Children who do not develop cooperative social skills cannot become productive citizens. Children who do not have basic math skills can't perform as adults. Children who do not communicate effectively lose. When approached as separate disciplines, reading, writing, math, and cooperation require all of the teacher's time and resources. However, the teaching of integrated curriculum , including cooperative, hands-on science, frees up teacher time by allowing effective teaching of several disciplines at the same time.
New knowledge is exciting to the children.
Teaching the scientific process through hands-on science is essentially teaching the children how to learn more effectively. When done in cooperative settings, the children also learn effective communication by sharing information with their peers.