I love play. Play is the way young animals learn. It’s super important. Letting learners play around in natural spaces and let their subconscious minds work: critical. Also, giving learners the opportunity to be “self-led” and “hands-on” and all those other buzzwords: so important. But I use the word “practicing” for a reason, and it distinguishes the work of science learning from other types of living and playing.
Science is a way of thinking and a way of solving problems. We practice it when we do four things: (1) Refer to and collaborate with other scientists; (2) Collect evidence/data to evaluate questions, assertions, or ideas; (3) Make observations with all five senses and use our creative minds to make connections among those observations; (4) Look for the evidence/data when deciding on the validity of others’ assertions and ideas.
Every learner can practice science and every learner can be stretched to enhance their science practice. A multisensory learner can do science by just using their senses in the world and a fellow science learner can stretch that experience by curating experiences that make connections. For example, someone who is experiencing the sound of water can be offered a cup of water to drink and enhance her understanding of water. On the other hand, an analytical practitioner of science can be stretched toward data and statistics that tell a more reproducible story or a story that can be compared across systems. For example, a learner who is noticing that horses prefer alfalfa to corn can control the system in a way that asks why. She can measure choice, she can make a false food with just the smells of alfalfa and corn.
Finally, when we practice science together, we challenge each other to stretch our understandings. We aren’t playing for the development of our proprioception or to build social skills, although practicing science can do those things, we are developing an understanding of how scientists unlock answers in our world by going through the motions ourselves. And, just like muscle memory in dance or sport, the more we practice, the more automatic that process becomes.