Strings symbols and databases

What is the preferred method of saving a hash with symbols as keys to
the db? I tried to find this addressed in the archives, already, but
came up empty.
Since <%= text_field %> creates hashes with symbols by default, what’s
the best way to save them?

It appears ruby sticks yaml in a string field in the db like
“— :vocabulary” if you save a hash key to db.

Is is good style to do something like this to save a hash or is there
a more preferred way?

score_hash.each do | key, value |
  score = Score.new
  score.result = @result
  score.name = key.to_s
  score.value = value
  score.save!
end

Also, when reconstructing the hash later, is it wise to convert back
to symbols (using intern) or just treat as strings?