E4 Conference: Inspiring Curiosity in the World Around Us"
The keynote address at the E4
Conference was titled “Inspiring Curiosity in the World Around Us” given by
Julie Douglas and Robert Lamb; they both write for the blog “Stuff to Blow Your
Mind” at Howstuffworks.com. The main
takeaway from this address was that we are all scientists, mathematicians and
engineers. The world is an amazing place with a multitude of stimuli and we
should strive to take in as much of it as we can. As teachers, we should
encourage this in our students.
We are all scientists. Children,
even as babies, are much more conscious of the world around them than adults.
This is because adults have experiences and preconceived notions that shape how
we see the world. Children do not yet have such schema to guide their
understanding of stimuli. Adults are much more attached to their prior beliefs
than children. Children see their world in a very raw, statistical way, called
Bayesian Thinking.
Children are innate physicists,
accountants and storytellers. They have an innate number sense that is tied
back to the physical body; notice that most man-made number systems are based
on fives, tens and twenties. Coincidence? Even though babies do not understand
number systems, they do understand quantities (more or less), making them born
accountants. Science tells a story and children are very good at telling
stories, making them natural scientists.
They also focused on the importance
of play. There are five main components to play: play celebrates uncertainty;
it is acceptable to change; it is open to possibility; it is cooperative; it is
intrinsically motivated. All of these different components can be applied to
scientific observation. Thus it is important when teaching science to bring play
in when possible.
They also focused on critical
thinking. Children are very imaginative but they also equally capable of
critical thinking. Given several possibilities to solve a problem or question,
the simplest one is the most likely solution, and children understand this.
Called “Occam’s Razor,” this allows us to look at an event and possible
solutions. We examine all the steps it would take to logically reach each
solution. The solution with the fewest number of steps is the most likely. This
can be a game to play with children to use critical thinking skills.
I found this talk of everyone being
scientists and being influenced in the way we see the world based on prior
beliefs to be fascinating. It can be hard as adults to step back, away from our
own schemas, and see the world as children see it; unfiltered. They are so in
tune to details that we might so easily overlook. If we can bring this fact
into our own consciousness, we can maybe better understand what our students
are seeing and trying to process. I encourage you to check out the “Stuff to
Blow Your Mind” blog. It has many great articles about viewing the world as
children do and could be valuable resource to our teaching.
Written by Matt Armstrong
Written by Matt Armstrong
No comments:
Post a Comment