Science in Preschool, Part 1

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to notice that our world is getting smaller and the issues we face as a global community are growing increasingly complex. We are already at the point where a basic understanding of science is necessary to make informed decisions on personal, professional, and civic issues and address questions such as “Where and when should I still be wearing a mask?” “How safe is a trash-compacting station in my community?” and “How will climate change affect my children and grandchildren?” Futurists predict that our capacity to tackle global issues, such as pandemics and the impacts of climate change, will at least partly depend on how well we cultivate scientific literacy in today’s students.

It is now widely accepted that children’s early experiences are foundational to all later learning and science is no exception. For this reason, many states are revisiting and updating their infant, toddler, and preschool science standards to align more closely with the vision for a 21st century science education articulated in A Framework for K–12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas (NRC 2012) and applied in the NGSS (NGSS Lead States 2013). My colleagues in the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Early Childhood Science Interest Forum (ECSIF) and I applaud this close attention to science in the early years and the recognition that young children have the capacity to do and learn science. We are also committed to the idea that children’s early science experiences must be crafted in such a way that they honor the unique developmental characteristics of the 0–8 age group.

This two-part article (continued in the next issue of S&C) will describe four powerful key ideas embedded in the Framework and the NGSS and ways in which early educators might leverage them with consideration to the unique characteristics of young children and developmentally appropriate practice (DAP).

These four key ideas include:

1. Science incorporates a set of disciplinary core ideas in life, physical, and Earth/space science and crosscutting concepts (e.g. cause and effect, patterns, structure and function) that all students should be familiar with by the time they leave school.

2. Engaging with the science and engineering practices is an essential component of a high-quality science education.

3. A primary goal of K–12 science is to promote students’ evidence-based thinking.

4. Broadening participation in science and supporting students’ positive science attitudes requires connecting what students are doing and learning in school to their day-to-day lived experiences and interests.

Parts 1 and 2 of this article will each cover two of these key ideas.

Key Idea 1

Science incorporates a set of disciplinary core ideas in life, physical, and Earth/space science and crosscutting concepts (e.g. cause and effect, patterns, structure and function) that all students should be familiar with by the time they leave school.

The Message: Emphasize “big science ideas” and concepts rather than facts.

Disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) are the overarching “big ideas” fundamental to the science domains and of broad importance to science. For example, two big ideas in physical science are represented by the DCIs structure and properties of matter (PS1.A) and forces and motion (PS2.A). These two big ideas are shown in Figure 1 along with relevant examples from the Framework that describe the level at which children might be expected to understand them by the end of grade two.

Figure 1 Young children and physical science core ideas.

Early childhood educators know that young children explore phenomena related to these big ideas long before elementary school. For example, infants and toddlers take in the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures of the objects and materials around them using all their senses. They experience pushes and pulls as they are cuddled and rocked, and as they shake, roll, push, and pull their toys and other objects.

When preschool educators intentionally plan around big ideas they can build on this early learning and support extended explorations that spark sense-making and higher-order thinking.

Consider, for example, the concept that many types of matter can be either solid or liquid depending on temperature (DCI: structure and properties of matter). Now think about the related fact that water freezes at 32 degrees F. Which one would enable you to plan many related explorations for the young children in your care? Which one would include opportunities to pursue children’s unanticipated questions?

The big idea makes space for explorations such as What happens to different objects when we put them in or take them out of the freezer? How long does it take an ice cube to melt? and What ways can we find to make things melt faster or slower?

It supports connections to everyday observations, for example, my ice cream dripping on a hot day, the Frosty the Snowman video I watched last night, or how my boots got stiff and hard when I left them out in the cold. It also supports connections to engineering and technology by inviting questions such as Can we design a container that will keep our snowballs or ice cubes from melting?

Explorations centered on big ideas also incorporate crosscutting concepts that apply across the science domains. In a physical science study of balls and ramps, for example, children are introduced to cause and effect (e.g., changing the incline of a ramp changes how far a ball rolls); patterns (e.g., as the incline gets steeper, balls always roll further—up to a point!); and structure and function (e.g., balls made of different materials work better for rolling, throwing, or bouncing).

DAP Considerations for Early Learning

Unlike isolated facts, learning and teaching based on concepts are not limited to a single lesson or activity. Children ­construct and deepen their understanding of them over time and across many ­experiences.

The ability to think conceptually and abstractly develops gradually in the early years; preschoolers’ ideas about how and why things work include a mixture of logic, wishful thinking, and fantasy. As they begin to reason based on their own experiences, they might attribute their own characteristics, behaviors, and desires to other living and nonliving things. For example, children may claim that a certain ball rolls farther coming off a ramp because of how steep or “high” the ramp is, because the ball is their favorite color, because it has a picture of superman on it, or because the ball “wants” to catch up to its friends the other balls. As a teacher, it can be tempting to directly correct children’s early ideas or “preconceptions” in the moment. However, this can backfire. Research shows that for students of all ages, explanations in the absence of experiences that directly address their misconceptions have limited effect.

If you don’t do it already, try immersing children in an extended topic of study rooted in big ideas such as ramps, water, structures, plants, animals, wind and weather, cartons and containers, balls, sound, shadows and reflections, landscapes, or homes and habitats. Physical science studies are a particularly good fit for early childhood education because they rely on access to standard classroom materials such as blocks, balls, and water; they can be implemented indoors at any time of year; and they invite children to act directly on objects and materials and observe immediate results. Life and Earth/space science topics can be adapted to your specific geographic region and the climate, landscapes, living things, and habitats available to you and children.

Topics of study enable you to facilitate multiple cycles of exploration and reflection and give children adequate time to surface, share, revisit, and refine their developing ideas. Frame children’s preconceptions as questions and plan responsive explorations that enable them to test their ideas and share them with you and their peers in science talks. With time, experience, and your support, their claims and the reasons they give for them will become more scientifically accurate and increasingly evidence based.

Key Idea 2

Engaging with the science and engineering practices is an essential component of a high-quality science education.

The Message: Engage children in doing what scientists and engineers do in the service of learning about the world.

The science and engineering practices (SEPs) are a set of eight activities that represent the work of scientists and engineers in a way that is more authentic, fluid, and dynamic than the traditional scientific method.

Engaging with the practices the way scientists do builds students’ understanding of the nature of science and how science knowledge is developed. The practices are not meant to be taught or used in isolation but in the service of investigating phenomena that are accessible, interesting, and meaningful to students and related to science big ideas.

Table 1 lists each of the eight practices and describes the levels at which three- to five-year-olds might engage with them in the context of a physical science study using balls, marbles, and ramps centering the same DCIs listed in Figure 1.

Table 1 Young children and the science and engineering practices.

Science and Engineering Practices	What Young Children Might Do
Ask questions (science) and identify problems (engineering)	Science: Children may wonder about and ask questions such as: How far can I get this ball to roll? What will happen if I let two balls go at the same time? and Can a ball go up a ramp by itself? Engineering: Children may notice that a marble bounces off a ramp at the same place every time; a ball won’t enter a tunnel they have carefully placed at the bottom of the ramp.
Develop and use models	Children may describe and compare their ramp systems to existing models (e.g., roller coasters) or use paper and markers, craft sticks, or other materials to create models of their ramp structures and how they work.
Plan and carry out investigations	Science: Children may create different “inclines” to find out how different ones influence the movement of marbles; they try different balls to see which one rolls the farthest or knocks the most cups down. Engineering: Children may use trial and error, trying different ways to address the problem of balls bouncing off a track by, for example, building a wall of blocks on either side of the track or taping two ramp pieces together.
Analyze and interpret data	Children develop ideas about how balls and marbles roll based on observations they make over time (the data); for example, they may indicate that glass marbles roll faster than wooden ones because the glass marble won the race three times.
Use mathematics and computational thinking	Children may estimate the number of ramp pieces needed to make a marble roll from points A to B; compare the numbers of blocks they used to create specific inclines; and/or use words such as over, under, longer, short(er), tall(er), high(er) and low(er).
Construct explanations (science) and design solutions (engineering)	Science: Children may develop and share reasons for their ideas; for example, they may say that balls roll farther or less far because of their weight, size, or texture. Engineering: Children may settle on one solution and apply it in other situations; for example, if walls on either side of their track seemed to work, they may design future ramp systems with walls.
Engage in argument from evidence	Children discuss and compare their ideas about how marbles roll and which designs work best. For example, different children may reason that a certain ball rolls farther than other balls because of its weight, because of its texture, or due to the surface.
Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information	Children may share what their experiences, observations, and ideas about balls and ramps phenomena using drawing, photos, or 3D models; they may pursue information on the topic in books, digital resources, or from topic experts.

Having an aligned set of science and engineering practices emphasizes the close relationships between the two disciplines. In early childhood classrooms, science and engineering are frequently entwined during children’s constructive and exploratory play with blocks, water, balls, and other objects and materials. It is often the engineering process, and children’s attempts to address problems that arise in their constructive play, that motivate them to further explore phenomena and become interested in the relevant science concepts.

To early educators’ ears, these practices may at first sound too sophisticated for young children and even contrary to a teacher’s learning goals (e.g., social skills such as getting along and not arguing). It is therefore imperative for educators to have access to information about how to best support young children’s use of science and engineering practices from sources with a solid grounding in early childhood education as well as science.

DAP Considerations for Early Learning

Young children’s engagement with the science and engineering practices falls along a continuum influenced in large part by their developmental levels, their temperaments, their approaches to learning, and the quantity and quality of their previous exploration experiences.

When you introduce a new topic or new exploration materials, provide extended opportunities for children to “mess around.” Open-ended play enables all children to gain familiarity with how the materials look, feel, and respond to their actions, something they need to raise questions that will motivate their on-going investigations.

Consider the host of cross-domain skills that each practice incorporates. Development of these skills and children’s engagement with the science practices are mutually dependent and reinforcing (see Figure 2). All of them are heavily integrated with children’s developing cognitive skills, including the ability to see different perspectives, to think flexibly, and executive function skills (e.g., working memory, filtering distractions, and self-control). When explorations occur in groups, the practices draw heavily on children’s social/emotional skills and nearly all of them incorporate aspects of language and literacy.

Figure 2 Science as a vehicle for cross-domain reciprocal learning.

Science offers a perfect context for integration. You can support children’s cognitive skills, for example, by asking questions that promote children’s thinking about what they are doing, how they are doing it, and their reasons for doing it that way rather than questions that suggest correct answers. You can support social skills by ensuring that you have enough materials for the number of children participating and creating norms for science talks such as Invite quiet friends into the conversation and Listen respectfully to the ideas of others. To support language, use exploration materials, photos, and gestures that cue children into the exploration at hand and the meanings of words and invite children to demonstrate, act out, and draw, as well as describe, what they are doing, noticing, and thinking about. You can differentiate for individuals more easily by facilitating explorations in small groups and grouping children intentionally and in different ways.

As explorations continue, observe children’s actions as well as their words to formatively assess and support their engagement in the practices. A child who is silently pouring water between different containers may be wondering Why does the water splash out of some containers but not others? and a child who makes a smiley face on their worm drawing might be making a reasoned claim about what the worm’s face looks like up-close. You can help children express their questions and claims with questions such as, “Are you wondering why the water doesn’t fit in that cup?” or “Do you think worms have mouths like we do? How could we find out?”

In the next issue of Science and Children, we’ll continue with a discussion of the third and fourth key ideas.

Acknowledgment

The idea for this two-part article emerged from a conversation among members of the NAEYC Early Childhood Science Interest Forum (ECSIF) and they have been invaluable in supporting it to completion.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cindy Hoisington

Cindy Hoisington ([email protected]) is an early childhood science educator at Education Development Center in Waltham, Massachusetts, who develops science professional learning and resources for children, families, and teachers with a focus on learners in under-resourced communities.