Working with children in grades 3-5 is fun. They are energetic, willing to try new things, and enjoy working with others. The first step to engaging children is to give them a voice in the program. This group of children helped us test the activities in Plants & Engineering. If they didn't like the activity, we dropped it. Several hundred children at 35 sites provided feedback on the activities. That's why we know that kids like In-Touch Science.

Every child develops at his/her own pace, but certain developmental characteristics are associated with our target age group. This handout from Learning about Early Adolescent Development lists those characteristics and some of the implications for programming. For example, children ages 9-11 like to hang out with their friends so doing In-Touch Science in small groups works well. They want to develop adult skills so doing science that relates to real-life situations recognizes that trait.

Children learn scientific thinking and science process skills through In-Touch Science. This chart, taken from the science curriculum SERIES, is based on the 1990 California State Science Framework. It demonstrates that children in grades 3-5 should be capable of observing, communicating, comparing, organizing, and relating. Some can do more, but facilitators should be prepared to help children with the processes of inferring and applying.

Every child is unique so leaders need a variety of approaches in order to engage each child. How do you encourage the shy child? What do you do if one child dominates the conversation? The In-Touch Science team has found that workshop participants have more than enough experience to handle these situations. And. . .we all benefit by sharing our ideas.

(Divide the participants into small groups that discuss one or more of the situations described in the Scenarios Handout. Groups then share their ideas with the larger group)