Take time to make education unpredictable

In our race to cram knowledge into the heads of children over the last decade of our standards/testing culture, we have robbed our children of the one thing that causes children to learn the most, uncertainty. Our risk-averse culture in American education has systematically removed risk at every turn. In my own experience, the word risk itself was too risky for the system. It was actually removed from a previous school's founding document by the district office! Bureaucratic systems don't like risk because it requires a giving up of control. Of course control is ultimately an illusion, but that doesn't stop our system of education from crushing it out at every turn. Creativity, innovation, learning...all messy and risky!

Science teachers often think they are on the cutting edge of teaching risk-taking and critical thinking. And while some of them are, most of them have decided that inquiry is best handled in a controlled way. Teaching children the scientific method by filling out lab sheets is a classic example. Children are expected to memorize the scientific method, follow the steps of a lab, fill out the form, and are graded on the quality of their write-up and ability to complete the form correctly. We are essentially telling children that scientists are managers completing paperwork! Where is the wonder? Where is the thinking? Where is the excitement? I think of Roz from Monsters Inc. asking in her gravelly voice, "Where's your paperwork?"

Tina  Grotzer from Project Zero at Harvard  says it this way, "When science class only consists of facts and figure that we know to be "true," it communicates to students that we know all the answers, instead of letting them know that our ignorance far outweighs our knowledge. It keeps them from finding out that there are lots of mysteries that we can't begin to answer. Letting students in on the mysteries of the world ignites their curiosity and opens the door to a lifetime of finding out."

So shred those blasted lab sheets and ask kids to explore ideas. Talk about it, write about it, blog about it, video it, sing about it, whatever it takes to engage kids in the thinking and engage them! Leave the lab sheet for the day they want someone else to try out their experiment. Then they will have a reason to write it!

Do we really believe people like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking were inspired to think their big ideas and get excited about science because they memorized the scientific method and could complete a paper form? Time to bring the wonder and risk back into science!