One thing that helps more than just looking surprised: ask the kid for further details. If it is something you know, you can catch anything they got wrong and ask “is it really like that? i thought it was different!” (keeping your tone in mind is essential, too)
If it’s something you don’t know, they’ll be more than glad to explain. Which can get tiring, but hey, it’s a small price for getting them interested in learning and sharing their knowledge
This, especially asking them why they think it is that way or how they can test it. Get them thinking in terms of the scientific method instead of just repeating facts they heard somewhere else. edit: asking them to repeat random facts about a topic is still a great way to keep them interested and feeling good about their knowledge, but asking them “why” questions is really next-level and can be really interesting to see what they come up with
One thing that helps more than just looking surprised: ask the kid for further details. If it is something you know, you can catch anything they got wrong and ask “is it really like that? i thought it was different!” (keeping your tone in mind is essential, too)
If it’s something you don’t know, they’ll be more than glad to explain. Which can get tiring, but hey, it’s a small price for getting them interested in learning and sharing their knowledge
This, especially asking them why they think it is that way or how they can test it. Get them thinking in terms of the scientific method instead of just repeating facts they heard somewhere else. edit: asking them to repeat random facts about a topic is still a great way to keep them interested and feeling good about their knowledge, but asking them “why” questions is really next-level and can be really interesting to see what they come up with