We all have our comfort zones when it comes to working with kids. Some people get a bit twitchy when it comes to small children, while others of us practically break out in
hives when left alone with the middle school set. Fortunately, there
are people like Stephanie who can not only embrace, but enjoy the challenges of working with middle schoolers. This is a special guest post from Stephanie who has just
recently returned from teaching English in China.
Middle Schoolers can often be very difficult to engage in
the classroom and for good reason. They are at an age where they’re still very
much children who act on their emotions but have finally discovered they have a
voice, and they want everyone to hear their dislikes for school! However, there
are tricks you can use to engage this age group and get them involved, you just have
to be sneaky about it.
1. Use food whenever possible in an experiment. Kids of all ages are motivated by food, so if you can link science in with some snacks I guarantee you will see some smiling faces in the crowd.
2. Let them be free to use their brains. They are now at the
age where they can come up with some very intuitive answers to problems. I
found the less instruction I gave the more fun they had.
3. Responsibility... Allow students to be leaders in experiments.
They like helping others but are more willing and eager if they have a “special role.”
4. What engages you? If you don’t find the experiment mildly
fascinating yourself, you really can’t expect the kids to.
Here is a very easy experiment we did, in which I involved food,
and they loved it. The experiment instructions themselves don’t do a great job
of relating the science to it, so make sure you do some research before you
explain what it is they’re doing and why.
Marshmallow Tower
http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/marshmallowtower.html
Tower of Coins
This is a link to an experiment in which I gave students the directions
and materials without instructions. Then, I paced around the room to see what they
came up with.
Note: with both of these experiments I found a few students
who were not interested. Use this opportunity to ask them what they do enjoy doing,
and why this experiment isn’t engaging for them.
Have fun!
Stephanie
