Encourage your student's curiosity by talking about science at home. Ask them to share notices and wonders about everyday events around them. If your student has questions, hold off on providing answers right away. We want students to make grapple with their own questions and to think of ways to make sense of what’s around them. Consider the following when talking about science: 

• Encourage your student to expand and clarify their own thinking by asking them to give examples, to say more, and to reiterate what they said back to them.

• Ask how they might have arrived at a particular conclusion without any indication of whether they are right or wrong.

• Ask your student to recall what other students have said in class. Do they agree? Disagree?

• Rephrase or paraphrase what your student says as a method to clarify their ideas. Don't worry about vocabulary. That will come with practice.

Science teaching continues to evolve and may look very different from when you were a middle school student. Read more about how and why here: