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Teaching Science In Elementary School

As a young child I was always the curious one, who would throw the cats off the garage, just to see if they would land on their feet, or make a chemistry lab in my grandmother’s bathroom with her perfumes and any random liquid that was in arms reach.   This curiosity of science as a young child encouraged me to become a creative, outgoing, confident individual during my adult years.   I’m a true believer, my inspiration and attitude of figuring stipulations out as a child has made me who I am today.   When I was in elementary school the teaching strategies of science was read the text book, do the questions at the end of the chapter, and take a test.   There are times that I wonder, what if I had actually been taught in a constructivism hands on classroom, would that have made me handle situation different, or realize that there are a variety of ways to solve an issue.   This is why I am a believer, and one day when I do become a teacher I will promote a hands-on, minds-on classroom.  
  During the class and reading the chapters in , Teaching Science for all Children,   I realized how important it is to involve the children in a constructivist classroom. As we all know children are curious by nature.   In a constructivist classroom the children work in groups and focus on concepts, thinking skills, and using hands-on, minds-on strategies. These strategies allow the teacher the opportunity to evaluate the students in progress through their work and as a team.   The main focus in the constructivist classroom is to encourage the children to realize that it is okay to make mistakes, however when the mistakes are made you should learn from them and mentally challenge yourself to find the correct solution.   This style of teaching allows the children to mentally understand why things work the way they do.   As teachers, by making science fun and exciting you not only provoke them to think out of the box, but are teaching them life long learning techniques.   is to challenge the...