Family Science Learning Overview
Use this activity to learn about what “Should We” questions are and explore your family’s decision making.
People make decisions all day long–some big and some small– many of which we almost forget to notice. Your family will engage in reflection about the decisions you make and how they intersect with space and time. You can use the activity sheet provided for this activity to keep track of your brainstorm, or you can use blank sheets of paper.
Overview
This is a two-part activity.
- 5.A.1: Collect data on your family’s daily decisions. Write down all the things you and your family make decisions about during one day, or do this over multiple days.
- 5.A.2: Explore how the place you live and the structures of our systems in society shape the decisions you can make.
- Extension activity ideas:
- Identify one of your daily decisions that is strongly shaped by place or societal structures, for example, whether your town’s waste department supports composting. Call a family member or friend and explore if and how their daily decision is also shaped by place and societal structure. Explore differences.
What Can You Do To Support Learning?
- Compare and contrast different decisions you and your family have made to uncover different knowledge, goals, and values involved in making decisions.
- Consider times when you’ve answered the same “Should we” question in a different way. Explore why that happened. Some examples: deciding what produce you buy at the grocery store and how the seasons make different fruits and vegetables available or deciding to drive, take public transportation or walk.
- This is an opportunity to share your family’s histories and values. You might also explore a familial or cultural practice or decision you make in the same way as previous generations in your family.
Activity Sheets
Connecting with Other Families
Call other family members and ask them about a big decision they made and why they made it. You could also ask another family or friends to complete the daily decision log, then compare and contrast your lists.
Connect to Other Activities
- 5.B: What “Should We” Do? Making Nature-Culture Relations Over Time.
- 5.C Creating a Neighborhood “Should We” Questions
Learning in Places Frameworks to Consider
- Socio-Ecological Histories of Place
- Socio-Ecological Deliberation and Decision Making
- Asking Powerful Questions in Field-Based Science
