Many schools offer extra-curricular STEM based clubs and activities – this independent school in Cobham has a wide range of fun things for students to enrol in. But at home, you can still enjoy exploring STEM subjects with your child. Here are some ideas.
Visit your local museums and libraries
Many museums and libraries offer low-cost or free STEM relate activities and programmes, particularly during the holidays. If your local museum or library doesn’t have anything on offer, branch out into neighbouring areas and see what’s on offer there. Organise some fun science experiments at home
There are so many fun science experiments to do at home and usually, these don’t require any special equipment.Here are some ideas.
Enormous soap bubbles – all you need is dish soap and a piece of string tied to two dowels. Dip the string into the soap, and carefully lift it out with the strings crossed to form a ring. Now gently flip the strings and the huge bubble will be released. This experiment teaches children all about surface tension.
Learn about capillary action with food colouring. Drop some food colouring into a glass and pop a white flower into the water – wait until the next day and see if the flower has absorbed the color. You can also do this with rolled up paper towels.
Floating doodles – using a dry erase marker, draw a simple sketch on a ceramic bowl, fill with water and watch as the sketch rises up off the surface of the bowl to float in the water. Kids are amazed at this trick which works because dry erase markers use inks with a only little adhesive and they are not soluble in water.
Consider coding
Consider having your child take some coding classes or learn with them at home. Coding is fun, uses your child’s imagination and reasoning and can be a very useful skill in general.STEM can in general, enrich your child’s life, help them to learn faster and expand their vocabulary – what’s not to love about STEM?
K Elizabeth xoxox
*Collaborative Post