Notes From a Science Teacher

I taught science to elementary and junior high students for over a decade. I thought that most of the curricular materials I found were very “assertive,” lazily telling kids what to believe without any effort to persuade them that these things are actually true. These curricula abandon the fascinating stories of discovery, give away all of the plot spoilers, and completely miss the opportunity to provide students with the thrill of figuring things out and seeing things for themselves. I wanted to make something better than this, so I started creating my own educational materials.

But I also didn't want to commit the opposite error. I didn't want to just turn kids loose to randomly “explore” whatever they felt like with no organization and no guidance. After exploration comes organization. After seeing comes thinking. After evidence comes logic. In science education, one of the most important things a teacher can do for a student is to tell a good story. Good science education needs to follow an interesting and logical progression. It needs to start from obvious facts and curiosities that a child can see for himself and actually find interesting, and then proceed in methodical steps that a child can follow and perform for himself whenever possible.

This website is my attempt to share some of the outlines and the materials that I've created while attempting to give children a first-handed and active-minded education. The content here is aimed primarily at science educators, especially homeschool parents or microschool teachers who may be interested in helpful material. It is my intention to eventually offer a paid “content library” of worksheets, slideshows, lesson plans, and whatnot. If you'd like to contact me, or if you'd like me to send you an email when I make the lesson plan library available, you can contact me via email at johnlyncean.education. In the meantime, if you'd like to show your support and help me continue to produce active-minded educational content based on evidence and clear thinking, you could buy and review my germs book on Amazon. I also love it when people Buy Me a Coffee!