Teach Your Child Science
1 It is important to make your child interested in science from an early age. Most young children ask a lot of questions and you should give careful scientific answers. Don"t only give facts, but try to give explanations as well.
2 Science is not just knowledge; it is a way of thinking, a method of finding out about the world. We see something. We try to explain it, and we test our idea by setting up an experiment. One day you come home and find the plant on the table has fallen over. You think it might be the wind from the open window or the cat, so you close the window, but leave the cat in and see what happens (You can also try leaving the window open and shutting the cat out). Of course, you remember there may be a third explanation.
3 Ask your child to get a piece of string, some salt, a glass of water and an ice cube (冰块). Tell her to put the ice in the water, and then put one end of the string on the ice, leaving the other end over the side of the glass. Put a little salt on the ice. Wait a minute, and then pull the string; it should be attached to the ice. Ask the child: "What has happened"
4 Probably she won"t know. Ask her whether fresh water or salt water freezes into ice first. If you live near the sea and have a cold winter, she should know fresh water freezes first as she will have seen that happen. Show her how to test the idea by half-filling two paper cups with water, adding salt to one. Then put them in the icebox and check every three minutes. Write the results in a table. The conclusion will be that salt changes the behaviour of water. Thinking about the string, we see the salt turned some of the ice into water. Then the salt went away into the water and the ice froze again leaving the string attached.
5 Then you can ask, "Will water with salt boil at the same temperature as water without salt" She can think, tell you her idea and (taking care because of the heat) you can test it in the kitchen. Teach Your Child ScienceWe set up experiments to test our ideas about ______.