People have always wanted to know new things. Ever since the day you were born, you were learning about the world around you. In order to understand science, it is important to figure out how people learn. This will help you be a better student of the world, and better able to learn new things.

To help you remember the ways in which people learn, I have created a trick. Think of the word SCARED. Some people are scared of learning new things, but you don't need to be scared if you remember you've been learning your whole life. In fact, you can list the ways you learn by using the letters in SCARED.

S: Senses
The most basic way you learn, from the day you were born, was by using your senses. You will use different senses based on your need. When you were a baby, you tasted everything. That let you know about texture, temperature, material, chemical structure, and if those keys were edible or not. You could mash things with your tongue, learn the difference between fruit and metal, and gain a great understanding of the world. Now your primary sense is probably sight. Sound and touch follow, and finally scent and taste. Using your senses is always the most basic way of learning. How much you learn depends on how well you pay attention. You can train yourself to really see, and smell, and listen. If you practice focusing, you will learn much more. That is the difference between just having your eyes open and really focusing.

C: Connect
Once you learn by sensing, you need to organize information in your head. This means you make connections between similar things. In science, we do a lot of grouping. You were doing this as a small child. You probably realized that a metal spoon and keys had similar tastes, temperatures, and textures. Even before you knew the word metal, you probably had some ideas about what a metal was. The human ability to make connections between ideas also leads to creativity. We can put ideas together in unique ways, and create things that have never been. Take the words metal and child. By imagining these words together, you can go from picturing a child tasting metal, to a child made of metal, or a child collecting metal, or some metal having a child... there are many possibilities. Even though this often seems like play, it really is learning.

A: Ask
Not long after you learned to talk in full sentences, you began asking questions. At about age three, you learned the power of "Why?". There are many people and ways to question. Of course, you can ask people you know, including family, friends, and teachers. But you can also ask through reading. When you pick up a book, you are asking what the author has to tell you. When you read an article on the Internet, you are asking. Even when watching a movie, you're asking what you can learn from it. This includes paying attention, to gain the maximum knowledge possible.

R: Reason
Sometimes, even after you ask your hard questions, you still don't have an answer to your questions. It's time to go back inside your head to learn. You can take the information you have to guess at the answers. Sometimes, you'll find that you can figure out the answers for yourself. This is called reasoning, and humans are a lot better at this than any other living thing on earth. We can think through possible consequences, alternative endings, future results, and even strange and unusual scenarios. We think, and when we do so, we learn. We can even learn without ever experiencing directly. This kind of learning takes a great deal of practice.

E: Experiment
After we learn everything we can through our senses, our thoughts, and our associates, there are a few questions still unanswered. When we come to the end of our answers, we must experiment. You experiment every day, but you probably don't think of your life as an experiment. You experiment in how you behave each day, and every time you try new things, that's an experiment. There is another word for experimenting; it's called experience. Care must be taken when experimenting. If not done carefully, there may be negative consequences.

D: Demonstrate
There is one final way you learn, but this is a little different. You actually learn very well when you must teach others. Your brain will sometimes gain information more effectively when teaching than when trying to learn. Your teachers have experienced this. If you have ever had to do a presentation, you can probably remember more about the topic than when you were listening to others' presentations. When you demonstrate, or do for others, you gain more for yourself. You may be asked to demonstrate from time to time to better learn ideas. This is different from experimenting because you are doing this for others. You should have as much information as possible before doing either, but when you demonstrate, you should already have your answers. By teaching them, you gain a greater depth of understanding.

Why do these steps in order
Have you ever asked where something was, and was embarrased when it was right in front of you? Have you ever tried something new, and it went terribly wrong? You have probably learned some of the reasons why you need to do these steps in order. You can't really make connections if you don't pay attention. And if you ask before you use your senses, you look a little silly. If you use reasoning skills before you ask, you may waste a lot of time. But it gets really bad if you experiment before you use reason.

A lot of tragedies happen from people experimenting without thinking. Sometimes it's funny when people make such terrible decisions. In fact, there are awards given (sarcastically) to people who did things so dumb they didn't live. These are called the Darwin Awards. Charles Darwin famously speculated that organisms fit for the environment live, while unfit will die. The creators of the award thought that people being careless and dumb were unfit. For example:

Ghost hunters looking for phantom train hit by real one. Rocket strapped to car, crashes into cliff. Fish-impersonator found drowned. Man cuts off head on a dare. Zoo visitor dies hanging flowers around tiger's neck. Bungee jumper uses 75-foot cord on 70-foot bridge. TV fan climbs on roof to fix antenna during hurricane. Scottish drinker dies trying to swallow pool ball.

Tips to avoid getting a Darwin Award:
Always think through consequences. Drinking and experimenting don't mix. Never listen to that friend who thinks every crazy sceme is a good idea. Don't do anything to win a dare. Never say "it will never happen to me." And experimenting with weapons, explosives, automobiles, wild animals, or other things that regularly kill people is generally a bad idea.