I went for my annual flu jab this morning and was thinking about how vaccines have been talked about more over the last couple of years than ever before.
The efforts of scientists all over the world to develop vaccines and of doctors to develop treatments has been phenomenal.
But did you know, even before 2020, vaccines have been saving 2-3 million lives around the world every year from diseases like diphtheria, tetanus, influenza and measles?
Imagine a world without vaccines. Imagine a world without scientists. Scary huh? #thingsthatkeepscienceteachersupatnight
Well, for once there's good news - last year the number of 18 year olds going on to study sciences at university rose by 7% and amazingly, more girls than boys are now studying science at university.
One of the reasons I set up Little STEAMers was that I've been a primary teacher and I've seen how science is squeezed out of the classroom in a lot of schools. It's usually covered once a week for 30-45 minutes and for me, that's not enough to get children excited about science.
On top of that, with ongoing budget cuts, primary teachers are often left scrabbling around for old broken equipment, limiting the amount of hands-on science they can realistically do with their class.
Of course this isn't the case in all schools, but I want to show children how fun science can be before they even get to primary school.
One really quick idea I wanted to share with you today is something I've done at home myself to make science fun and part of our everyday life from a young age....
My eldest asked for some grown up bath toys for her birthday last year. Google didn't really suggest anything useful, but inspiration struck: I bought a bath tray and got out all my Little STEAMers potions kit from storage.
Tah dah - it's a bathtime potions lab complete with pipettes, funnels, measuring cylinders, jugs and sieves and they love it!
They're still playing with it every bath time almost a year later and now they're dab hands with pipettes and funnels they're starting to use the measuring lines too.
Birthday or Christmas present idea maybe?
I'd love to hear if you're trying to make science fun for your little ones too.
Little STEAMers classes for 2-5 year olds run every with a focus on topics from science, technology, engineering, arts and maths and you can try your first class FREE.
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