The classroom is one of the most important places that children will spend a significant amount of their time. It stands to reason, then, that you want that classroom to be a fascinating, interesting place where children will enjoy being, so that they can get the most out of their educations and apply those skills in the real world. Fortunately, most classroom are the perfect setting for finding about the world around us–they contain desks, textbooks, marker boards, and all the basics that one would expect children to be able to sit down and learn about all the amazing things in our universe.

However, it can be good sometimes to make the experience of learning about the outside world a little more real and hands-on. It\’s good not to just talk about everything that\’s going on outside of the classroom, but to bring a small piece of that action into the classroom itself. The best way to do that is with a class experiment. A class experiment can be a great experience for students, because it takes the often theoretical approach that they are used to seeing in school and it gives it a concrete aspect that they can watch and actually interact with.

Some of the experiments you might choose to try will take days or weeks to complete, as in the case of the plant grown in the classroom. This can be a great activity because it involves a living, growing thing whose progress students can check. It gives them a reason to be excited to come into class each day to find out how the project is going, and it gives them an opportunity to see how the ideas they talk about so often actually have roots in real life. One the other hand, there are experiments that can be performed in a few minutes–often physics-oriented experiments involving magnets, flames, or other elements. These can be an exciting and unexpected event for the students, which leaves them wanting more and makes the classroom less predictable and boring.

It\’s worth considering a few words of warning, however, before you try any experiments with your class. Make sure you know what you\’re doing–you\’ll want to test the experiment on your own to make sure you know how it\’s supposed to work. One missed step can throw off the whole experience and leave your kids disinterested and disappointed. Also, make sure you have read up thoroughly on all the factors involved. That way, if something unexpected does arise, you\’ll be able to talk to your students intelligently about what happened, and why it happened. You will be prepared for any questions they have as well–children who are asking questions are taking the initiative to learn about and understand something, and the last thing you want to do is not have an answer ready for them.

Classroom experiments can be very rewarding. Just make sure that you plan and research ahead of time so that you can make the most out of the experience for you and your students.

Author Bio: Diana Washington writes for the Test Prep blog Testing Is Easy, a resource for parents and students who are planning to take standardized tests. She writes on many topics in the realm of education, such as standardized testing, classroom ideas, and SSAT Prep, which is a concern for many parents.

Category: Education
Keywords: classroom experiments,elementary school,school,education,teachers,teaching,science