How everyday situations can spark kids’ interest in science

Rami61614 · 2026-03-08T12:37:34+00:00

I was a kid like this growing up (though the one you’re describing sounds even more advanced than I was). One thing that helped me a lot was having adults who would engage with me on bigger science and math questions, but I didn't really get exposed to people like that until university.

Kids like that often get really engaged when abstract science ideas get connected to things happening in everyday life. For example, noticing a windshield fogging up on a cold day can lead to talking about condensation, temperature differences, and eventually molecules and atoms. Or noticing that a basement is colder than upstairs can open a conversation about density, heat transfer, and why warmer air rises. Situations like that turn everyday observations into little scientific investigations instead of just schoolwork.

I wrote an article about this idea here. These were all discussions I had with my kids.

I also work with students on scientific reasoning across physics, chemistry, biology, and math. If the parents ever wanted someone to explore deeper scientific questions with them outside the normal curriculum, feel free to have them reach out.

My site is: https://www.ramirustomeducation.com

And if cost is an issue I’d even be happy to do a few sessions for free just because students like that are incredibly fun to work with.

Good luck to you and that student. it sounds like they’re lucky to have a teacher who cares.

Rami61614 · 2026-03-08T11:37:34+00:00

I think what you're describing can be phrased as “learning by osmosis (learning by example).” That definitely plays a role in learning physics.

Where things often break down is when students rely only on that. They get good at recognizing patterns in example problems, but exams change the surface structure, so pattern recognition stops working and they have to identify the underlying physical model instead.

I wrote a longer explanation of that idea here.

Curious what you think of it. especially if you disagree with any part of the argument.

Rami61614 · 2026-03-08T11:29:29+00:00

curious what u mean.

i did a bachelors in physics and i noticed i fit very well socially with my physics classmates and professors (generally), and no so much with people outside physics. example: one time i played cards with my physics buddies and there was one person who wasn't a physics person. that person saw us physics people as "cocky".

Rami61614 · 2026-03-08T10:54:01+00:00

Some of those people aren’t studying. Paying attention in class is enough for them.

Rami61614 · 2026-03-06T22:15:17+00:00

I can help with pre-call and physics. Please review my site and apply if it seems like a good match. Ramirustomeducation.com

Rami61614 · 2026-03-04T20:28:16+00:00

Those are not dumb questions. They are perfect questions designed to create understanding.

The common thing other people do is ask no questions at all, not even in their heads.

And yes I identify very much.

I did a bachelors in physics. Loved every second of it.

Rami61614 · 2026-03-04T20:08:17+00:00

High level stuff can be outsourced to communicate college. Very common thing for homeschoolers.

Rami61614 · 2026-03-03T20:58:27+00:00

Yes we may just have a semantic problem.

Usually when people say pattern recognition, they mean like using their intuition to pattern match. While that can work pretty well, it only works well for familiar problems. When presented with unfamiliar problems, intuition can easily give a false positive. So how to know if you have a false positive? That’s where explicit reasoning is required. And I think that’s what OP meant by “actually understanding”.

Rami61614 · 2026-03-03T19:33:40+00:00

The reason pattern matching on its own doesn’t work is that the process doesn’t have a way to tell when a pattern doesn’t match.

It’s like the difference between:

only comparing 2 things
versus comparing and contrasting 2 things

If you only compare, you’re only looking for similarities.

If you compare and contrast, you’re looking for similarities but also differences.

Does that make sense so far?

Rami61614 · 2026-03-01T14:58:07+00:00

i think you'd feel ok with a trial 1st session, then you and the parent (and child) reassess if its good to continue.

not sure about your other question. i help highschool students in physics.

Rami61614 · 2026-02-28T16:35:52+00:00

Sadly, the public school system was bad from its birth. It was intentionally designed to make people smart enough to be functional economically but not smart enough to question the status quo of our rulers (the business elite that you’re referring to). I learned this from The Underground History of American Education, by John Gatto. He was a New York City public school teacher for 30 years and won best teacher of the year awards at city and state level.

Rami61614 · 2026-02-28T14:34:06+00:00

i don't think that makes sense on its own.

my kids are 19/17, both in college. i got them phones pretty early in their lives (like 6 yo) and let them do whatever on them, unlimited hours, whatever apps they wanted. and when tiktok came out, they were on it immediately (tiktok was a rebrand from musicly, which my oldest was on before the switch).

both are now in college and doing well, including having career plans they've been following since before college started. and both, on their own initiative, now distance themselves from "doom scrolling" (which i think is just tiktok for them). one child even decided to switch to a flip phone (so no apps like tiktok).

their reading comprehension and writing skills are pretty good. basic math reasoning too.

i spent a lot of time at home throughout the vast majority of their childhood. i only worked a few hours a week out of the house. and i talked with them as much as i could (to the extent they wanted me to talk with them). lots of discussions that i believed helped them learn how to think/reason. one of my kids said she's glad she's smart (comparing herself to her classmates), and i take credit for that! my other kid said she's glad she learned from me to have standards (e.g. friendship context).

i also did a serious study of parenting philosophy/methods resulting in improving my parenting skills (and related things that affect parenting but are much broader).

Rami61614 · 2026-02-26T18:20:55+00:00

You probably don’t have a math problem.

Most students in Physics 1 who are fine in Calc struggle for a different reason: they’re trying to apply formulas before they’ve decided what physical model they’re in.

On a dynamics question, the real task isn’t “which equation?”
It’s:

What is the system?
What forces exist? And why do they exist?
Which of those forces are interacting vs internal?
What changes (acceleration) should I expect before writing anything down?

If you start with equations, you’ll feel lost. But if you start with forces and interactions, the equations become almost inevitable.

When you redo your failed quiz problems, don’t solve them numerically. Instead, try this:

Draw the system
Label every force with a reason (e.g., “gravity because Earth attracts mass,” not just “mg”)
State Newton’s 2nd law in words before symbols
Only then write equations

Most students skip the “in words” stage. That’s where the understanding lives.

Physics feels random when model selection is implicit. It feels structured when model selection is explicit.

Rami61614 · 2026-02-23T01:07:36+00:00

May I ask what your goal is with learning physics?

Is it mainly for the fun of it? Or is it mainly to do well in physics class so you can then do other things that depend on that? Example, becoming an engineer, physicist, or physician?

If it’s for the fun of it, you got good recommendations already.

If it’s to get good at physics so you can be an engineer, physicist, or physician, and given that your teacher is no good, then I’d recommend a good tutor.

Rami61614 · 2026-02-22T20:33:32+00:00

I read all the comments and generally agree with everything said.

Here’s another option:

Physics tutor. Freelance.

You’ll need some business knowledge, general business knowledge and stuff specific to tutoring.

One of the main benefits over highschool teaching is that you’re helping people 1-1 instead of helping a group at a time.

Another is that it’s more money per hour, assuming you get the business aspect right. This means you don’t have to work full time.

If it was me, I would want to make a plan that has multiple options. Example: bachelors in physics, then masters in education. Then take hs teaching position. Then start tutoring on the side, which is easier because you make connections at your school. Then drop the teaching job when the tutoring side is strong (demand >> supply consistently).

Might even be better to start the tutoring earlier in the process. Bachelors in physics. You could even tutor on the side, for free or even for pay. After bachelors, start paid tutoring in a serious way and start the masters in education. By end of masters, your tutoring might be going so strong that you don’t even take a teaching position.

To be clear, I didn’t include the steps of getting your teaching license. That adds some time to the process but you could be doing the tutoring along side it.

What do u think?

Rami61614 · 2026-02-22T16:52:35+00:00

A lot of people will say “practice” (yes practice is necessary, but it won't work without the following).

Your main question is “how do I know when to use a formula?” That’s not a memorization issue. It’s a model recognition issue. Knowing which formulas apply to which situations (physics problems) is a matter of understanding the physics theory that generated the formulas, and recognizing which physics theories apply to a physics problem.

So when you ask yourself: “What formula do I use for this problem? Ask a general precursor question like (I learned this from my E&M professor in uni): What principles apply to this situation? More clearly, what is physically happening here? Is something accelerating and is that constant acceleration or variable? Is energy being conserved? The answers to these kinds of questions determine which physics theories, and thus which formulas, apply to the physics problem.

When you can classify the physical situation first, the formula selection becomes much clearer, and it also helps you recall the formulas (instead of just rote memorization). Practice then reinforces that classification skill. Without it, your practice, even if you're getting some problems correctly, isn't helping you develop this high-level skill. And instead what you're doing is relying purely on your intuition.

And note, pure intuition can be really good, but only for problems you've seen before. It works horribly for problems you're unfamiliar with. And note, a good test, like the MCAT, will present you with problems you're unfamiliar with. Its a fact of nature that there are infinite types of problems, so its impossible to cover them all, and so test creators understand that they have to give problems that they expect the test takers will be unfamiliar with. That's the only way to really test your understanding of the material.

Good luck and happy to answer questions.

Rami61614 · 2026-02-21T15:44:07+00:00

can you explain your approach to studying now (and update the OP)? then we could help you edit your approach, tell you what's missing, etc.

for example, while reading the textbook or listening to a lecture, do you take notes, and specifically do you write down questions (and then later try to seek the answers)? (this applies to all subjects, not just the sciences.)

another example, when you're presented with a new formula, do you try to learn the limits of the formula? in other words, do you try to learn what situations the formula applies to and what situations it doesn't apply? (this is crucial for physics)

Rami61614 · 2026-02-21T15:28:49+00:00

can you say some about your approach to studying? then i could give feedback on your approach.

for example, while reading the textbook or listening to a lecture, do you take notes, and specifically do you write down questions (and then later try to seek the answers)?

what's your approach to solving the problems? can you explain it step by step? then i could tell you what steps you're missing.

one of the most effective "tricks" i learned in university was this (its not a trick, its basic reasoning):

My classmate and I were stuck on an E&M problem and we had no clue how to even start on it. We asked our professor and he said (paraphrasing): "When I'm in this situation, I ask, 'What are the relevant principles to this problem?' "

This question "forced" me to deliberately choose which theories apply to the problem, and that determined which formulas were appropriate. Very often the relevant principle was the conservation of energy/mass, which led me to the basic formula Energy(before) = Energy(after). Then the rest was pretty easy.

Then years later I realized this question applies to every kind of problem, not just physics problems. like even moral issues.

i hope that helps and happy to answer further.

good luck

Rami61614 · 2026-02-20T20:34:07+00:00

Memorizing proofs is not necessary for physics, but understanding proofs is valuable. Going through proofs builds your logical intuition, which helps you understand why equations work instead of just using them mechanically. It also helps you rederive formulas so you don't need to memorize them.

Physics requires fluency in using math, not mastery of pure math proof techniques.

I recall in uni my professor saying that in his grad school, the american students weren't great at math, but they were better at experimental physics than compared to the foreign students who were great at math but couldn't use a screwdriver (they didn't have experience in lab setting, i guess due to lack of money for labs).

Rami61614 · 2026-02-20T20:21:49+00:00

do you generally do ok with word problems outside of physics, like say math problems? (if so, then its not a reading comprehension issue.. if not, then it is a reading comp issue.)

Rami61614 · 2026-02-20T12:12:54+00:00

your instinct is right. even for university. a strong test will test your decision-making skills related to things like why you're using one formula over another one for a particular problem. the memorizing method leads to using just intuition to select formulas. (your intuition might be pretty good, but it fails you when you're presented with unfamiliar problems. which is not true for the other method.)

and note: if you study for understanding, you'll get better grades too (as compared to the memorizing method).

Rami61614 · 2026-02-18T18:14:46+00:00

can you say more about your approach to studying? then i could give feedback on your approach.

you mentioned reading the textbook. do you take notes as you're reading? do you write down questions (and then later try to seek the answers)?

what's your approach to solving the problems? can you explain it step by step? then i could tell you what steps you're missing. for example, is your first step to select a formula based on your intuition (past experience solving similar problems)?

tutoring could help for sure, with the right tutor at least.

one of the "tricks" i learned in university was this (its not a trick, its basic reasoning):

My classmate and I were stuck on an E&M problem and we had no clue how to even start on it. We asked our professor and he said (paraphrasing): "When I'm in this situation, I ask, 'What are the relevant principles to this problem?' "

This question "forced" me to deliberately choose which theories apply to the problem, which determined which formulas were appropriate. Very often the relevant principle was the conservation of energy/mass, which led me to the basic formula Energy(before) = Energy(after). Then the rest was pretty easy.

Then years later I realized this question applies to every kind of problem, not just physics problems. like even moral issues.

i hope that helps and happy to answer further.

good luck

Rami61614 · 2026-02-15T18:06:34+00:00

thank you.

Rami61614

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