How Do You Teach Kids Concepts?

Oerg

ahhhh, then you would have to teach him about the concept of death correct? Something which you mentioned you would have preferred to have done rather than let your gf introduce heaven to him.

ephedyn

Sorry to revive a dead thread, but I'm almost in the same situation. How should I introduce my girlfriend's 8 year old brother to physics and math in general? He's quite bright from what I've heard and doesn't mind reading a book 300-400 pages long, but I don't want him to learn math/science from the way it's conventionally taught in 2nd grade, because I went through that stage myself and developed a loathing for something I only turned around and started to love much later in life, on self-discovery.

I thought of three ways:

1) Buy him a book with a reward of choosing another book from my picks, in a continuous cycle. I'm thinking of something less serious, maybe an encyclopedia or something that describes planets... I actually want him to read "Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman!" but I feel it's too early for him to understand what's going on enough to appreciate the humor.
2) Devise some problems with a reward for solving.
3) Write him a book myself. I think I'm getting old. I've always been impatient to help others but recently people had been telling me that I'm a decent expositor, and that's getting in my head and I'm starting to feel empowered to inspire the young! On one hand, this seems like an awesome strategy... I've searched for hours and gave up because none of the conventional teaching methods seem to achieve what I want. But on another hand, I'm an impatient person and I don't think I have the time to make a concerted effort on my own.

What should I do?

cobalt124

I'm not a teacher or educator, but I am a parent. Science can be seen in most aspects of everyday (even mundane) life. I would start by pointing out where math and physics appears in his everyday experience and take it from there. So, for example, you could explain that a television works by displaying a succession of images so quickly that they appear to be one continuous moving image. You can then demonstrate this by pointing a mobile phone camera at the television screen which will then show up the flicker. This could lead on to how the eye works, how it slightly oscillates thirty times per second, how this allows you to see detail on the Moon the eye would otherwise not be able to see, then while you are on the subject of the eye, you could draw a couple of dots on a piece of paper and show him his eyes have a blind spot, and then ...... Seeing your enthusiasm will also help! But basically science is everywhere.

Andy Resnick

I agree with cobalt124- for an 8 year old, it's probably more useful to provide experiential knowledge than books. Heck, take him to an amusement park and talk about physics while you are on a roller coaster!

mathwonk

Kids are a lot smarter than we think. I taught a course in euclidean geometry this summer to extremely bright 8-10 year old kids, and they appreciated it better than my college classes did on average.

Chronological age is very different from intellectual age. As you explain things to them you will discover what is missing from their life experience that has to be filled in. But on the logical deduction and creative side they will be way ahead of us average older people.

The camp for very gifted 8-10 year olds is at:

http://www.epsiloncamp.org/index.php

Harold Jacobs' algebra and geometry books are great for a kid, and the book Thinking Physics (Epstein?) is outstanding at any age.

turbo

A couple of summers, my parents were able to scrape up the dough to send me to Boy Scout summer camp. The naturalist at that camp was an old fellow who lived simply, but pretty cushy by my estimation. (Professor at a nearby college, but he seemed to live for summer-camps.) He had a corn-cob pipe in his mouth frequently, and whenever he sat down and grabbed his pipe, his airdale Rocky would sit beside him and look up until he got his own well-chewed pipe. They were quite a pair! I'd love to time-travel back there with a digital camera.

Anyway, this old guy had a pretty sneaky way of imparting knowledge. As a kid, you might be impressed by his washbasin, which was the inverted shell of a very large snapping turtle, only to get gently drawn into speculation about how long such turtles can live, how large they might get, what they can feed on to maintain such muscle and mass... This guy could have taken Euell Gibbons to school.

I learned that the roots of the ostrich fern are not only edible, but delectable, for instance. AND learned that eating those water-chestnut-type treats is a survival technique,and not something to be pursued by any groups apart from wide-ranging foragers, because the health of those roots is essential to the next crop of ferns, and the young ferns (fiddleheads) will be essential for the health of your group next spring. I really liked that old guy.

educomp

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turbo

It's important to get to the child's level and figure out exactly what they are asking. Then you have to teach to their level of their comprehension, and be ready to escalate when they have an "aha" moment and want to learn more. My little brother is expert at this stuff. He should be a teacher, instead of running a plastic-extrusion plant.