A lesson for my daughter – How to learn like a scientist 

In one of our science nights, I will give you this lesson:

let’s talk about two cool ways scientists understand the world around them.

The first is called “empiricism”. Imagine when you were little and learned about fruit by tasting it. You found out sugar tastes sweet because you experienced it yourself. That’s empiricism: learning through your senses, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting.

The second is called “rationalism”. Think about how Einstein figured out that gravity bends space without traveling to space himself. He used logic and mathematics to understand it. That’s rationalism: using reason and critical thinking to figure things out, even if you can’t see them directly. It’s like you noticed cherry blossoms and a change in the weather and guessed that spring has started and it was exactly the first day of spring.

Scientists often use both.

We’re all scientists without knowing it. Science is about knowingly gathering information and thinking about it.

To learn more about the world, try using both methods. There are three simple steps to learning:

1. Try new things

2. Observe closely with all your senses

3. Imagine and reason about what you see.

Next time we go for a walk, let’s try a new path. As you pass trees, listen to the sounds, smell the fresh air, then touch the leaves. Use all of your senses in that new environment. Then ask yourself the why, what, and how. Why the color of leaves changed, what, how…

Be a scientist every day.