In an increasingly fast-changing world that needs to be met with flexibility and creativity, science plays a key role in co-creating a progressive and rational thinking society.
Our hope with honing scientific temperament from an early age is for values such as objectivity, critical thinking, understanding multiple viewpoints and freedom from prejudice and fear to be part of our everyday lives. When critical science education and scientific thinking permeates our ways of thinking and acting, then perhaps science could play a liberating role.
Asking questions:
An intrinsic part of our learning involves nurturing students’ natural curiosity and creativity. This includes asking questions, creating space for students and teachers to plan experiments together, discuss ideas and brainstorm, and critically record and analyze observations. Collective inquiry into observation of leaves, metamorphosis of butterflies and moths, measuring rainfall over time and empirically investigating climate change etc. are some examples of the kinds of learner-driven explorations this then leads to.