Kids Science
As with most things change is a part of life – even with education. A look at the history of learning in the United States classroom is enlightening and entertaining. Kids science today is taught and learned in a very different way than it was a few decades ago. It has been a unique and long journey for kids science, and one that can be understood by the other technological and social forces that were affecting society at that time.
After the Civil War, America’s Industrial Revolution of (1865 – 1920) began to change the landscape of America, efficient factory producing methods and new inventions were dotting the countryside, but education for the general populace was lagging behind. In some places education was non existent, especially in the rural southland, and anywhere it did exist it was usually a one roomed schoolhouse. Larger city public schools in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th century still taught mostly by lecture and text books that were uninspiring and taught basic scientific theory. Education was a key factor to keep an economy growing, because it was needed to expand the economic base. Kids science was put behind the basic concepts of reading, writing and arithmetic. However, things began to change for kids science after WWII. There were several factors that contributed to it. During the 1950s the emphasis on space exploration, and even psychological studies demonstrating that kids learn best when a hands on approach is used to teach. Today in the 21st century science classes use a combination of both text books and a hands on approach to learning kids science, but with a little twist – it is now interactive with computers, and changing everyday. It is a sure bet that tomorrow’s technology will once again affect how kids learn science, and the cycle will start all over again.