Giving Early Science Educators Something to Chew On

Feeling a little hungry for new ideas in early science instruction? Today might help. It's Very Hungry Caterpillar Day, marking the 40^th anniversary of the classic picture book by Eric Carle. The colorful book, die-cut with munch holes that young children love to stick their fingers through, tells the story of a caterpillar's voluminous diet. As Peggy Ashbrook, a preschool science teacher, points out on her blog The Early Years, Carle's book is a great launching pad for teaching the life cycle of a butterfly.

Watching the butterfly's metamorphosis from caterpillar to adult is a rite of passage in many early elementary classrooms. But the experience can be much more for children than a game of waiting for the insects to hatch from their crysalides. It's an ideal opportunity for children to ask questions about what they noticed during the insect's life cycle and try to answer those questions by making more observations. Often it can lead students to start investigations that try to validate their predictions. This question-based approach follows many of the tenets of the inquiry method of science education that has backing in cognitive science research and has become the teaching strategy of choice among many science educators.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar can be a jumping off point for discussions about what butterflies look like and how they grow. But it also provides a way to extend dialogue beyond life science, as Ashbrook learned as she collected ideas from other teachers in her blog post. The book shows a caterpillar eating through an apple, a pear and many more goodies including cake and ice cream. "What is ‘real' and where does the author's imagination take flight?" wrote one of the contributors. "I think it's a valuable point to discuss and I feel even young students can begin to appreciate the difference." (As another person noted, this is a great way to help even very young children become "critical consumers" of what they read.)

Ashbrook also writes a regular column for Science & Children, the peer-reviewed journal of the National Science Teachers Association. It is dedicated to conversation about how to engage children from preschool to 2^nd grade in science concepts. (I must disclose that I have had the pleasure of watching Peggy in the classroom for years. My children have been among the preschoolers she has taught in Alexandria, Va. It is inspiring to watch her set children's minds whirring, enabling them to answer their own questions through her guidance on ways to frame their thoughts.)

Here are a few other resources that might whet your appetite for increasing children's exposure to science in the early years:

Mrs. Poulin's kindergarten classroom examines plants

Don't miss this video from the blog maintained by Gail Poulin, a kindergarten teacher at William E. Norris School in Southampton, Massachusetts. Watch children looking at leaves and flowers, talking about what they notice and recording their observations with pencil drawings. Mrs. Poulin gently nudges them to think thoroughly about what they are viewing. "I wonder what the job of the leaf is?" she asks. Answers one of her students as he touches a leaf: "These things are veins and maybe the water inside the plant goes through this..."

Sid the Science Kid on PBS

Launched last year, Sid the Science Kid is a television show with accompanying activity Web site for parents and teachers. It is produced by The Jim Henson Company and KCET/Los Angeles and focuses on how Sid, a Muppet-like 5-year-old, finds answers to his questions with the help of his preschool teachers and friends. "Why do bananas get mushy?" leads to a discussion of decay and journal writing about a rotten pumpkin, on video here.

PBS, with funding from the National Science Foundation, has been pushing for more of a role for electronic media in science education. Rob Lippincott, PBS's senior vice president of education, recently testified for the Subcommittee on Research and Science Education in the U.S. House of Representatives about ways to employ new media to connect teachers and engage students in more exploration of science, technology, engineering and math.

Teaching Science that Sizzles: A Resource Guide for Beginning Teachers

This is a guidebook for teachers of all levels of students created by the Engaging Science enrichment program for teachers in British Columbia, Canada. It could be a particularly encouraging resource for preschool or kindergarten teachers who are not accustomed to using science in their classrooms - and who may be worried that they don't know the answers. In fact, that can be highly valuable for students to see. As the guidebook points out, "What message do you think students receive when the teacher has all the answers?"

FOSS, from National Science Foundation and the University of California at Berkeley

Here's a video about the inquiry-based Full Option Science System, a set of investigations for teachers to employ in their classrooms, including Web-based activities for kindergarten through 2^nd grade. The pillars of the program are active learning with developmentally appropriate materials.

One note: FOSS makes little mention of preschool -- a common case with science curricula. But anyone who has spent time with young children know they are eager to explore and inquisitive about the world from a very early age. Many miss out on a chance to test their science-oriented curiosity at earlier ages because of a lack of well-trained teachers. That's one reason it's encouraging to see the National Science Teachers Association include a mention of preschool in its mission statements.