Writing STEM notes is a skill that kids need to learn
… and they need to acquire the habit of taking safety measures
An integral part of any educational STEM experiment should be kids making notes into their science notebooks and taking safety measures. Writing notes is a skill that can be trained, safety measures are a habit that can be acquired.
If you don't write yer notes, you can't have any pudding!
STEM is often presented to kids with misconceptions about how scientific discoveries are made. Popular perception is that scientists suddenly get big ideas that change everything. In this “eureka moment”, they throw papers in air in exuberance and start shouting and running through the halls of their lab building, overwhelmed with emotions. It sounds exciting, but this is not how discoveries are made.
New ideas and breakthroughs do not happen out of nothingness. They are results of deep insights that researchers have accumulated over time. In other words, you must be deeply involved into the subject if you want to push the subject’s boundaries. And this “deep involvement” requires time, patience, constant learning and keeping meticulous notes.
A laboratory notebook/diary does not contain only few scribbles about what was done in an experiment. It is much more than that. Good notes contain a detailed description of the experiment, conditions under which it was performed, thoughts and half-baked ideas that went through the researcher’s head prior, during and after the experiment. Mistakes that ruined the experiment are as valuable as successes. Seemingly dead-end ideas might later become breakthroughs. You never know which detail might become important. Moreover, failures are an integral part of research!
A general rule is that anyone who looks at the notes should be able to redo the experiment in all the detail and get the same results. This also means that notes have to be written neatly, with sketches and (if possible) other types of archival material (photos, videos, printouts, etc.). Deeper understanding and new insights might be reached by reading such well documented notes.
Templates for taking notes
With so much work invested into keeping notes, it is understandable why this is a skill. No one wants to do it initially, especially if experiments are fun to do and writing about it is killing the mood. One must try hard to switch the brain into the writing mode. But after a while, the brain will start doing it with less and less extra effort, almost automatically. Hence, if there is one thing that kids should accomplish with STEM education, it is this skill of making good laboratory notes. It will be a great asset to them at any job later in their life. Many firms today actually require the employees to write daily or weekly reports on the work done or to document finished tasks.
There is one additional misconception often presented to kids about science. You can often hear a story how the scientific methods works in the following sequence: (i) first ask a question, then (ii) do some literature research on what has been done so far, which leads to (iii) establishing your hypothesis, then (iv) you perform an experiment to test your hypothesis, followed by (v) making an observation and (vi) analysis of the results, such that you can (vii) draw conclusions and (viii) present findings.
If kids try to follow such a sequence on their own, they will fail because real life is almost never like this. Instead, researchers do all sort of back-and-forth steps. Ideas come and go, experiments fail or produce unexpected results, initial questions undergo changes and hypotheses are refined. Hence, give kids more relaxed instructions on how to document their STEM projects:
Age 3-5: Encourage them to draw what they see. Put drawings on the fridge or wall and encourage them to be creative. Keep some drawings, they will become a heartwarming memory for you.
Age 6-8: Let them draw things but encourage them to add text and numbers to the drawings. Over time increase the volume of writing and guide their drawings toward more precise sketches.
Age 9-11: Introduce the first hints of structured notes. Here you can find an example (PDF in Letter and A4 paper size format):
Age 12-14: Expand on the structured notes and ask for better writing (more coherent and concrete stories) and better sketches (serving as a support to the written text). Present the scientific method concepts, but do not insist on strict rules. Here you can find an example (PDF in Letter and A4 paper size format):
Age 13+: As soon as a student shows talent for writing notes, increase the requirements, and eventually go toward a full lab report (like an article). At age 15+ this can be required from all students. These reports have to follow the above described sequence question-hypothesis-experiment-analysis-conclusion.
Age groups are provisional here as kids can differ dramatically in their skills and interests for writing. But it shows the general idea how to guide kids starting from early age.
Take safety measures and enjoy the excitement of danger
It is not good for kids to totally isolate them from any risk possible. If you teach them how to behave when a potentially dangerous experiment is performed, they will be safe and excited. For example:
Always use safety goggles. Always!
Protect your skin with gloves: latex gloves in case of chemicals, heavy duty gloves (e.g. leather work gloves) in case of handling fire.
Use UV protection goggles if playing with UV light.
Lasers should never ever be pointed into eyes! Laser protection goggles can also help.
Keep your body and especially head away from the direction of possible ejection of chemicals or projectiles. Sounds obvious, but keep in mind that you work with kids who are playful and do not think about danger.
Whenever you feel uncomfortable about an experiment, better you do it instead of kids. It is also a good idea to first show such an experiment as a demonstration, while emphasizing what are the risks, and then let the kids do it.
No sudden moves around flames. Keep kids aware all the time that fire can easily spread if they are not careful.
Emphasize safety measures even when the danger is not so big. The goal is to turn safety into a habit.
In the experiments that we will describe in this newsletter, we will use a simple color coding for each age group separately:
Finally, don’t forget to document your time with kids! Take pictures and videos and keep some drawings they have made. You will really enjoy watching this as they grow up.