Hands On Learning is Effective for Science in the Classroom

As teachers we strive to come up with ways to better serve our students academically. In some elementary schools science is taught straight out of a textbook with limited hands on and social interactions in the classroom. I found a scholastic article that focused on 5th grade science. One section of the article focused on the importance of giving students hands-on-learning activities so that they can retain the information better.

In other education classes we learned that there are different kinds of learners, and one type of learner is the hands on learner. To meet the needs of those students the teacher needs to implement hands on experiments for those children. Often times in the primary grades students retain information much better through their senses, so this would include hands on activities as well.

Hands on learning activities has several benefits:

• it allows for students to learn through their senses
• students can visualize what they are learning by seeing and doing
• students engage with other students in the classroom (social skills)
• students build a sense of community through interactions with peers related to these activities
• students learn to think abstractly and problem solve on their own

Hands on experiences don't always have to be done inside the classroom, often times a teacher can take the class outside on a nature walk if learning about the environment and evidence of life. The article mentioned a wonderful hands on activity for students to do outside that involved students investigating to see if life existed outside of the school. The students were asked to walk around the school and pick up leaves and look for evidence that they were "nibbled" on by insects and to look for holes in trees to prove that insects had eaten away at the trees. Hands on activities don't always have to be expensive, if you have the resources available you can make them as cheap as you want. Teachers need to offer students these opportunities to use their senses because as stated above, they retain the information better at a younger age if they are physically doing something.