Science is one of the greatest subjects for inspiring young minds to explore, test, play and ultimately create. And the way that children learn and the scientific method have a lot more in common than most people might think.

The internet has transformed the way in which we teach, but also created its fair share of distractions. According to Pew Research Center, 24 percent of teens are online ‘almost constantly’, due in large part to the wide availability of cutting-edge phones. If you have gotten sick of telling students to put their smartphones away during class, you may curse the internet from time to time.

The human brain is a miraculous organ, capable of processing huge amounts of information in just seconds. But it is better at absorbing some kinds of information than it is others.

Consider, for example, the following: when you read a passage of text, your brain scans the text for meaning, decoding a sea of syntax, syllables, phonemes, syllogisms, euphemisms, metaphors and all manner of rules and techniques to uncover the units of information that are most important.

When shock waves from political events hit schools, children and parents can be left feeling adrift. In the wake of impassioning events such as the US election and our recent UK referendum on leaving the European Union, societies can feel fractured and bruised, and respond in less than productive ways. Hate crimes have soared in the UK in the aftermath of a campaign that unleashed uninhibited language and racism alongside grievances, and this is beginning to be seen in the US too.

Teachers probably all agree that students need to be taught to think critically. The increasing use of technology in classrooms makes it difficult to be sure that students are actually thinking for themselves, rather than using Google to find answers and to simply copy/paste information. Whether or not all answers can be found on the internet is a moot point.

Schools and colleges are increasingly investing in educational technologies to improve institutional efficiency, enhance learning and better prepare learners for the demands of the 21st Century, with substantial growth in technology-supported learning over the past two decades and a myriad of new technologies released every year.