Primary School Science Experiment
To a child, doing an experiment means 'doing something to see what will hapen'. During the experiment, we change an object, an event or a situation to examine the result of such change in a controlled situation. Experimenting is an integrated science process skill because it requires basic skills such as observing, classifying, making inferences, predicting, measuring, communicating, as well as using the relationship between space and time.
Therefore, experimenting is more suitable for older pupils. Nevertheless, investigative experiments can differ in degree of difficulty. With guidance, even young children can carry out experiments that are simple.
Many teachers mistakenly consider all hands-on activities as being experiments. In truth, an experiment involves tow criteria:
1) The children need to have an idea of what to test. Because of this, they change an object, an event or situation for certain reasons. The act of forming an idea and testing it later is called making a hypothesis.
2) The children should change only one varibale at a time. If necessary, they should compare results when a varible is changed and when it is not. This skill is called controlling variables.
In primary school science, an investigation is considered an experiment if it involves changing an object or a situation so as to compare results with when no change is made.
