Children are naturally curious. Science education feeds that curiosity and provides students with valuable concepts, life skills, and career options. Science helps give kids a greater appreciation for the world, a healthy dose of skepticism, strong problem-solving skills, and research know-how. So whether your child's post-high school plans include going to college, attending a trade school, enlisting in the military, or entering the workforce, science can help him or her succeed by providing truly useful life skills. But how exactly can science do this? Here are some ways:

• Science helps kids understand and appreciate our world. When children explore and learn about the world around them and how it works, they gain a better understanding of, and appreciation for, nature and the interdependence of living things and their environments.
• Science provides a healthy dose of skepticism. When kids think as scientists do - by questioning things and considering new approaches - they gain independent thinking skills that can help them develop into savvy and wise consumers, voters, and citizens who can make their own informed decisions.
• Science promotes strong communication skills and teaches about conflict management and collaboration. Whether by working on independent science projects that require written or oral reports, or through group experiments that involve discussion and debate, cooperation and consensus, students must employ effective communication skills when reporting on their research. In the long run, these communication abilities can foster creativity and translate into effective personal relations and business presentation skills, because students learn about dealing with conflicting viewpoints, and that there are times to � collaborate and times to work independently.
• Science teaches strong research skills. Through science, students learn about coming up with hypotheses, collecting data, testing assumptions, reading about prior research, looking for patterns, communicating their findings to colleagues, writing articles, making presentations, and conducting further testing. These skills are crucial for later success in school and in the work world.

Interested in more? Check out these additional resources!

• National Science Teachers Association
  http://www.nsta.org/explore
  This special page from the National Science Teachers Association shows how parents can encourage scientific thinking in their children, and debunks common "science myths".
• What Children Gain by Learning Through Inquiry
  http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2000/nsf99148/ch_2.htm
  This chapter from the National Science Education Standards explains how learning through inquiry continually provides children with the opportunity to make firsthand decisions and how it contributes to their social and intellectual development.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
  http://www.bls.gov/k12/html/edu_sci.htm
  This special page for kids on the BLS site features basic job information and occupational outlooks on careers for children who like science.
• AAAS Education and Human Resources Directorate
  http://ehrweb.aaas.org/CareersAll/index.htm
  The "Careers for All and Workforce Development" page of the AAAS Education and Human Resources Directorate contains information on the connection between science education and career opportunities.