Science and Engineering Experiments

These days, we pin our hopes on scientists and engineers for solutions to the current crisis: not just cures and vaccines, but other innovations as well that respond to all the needs that the crisis has created.

Your kids may be too young to come up with such solutions, but as early as now, you can already light the spark in them that will ignite the passion for scientific discovery and invention.

But even if your children do not end up becoming scientists or engineers, encouraging an interest in these fields as early as now will help them grow up to be the science-literate citizens we need to decide on science-related issues affecting society.

The best way to get your children into science is to keep it fun. Take note I wrote keep, not make.  Science does not have to be made fun; it already is. Children like experiments.  I suspect that most of the time, children get into mischief because they want to investigate things  - like the time I messed up my grandma's lipstick and lipstick brush at the age of three.  Doing science experiments with your children is a win-win solution for both of you: they can get messy and entertained, but under your supervision and with an educational outcome. (And you don't have to clean up alone when they are done; asking them to help clean up the mess afterwards is also a teaching moment.)

For starters, you can download many science and engineering experiments from this website.  These experiments can be done with everyday household items, and children as young as kindergarten level can do them under your supervision. I am sure there are a lot more in the Internet.

Even during lockdown, the learning never ends.