Bring Science Home

“Science is cool,” my 10-year-old daughter said to me this morning. I asked her why she thought that. “Do we need to have a reason?” she fired back with a smile. After I stopped laughing, I thought about what she said, and I realized something.

I’m not a scientist, but in my house, science is just part of everyday life. When the kids have questions, we talk about the science behind the things they’re wondering about. We often do fun things together that involve science—from activity kits to nature walks to visiting science museums. So it’s obvious to my two girls why science matters.

But most parents don’t happen to brush against the world of science everyday as the editor in chief of Scientific American, as I am—and most of them didn’t get science degrees either. Studies have shown that attitudes about science and scientists form at a young age. If kids get turned off to science at a young age, they may never come back. How can non-scientist parents easily foster a love of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)? That’s where Bring Science Home comes in!

Every weekday for the month of May, Scientific American is posting a free science activity online for parents and their 6-to-12 year-olds to enjoy together. We worked with members of the National Science Teachers Association to create material based on the National Science Education Standards, so the weekly themes echo what kids learn in younger grades. The Bring Science Home activities are fun and easy, and you can do them in less than an hour—usually with things you already have around the house. With summer coming up, they’re also handy to entertain young minds over the long break.

This initiative is part of Bridge to Science, Nature Publishing Group's participation in the Change the Equation partnership and the White House's Educate to Innovate campaign. You can read more about that here.

So we say: Bring Science Home! Because science belongs in the home.

Posted by: Mariette DiChristina, Editor-in-Chief Scientific American