Try going somewhere new, or someplace you enjoyed but haven't been in a while. Both you and the kids. Get away from the city or subdivision where you can't see the land beneath you any more. A groomed city park is great for playdates, but not the place to go for earth science. Go to the mountains, or the beach, or the river, or the desert, or wherever you can get close to the land without the covering of man-made changes we are so used to seeing. Have a nice, relaxing outing. While you are there, open your eyes and LOOK. You might notice things you never saw before. "Huh, I never noticed these black sand grains at this beach." "Wow, the bend of this river is a lot narrower than it was last summer." "Dang, that's a big rock!"
These observations lead to questions, naturally. "Why is that mountain shaped that way?" "How come this part of the trail is so much steeper than that first part?" "What's up with all these little sparkly bits in this boulder?"
There, now you and the kids, you're already thinking like scientists. It's ok if you don't know the answers. And, it's ok, even essential, to tell the kids you don't know the answers--and to tell them you will try to find out, or to gather more information. "Hmm, good question, let's take a picture of that cliff and ask the Ranger about it." "I don't know, I've never noticed that before! Let's go see if the rocks over there are the same." "Beats me, good observation! Why don't we come back next month, and see if it is different."
If the kids don't have questions, parents, YOU have the questions and curiosity, model that for the kids. Honest curiosity and enthusiasm is infectious. Kids will more than likely catch on. You can't fake it though, kids see right through that. At least, mine do! If it's an off afternoon or the weather is bad or you should have stopped for lunch an hour ago, oh well. Don't force it. Go have a snack. It's the habits of observation and curiosity and investigation that are crucial, not any one specific experience.
And, there you go. Those habits in themselves will get you pretty far. To encourage further interest in specific earth science and rocks and minerals study, there are some helpful tools that are easy to put in a backpack or the trunk of the car, though. And I've put them in Part 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment