Studies have shown that kids whose parents are directly involved in their homework and classroom activities do better in school.
But for many parents, it's been a long time since they thought about basic science. One DonorsChoose project, created by a fifth grade teacher in rural North Carolina, aims to get parents involved in their kids' science projects. As the teacher proposes:
We want a family science night in which the parents are directly involved in being scientists, predicting, hypothesizing, experimentation, and finding results - all the time jotting their work in a scientific notebook.
The project—which needs materials like magnets, paper clips, funnels, eye droppers, glass bottles and tuning forks—will cover the cost of 29 experiments: $453. As of mid-morning today, $189 has been contributed.
Inspired yet? Donate to Family Science Night now! And while you're over there, check out the rest of the DonorsChoose projects sponsored by ScienceBloggers.
Image credit: Shaylor.
Thanks for publicizing this project, Ginny. It's a wonderful idea - getting family members involved will serve to reinforce the lessons learned and help these families feel more a part of their child's education. Some readers have found the project quite worthy of their support and it is already 42% funded, with another $264 remaining.