From looking at a giant toothbrush to examining a womens anatomy chart, there are many ways for children to learn, especially when they are young. As most of us (or all of us, to be honest) are aware, education is hugely important not only in the United States but in all places around the world as well. Education is key particularly in the early years, when children’s brains are considered to be plastic and flexible, taking in and storing information more easily than at any other point in their lives. Early learning is key, especially in STEM fields surrounding science. Early science education is crucial – but this does not mean that it needs to be boring. Through the aid of anything from the giant toothbrush to learning the muscles in Spanish, learning can be achieved and remembered long term – all in a fun and engaging way. But this brain plasticity is short lived – usually ending at around the age of six – and should be taken advantage of when it is possible to.
The human brain is a wonderful and marvelous thing. In fact, it has been discovered that there are nearly limitless nerve cells in the typical brain of the average human, more nerve cells in the human brain than there are stars in the Milky Way, a galaxy of impossible size and scope. Nurturing that brain from a very young age is hugely important, as this is when important connections are formed. And it is important to accommodate the young and growing brain in the way it grows best. For the majority of all young children – up to sixty five percent of them – this means visual learning, particularly in the areas of science, which can prove to be too conceptual if taught in a way that shies away from visual methods of teaching and absorption of material. Visual learning in the areas of science can be conducted using a number of various tools depending on the unit and the topic of study, from the giant toothbrush to playing games using fitness dice, making learning fun on top of being educational. A smoking chart and self esteem bingo can also be implemented in a variety of lesson plans, and can help children to retain information better than they would if they were just given a sheet of notes instead, a way of learning that is not always particularly helpful to the way that children learn when it comes to helping them retain information. In fact, playing, even with a giant toothbrush, is often the way that children learn the best, and regular play has been found to stimulate a good deal of brain development. In fact, if gross motor play – even that with a giant toothbrush – is not often provided in the first six years of a child’s life, then it is likely that they will suffer the long term effects of a considerably reduced brain power compared to the brain power that they could have harnessed had they been provided the opportunity to develop it.
And it is particularly important to promote the education of science, through any tools from the giant toothbrush to a diorama or diagram of a smokers mouth (among many other representative and visual learning devices). This is because the field of science is a difficult one, a field in which many children struggle with in school and are all too easily discouraged from pursuing. In fact, though the United States is included as one of the top forty developed nations in the entirety of the world, this country ranks a low number thirty eight when it comes to excelling in science. Furthermore, as many as forty percent of all college majors with a focus in a field of science either drop out completely or switch to a major that they consider to be far less difficult. In fact, less than twenty percent of all students who graduate from college in the United States will graduate with a degree in a stem field, a stark contrast to the nearly forty percent of Korean college students who graduate with a degree in a STEM field.