I heard of many parents and students asking me, "how do we do well in Science subjects? my memory is poor and I can't remember the content that we're supposed to regurgitate in the exams.
As an passionate student in the Sciences since young, I found that incredibly difficult to answer, because there are so many factors that might affect one's learning in the Sciences. As I pondered, through the years of tutoring my students, I tried putting together a few key points so that you may help yourself or your children through the more difficult times. Save your money for other enrichment classes at Happy Tutors Learning Centre. *Winks*
Part I - Scientific Skills
1. Making Observations (Experiential Learning)
One way to remind ourselves that many scientific discoveries come about because people were curious about why things happened as they are. While traditional societies treated these observations and phenomena with superstition, the scientific approach of making observations, measurements and hypothesizing, began to dispel the ignorance over such behavior.
Making good observations should include knowing what to measure, how to measure and why we need to measure the quantities involved. It could be an experiment on water absorption by plants; balancing loads on a lever; identifying an acid or alkali or a light reflection experiment etc. For each situation, there are factors that can lead to a different result. If possible, students should be encouraged to try and repeat (safe) experiments on their own, measuring the accuracy of their own experiment results. The reproducibility of experiments also helps to reinforce correct observation techniques.
2. Asking Questions (Hypothesising)
"Why is the sky blue?" "Why do we hear thunder after we see lightning?" Asking questions and then answering them (before experimentation) are crucial to learning Science. Preconceived notions about how the world works often hinder our ability to fully comprehend scientific theories. I often find hearsay and housewife tales being the culprit against good scientific learning - in some situations, our misconception seem to hold water, and we would look for results to prove ourselves right. These hypotheses, however, are what we should be trying to prove WRONG, by taking them through rigourous testing and experimentation. The good scientist keeps an open mind and accepts that he can be wrong about his theories. The theories help with learning, but knowing one's own misconceptions help even more.
3. Establishing Relationships (Logical Thinking & Inference)
Scientific learning does not stop at knowing what we're told to learn. In most of the school questions we get asked about situations we are never told about but we are expected to answer them using existing knowledge, leaving most students stumped. Increasingly, as we build up on our scientific knowledge, do this - apply the same concepts over as many situations as you can think of. The scientific method will prevail and strengthen our thinking. Think about a problem > Build a hypothesis based on current understanding > Make observations to confirm and to try to overthrow the hypothesis. Ultimately, the Scientific thinking bestows a highly logical problem solving methodology that continues to be effective beyond the scope of the Sciences.
Part II - Examination Skills
1. Knowing the Scope - Contents and Related Skills
Over the years of tutoring, I find that there are only few types of questions related to each topic. As we go through various question types for each topic, we repeatedly summarise content (and experiments) and how it would apply to different question types. Think about changing various factors on your own (Use other plants instead of celery to soak up dye, use a flexible lever instead of a rigid one etc.) to expect surprises in your examinations.
2. (Not) Answering the Question
We are being tested beyond memory work; most of my students do badly initially by blindly (mis)quoting content. Very good that you have identified the correct chapter and points being tested. This is what makes the greatest difference in exam performance. As with explaining every other scientific phenomena (or magic) - things are not always as they seem to be. In order to score everytime, we need to ask ourselves the following questions
- What (observation) is the question asking about? - Identify the specific observation.
- Why does it happen? - Quote the relevant theory using specific variables.
- Answer the question - Use the quoted theory to ANSWER THE QUESTION
Yours Sincerely,
Jack Wang
Happy Tutors Learning Centre
