Science with the Senses

When Janice Koch described Ms. Murray's science lesson involving mystery boxes of everyday objects in which students had to explore, I was reminded of similar activities I participated in. The activity requires the students to use their sense of touch and listening. I remember having difficulty with this activity myself because I rely so heavily on my vision to identify objects. It was very tricky to hone in on my other senses because they had never been solely relied on before.

I believe this activity helps students develop their science skills because it shows them the other ways to get information from an object besides what is visible. Too often students make their observations only using their eyes, however, there are four other senses that can be used to make observations. Allowing students to participate in these kinds of activities will make them more observant and thus make them better scientists.