Family activities to engage children and adults in identifying, discussing and exploring science ideas together in everyday settings.
Playful Science offers resources for families to engage in "playful" science exploration in everyday activities and settings. Families can use our activities and conversation starters to identify, discuss, and explore science ideas in a variety of settings. We aim to empower families to do and learn science practices together, and to aid parents in eliciting and extending children’s curiosities.
Our Playful Science activities are designed to inspire open-ended exploration and conversations. Building on a premise that science learning should be relevant and useful for the kinds of activities families are involved in, we aim to create experiences that intersect with families' everyday routines, interests, and values.
In addition to designing playful science activities we conduct research on the activities. We aim to find out how to best design casual family science experiences to support families in valuing and engaging in curiosity, inquiry, and active investigation in everyday life. We also study the conversations that families have together while doing the activities. We work with families as partners in the research and use a variety of methods.
Contact Playful Science at playfulscience@stanford.edu
To learn more about our team of researchers, designers, and educators...
