Science: It's a Family Affair

Even if you don’t have a science or engineering background, you can play an important role in your child’s learning. Approach the world with curiosity and you will help spark an interest in science. Provide your child with a variety of experiences and you may encourage her to be an astronomer, computer scientist, or civil engineer.

Here are some everyday tips and resources to encourage learning and family fun with science and engineering:

• Check out the Techbridge Family Guide for great ideas on science museums, activities, and other great things you can do as a family.

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• Encourage your child to share his discoveries.  Ask your child to share one thing that she learned that day.

• Science is all around and in the media. Movies, television specials, magazines, newspapers, books, and computer programs frequently present science-related topics. Talk with your child about the science they encounter: What interested her? What did she learn?


• Seize the learning opportunities in everyday activities. Take an extra five minutes to study how the gears on a bike work and involve your child in repair projects that require measuring and mathematics.

• Try setting a dinner-time tradition of asking each family member to share a question she asked herself that day, or something she wondered.Keep a family science journal or scrapbook of experiments and other activities, including pictures.

• Keep a family science journal or scrapbook of experiments and other activities, including pictures. 

• Give the most important gift of all—your time. Make time to talk with your child about her interests and dreams for the future.

Family events and resources help parents encourage and support girls in their interest in science, technology or engineering.  In 2010, we will be producing and distributing a family science guide for the Bay Area.