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Incorporate Hands-On, Experiential Learning

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Science Elementary School Strategy

Skills

Attention Verbal Reasoning Verbal Memory Abstract Reasoning Visual Memory

Incorporate Hands-On, Experiential Learning

If your student struggles to understand or remember what they read or heard in class

Teach It!

  1. Objective: Students will remember and understand more easily when you add active, hands-on elements into the learning.
  2. Examples: a) For younger children learning vocabulary or spelling, write letters or syllables on Legos with dry-erase markers. Have students put together the pieces to spell a word, and exchange parts of the Legos with other syllables to make new words. b) For older students try vocabulary collages. c) For topics such as geography, history or science, create written and visual timelines, geographical pictures and do simple science experiments. d) Use storytelling, re-enactment and creative play to reinforce facts or concepts (e.g. if learning about cells, each person plays the role of a cell part). e) In math, students can solve problems and demonstrate their knowledge using blocks or other manipulatives.

Why It Works (the Science Of Learning)!

Learning through improves understanding and retention as students practice, test out new theories and draw their own conclusions when they are using their bodies and senses to engage with the material. When children experience an activity they are more likely to be engaged and focused and more likely to learn. Multi-sensory involvement in learning, including movement helps the brain store the information through multiple pathways, which strengthens understanding and retention. As students select the actions or objects, organize the information using the actions, and integrate new information with prior knowledge they are enhancing their learning (Fiorella and Mayer (2016)).

Best-suited for students with weaker: Attention, Inhibition, Long-term Memory, Sensory Integration, Short-Term Memory, Working Memory, Processing Speed (Source: Digital Promise Learner Variability Project)