Learning Science through creative play

Science was never one of the subjects that I was good at in school. (In fact, I sucked at almost all the subjects but that's another story for another time). Anyway, science subjects were never easy for me. Biology, Chemistry and Physics seemed so difficult to comprehend and most of the time, I did not even understand what they teachers were teaching (probably because I was too busy daydreaming).

So, when I received an invitation from Hanna from Little Scientists to bring my kids for a Science workshop, I thought it would be a good idea to get them to start liking Science from young. I didn't tell Ethan and Isabel that it was going to be a Science workshop, lest they think that it's going to be another day like school. So I told them that we were going to learn how to do some fun experiments. That got them excited enough.


Little Scientist was started by Ms Ho Teh Eng, an engineer who graduated with 1st class honours in Chemical Engineering from UM. Little Scientist has been around since 2002 and it was developed solely for kindergartens. If I remember correctly, there are 400 kindergartens around Malaysia which has adopted this programme into their syllabus.

Little Scientists uses 'play' in getting kids interested in Science. Play is the driving force behind kids learning and creativity. It is through play that children learn to observe and experiment on their own. Using this concept, Ms Ho developed the programme where children can understand the nature of Science in a more interesting method.

Ms Ho started off the workshop session with a short introduction about the company followed by the first experiment where the kids got to mix colours in test tubes. They learned how to mix red and yellow to get orange, blue and red to get purple and yellow and blue to get green. It was a simple experiment but the kids had so much fun with the test tubes.

The kids also learned that they can place two pieces of transparent red, blue or yellow papers to get the same effect as well.

The next experiment was how to make a flattened paper ball into a round ball? The flattened ball only has one hole in it.  So do you blow into it? Or do you light a small fire and expand it with the heat? Neither. I never would have guessed that I have to bounce it on my hand to get the air in! Bet you didn't know either!

Then we moved on to the next experiment where we have to inflate a very long plastic bag. Do you blow into it as you would with a balloon? Of course not! Do you huff and puff until you are out of breath? Definitely not! You just hold it about 6 inches away from your mouth, blow one puff into it and air will go in by itself. Bet you didn't know that either!

This is not the way to do it. You need to hold the plastic away from your mouth.

I think it was a fun and educational day for everyone who attended the workshop. Ethan and Isabel definitely had lots of fun.

After the workshop ended, we went away feeling a little bit smarter, having learned some new things. The kids also got to bring home their own Science kits to do their own experiments at home.

Ms Ho has plans to expand Little Scientists to primary schools this year so it means that more kids will be able to enjoy learning Science the fun way! It is such a great idea to instill a love for Science in young kids as this will encourage them to be interested to learn how things work and to stop daydreaming in class....

For more info on Little Scientists, log on to www.littlescientists.com or follow them on their FB at facebook.com/thelittlescientists. You can also catch their TV progs at youtube.com/littlescientistsvideo.