We love making engaging and compelling science experiments for children to use in classrooms and homeschool environments. We always say that the lesson is only the beginning, but it’s important to recognize that the experiment doesn’t have to be the final destination! That’s why it’s important to create space in your learning environment for children to explore different science project ideas. In Montessori, children are accustomed to going deeper with lessons to further investigate topics of interest. The experiments are just one way of demonstrating mastery and understanding. The following are other ways in which your learner can extend their studies:
Posters are one of our favorite science project ideas for elementary children because they love doing big things, and posters represent “big work.” Your learners can create a solar system poster, a states of matter poster, a layers of the earth poster, and more!
Posters usually contain a visual component and a written component. The visual component can include:
Hand-drawn illustrations.
Images cut from magazines.
Images printed from online sources.
The written component can include:
For younger children: writing sentences onto sentence strips then gluing them onto the poster.
For older children: writing paragraphs onto index cards or other kinds of paper and fastening them to the poster.
While children can write directly onto the poster, it’s a great idea to have them assemble and compose the images and the words first. Then they can secure them once they have a vision of how the arrangement looks best to them. This helps them develop a sense of aesthetics, too!
Create a Model
Elementary children not only love engaging in “big work,” they also love to create three dimensional representations! There are so many ways in which children can make 3 dimensional models that show their learning. Here is a list of a few ideas that are popular with elementary-aged students:
Dioramas: Children often make dioramas from shoe boxes. They love to create scenes based on illustrations, videos, or their own imaginations! They can use paint, clay, colored paper, and a variety of collage material. Their dioramas can depict a habitat, the solar system, the water cycle, and more!
Sculptures: Clay, sand, paper, wire, plaster … there are numerous options for creating a sculpture! Children might want to create a sculpture of a river model or the layers of the earth to name a few.
Salt and flour relief maps: Elementary-aged children love to make three dimensional salt and flour relief maps of their state, or of another region in the world. They love to create them, watch them dry, paint them, and label them. This is one of those science project ideas that can keep them involved for a long time!
3D paper crafts: While you can do a lot with paper as a flat surface, there are even more science project ideas that can be done with paper involving three dimensional products! All you have to do is look up 3D paper crafts on Google or Pinterest (Pinterest is a particular favorite!). You will find endless ideas. And if you’re a teacher or parent who feels a bit reluctant to get into this kind of work because you don’t consider yourself “crafty,” you can show the children these ideas and most of them will be able to go about implementing them without your help!
Make a Booklet
Young elementary children in particular love to create booklets that contain a sentence or a paragraph of information on a page along with an illustration. They love having a colorful book cover to decorate using gel pens, markers, sequins, and more. They especially love to learn the variety of bookbinding techniques that often involve yarn or embroidery. If you have never done this with children, you can do a search on youtube for “bookbinding for kids.”
Write a Research Report
Older elementary children can move beyond simple booklets to full fledged research reports, complete with multi-paragraphs, topic sentences, transitions, and more! They might want to learn more about crystallization, or the elements, or the earth and the sun.The Montessori Laboratory science lessons are key lessons that spark the child’s interest and give them an understanding of how the world works. These lessons give them essential foundational knowledge in various scientific topics, and they will build upon this knowledge to go both deeper and wider in their investigations. Supporting students in writing a research report that goes more in depth into areas of science will not only augment their knowledge, but will also help them build their writing skills! This integration of science and writing is a perfect example of the connections that happen all throughout Cosmic Education.
Try Montessori Laboratory’s Science Project Ideas
Are you interested in seeing what Montessori Laboratory’s big-picture lessons, hands-on experiments, and engaging science activities are all about? Check out the free lessons below!
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The First Great Lesson
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Sedimentation
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Combining and Separating
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How Did Humans Discover Fire?
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Write a Biography
Elementary children love heroes, and in fact, one of their psychological characteristics as identified by Maria Montessori herself is “hero worship.” This simply means that elementary children want to learn about people who have or are currently doing unique and innovative things, or who are contributing to a cause and making a difference in the world. What better way to get them interested in science than to introduce them to famous scientists, both in the present and those from long ago?
Who first made the claim that the earth revolved around the sun, rather than the other way around?Who discovered the elements? These are the questions that they will find the answers to while learning about their new favorite hero.
When you suggest a biography as a science project idea, it is also a great time to point out that there are some scientists who did not originally get credit for their work. There are many women and people of color who did not get the spotlight they deserved for their discoveries, but who are finally being recognized now.
Design Their Own Experiment
Many of the Montessori Laboratory experiments include extensions where children get to experiment more in depth with the topic. A natural progression can also be for children to design and conduct their very own experiments using the scientific method! This is one of those science project ideas that is particularly great for older children as they are often ready and excited to dive further into the experiments they have already performed.
Present Their Work!
Everyone who spends any amount of time with elementary children knows that they want to share their newfound knowledge. They enjoy creating projects and representations of their learning that they can put on display and share with others.
If you are a teacher, be sure to offer opportunities for students to share their work! You can even put them into small groups and have them share with a small audience. The small audience helps keep everyone’s attention and engagement. Or, you can have special events where parents can come and watch their children present.
If your child is homeschooling and you have a homeschool community, you could reach out to them and organize a “student showcase,” or “presentation day.” Students can present to the other parents, and to each other as well. They could even present online to one another!
The opportunity to present hones children’s oral presentation skills, which will help them as they get into the adolescent years. Eventually, these science project ideas will turn into science fairs and other events calling for more formal, polished presentations.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are numerous directions that learners can go in that will keep their minds busy and their hands active. Follow up activities extend the experience for the learners, thus further cementing and integrating the knowledge that they attained. Science experiments are the practical life of the elementary child, and a highlight of scientific learning for children of this age. Using the science experiments for learning acts as a jumping off point for even more active learning. Science projects encourage children to construct themselves, and they give them the confidence and skills to pursue their scientific interests to the fullest.
The Montessori science curriculum allows children to learn about the world around them while simultaneously engaging their sense of wonder. Science can be found everywhere; from the most simple nature walk to an in-depth discussion on how the Earth came into existence.
Unlike other school systems, Montessori school doesn't use textbooks to teach the science curriculum. We use science kits or models to demonstrate how electricity or chemistry work. We make material and choose specific reading for children on various topics.
The Montessori curriculum is rich in all aspects of science and starts as soon as the child enters preschool. Science is all around and young children start interaction with nature as soon as they are able to observe the world around them.
Firstly, the Pink Tower helps a child build a concept of size in three dimensions. This includes working on visual perception, and awareness of dimension, both leading to an understanding of size in the environment. The Pink Tower also helps develop a child's fine muscular coordination.
The lessons underpin the curriculum and lay the path way for the children to learn about the concept of evolution, creative thinking, exploration, experimentation, science, understanding their place in the world and the circle of life along with much more.
Environmental science is commonly thought of as one of the easier science degrees to obtain. One of the reasons for this perception is that it is very hands-on and requires a minimal amount of complex math, at least by science major standards.
While this type of research falls under the broad umbrella of experimentation, there are some nuances in different research design. Four major design types with relevance to user research are experimental, quasi-experimental, correlational and single subject.
A simple experiment is one researchers often use to determine if changes in one variable might lead to changes in another variable—in other words, to establish cause-and-effect.
“The Meselson-Stahl experiment has been called the most beautiful experiment in biology for the elegant logic of its deceptively simple design,” says Judith Campbell, Caltech professor of chemistry and biology. At the time, there were three leading theories for how DNA copies itself into new cells: 1.
Which main topics will be covered at Primary 5? There are four main topics that will be covered in the Primary 5 Science Syllabus, namely cycles, systems, interactions, and energy.
Science fair projects are activities that are both fun and educational for students. They can pick topics that pique their curiosity, test their hypotheses by creating their own experiments and learn how to use the scientific method — a practice used by professional scientists around the world.
This is the best teaching method invented so far that involves the active participation of students to experience scientific concepts than to just have an audience view. Schools are promoting the use of low cost apparatus in classrooms to helps students to have hands on learning experience.
In the following report, Hanover Research compares two prominent models of Montessori education in the United States: the Association Montessori Internationale and the American Montessori Society.
Montessori identified eleven different sensitive periods occurring from birth through the age of six: order, movement, small objects, grace and courtesy, refinement of the senses, writing, reading, language, spatial relationships, music, and mathematics.
Amongst British parents, the Montessori method is one of the more widely-known 'alternative' educational pedagogies, and is used in over 22,000 schools worldwide.
Called a “directress” by Montessori Method founder Dr. Maria Montessori, and sometimes known as a “guide,” the Montessori teacher plays many roles as she directs, or guides, her students.
By nature, Montessori education shares many of the hallmarks of STEM education. For instance, question-based and hands-on learning, critical thinking, open-ended exploration and applying self-initiative. It is also a natural place for STEM activities occur.
Montessori is based on science. Dr. Montessori observed and drew conclusions about the best ways children absorbed knowledge and she modeled her education system after that. Central to Montessori are the scientifically proven ideas of “natural learning”, learning materials, and self-pacing.
Blue box 1 introduces the child to words that have initial double blends. It contains a selection of 6 objects. Please be aware that you will need a large movable alphabet to use this box, which is not included. Blue box 1 introduces the child to words that have initial double blends.
Neutral colors around the room and on the walls provide a soothing feel so children are less distracted and have increased concentration. If you'd like to add a bit of color, hang your child's art on the walls so they can feel proud of their work.
Once the child has successfully completed the pink reading series in Montessori, they move onto the blue reading material. The blue reading material is very similar to the pink reading material, the difference is the child will now be reading four or more letter phonetic words.
It is up to Montessori schools to ensure that, along with sexual orientation, gender identity and expression are considered protected categories within school nondiscrimination and antiharassment policy.
Montessori education is not inherently religious and does not, in itself, provide any form of religious instruction. However, it does purposefully encourage exploration, enjoyment and respect for all forms of human spirituality.
Montessori is an education philosophy and practice that fosters rigorous, self-motivated growth for children and adolescents in all areas of their development, with a goal of nurturing each child's natural desire for knowledge, understanding, and respect.
The physical sciences include physics (the study of matter and forces), chemistry (the study of chemicals) and astronomy (the study of outer space). Life sciences deal with living things and include botany (the study of plants), zoology (the study of animals) and paleontology (the study of fossils).
Does the flavor of ice cream affect how fast the ice cream melts? Does changing the wingtip direction affect an airplane's flight? Does the type liquid given to a plant affect its growth? Does changing the movement of water affect the shade (color) of the water?
Introduction: My name is Terence Hammes MD, I am a inexpensive, energetic, jolly, faithful, cheerful, proud, rich person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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