Science and Young Children

1. Science and Young Children The Cognitive Domain

2. Let’s Begin • Science is a subject that some people do not like to discuss, and if they were asked they may say, I hate science. This may be because science was boring to them while they were growing up attending school or it may have seemed to be complicated. In this lesson we will learn what science is, how to make it interesting to young children and how to incorporate the Early Learning Standards in our science lessons. Science does not have to be hard or complicated, science can be fun, so sit back, get your pens or pencils out and let’s get started, LET’s BEGIN!

3. Complete these questions on a separate sheet and submit to your instructor, via email. • 1. Do you like science? • 2. How often do you have a planned science activity? • 3. What do the children like playing with the most? • 4. How do you teach children to take care of the environment? • 5. How do you offer children the opportunity to develop their senses? • 6. List what’s in your science area. • 7. What can you do to make your science area more interesting?

4. The Young Child as Scientist • Turn to page 276 in your textbook, “Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum: Best Practices in Early Childhood Education”, 4th Edition, by Kostelnik, Soderman & Whiren. Read pages 276 to the top of page 280. We will pause for 20 to 25 minutes to give you a chance to read it. Summarize your reading and submit.

5. The Young Child as Scientist, Cont’d. • You have had some time to read over the pages in the textbook, I like the sentence this sections begins with, “Children are full of questions and expend a great deal of energy on discovering how things work, what people do, and how they can become more competent players in the general scheme of life” (Kostelnik, Soderman & Whiren, 2007, p. 276. • Children are always asking why, and to some adults this may be very annoying, but look at it as a future scientist in action. If a child never ask, “WHY” how are they suppose to learn how things are suppose to work, now they can try them out, but some things may not be age appropriate, so they will need to ask the question of why.

6. Investigations you could do with children • As children become more and more curious let’s look at some investigations you could lead them to. “When introducing scientific information, teachers will want to do a bit of research to make sure that they have a ready listing of factual information and vocabulary terms to share with children, either spontaneously during an activity or introducing the information prior to implementation” (Kostelnik, Soderman & Whiren, 2007, pg. 278).

7. Assignment • Develop a science-based lesson plan based on the format provided in the text. • On the home page on the website, on the left hand side, click on blog and answer the discussion questions.