Scientastic Fun at the Library
Marjorie Shaw
La Vista Public Library
October 15, 2015
mshaw@cityoflavista.org
Introduction
A scientist is someone who…
•Observes and wonders
•Asks questions
•Shares their ideas & discoveries
•Uses tools to solve problems
•Listens to the ideas of others
•Conducts experiments
•Explores the world around them
Children learn through play
Young Children and Science Learning-- National Science Teachers Association
Learning science in the early years can foster children's curiosity and enjoyment in exploring the world
around them and lay the foundation for a progression of science learning throughout their entire lives.
The NSTA identifies the following key principles to guide the learning of science among young children
• Children have the capacity to engage in scientific practices and develop understanding at a
conceptual level.
Young children have the ability to use the skills of reasoning and inquiry as they investigate how the
world works. They can learn to organize and communicate what they learn. Adults who engage
children in science inquiry through the process of asking questions, investigating, and constructing
explanations can provide developmentally appropriate environments that take advantage of what
children do as part of their everyday life prior to entering formal school settings. These skills and
abilities can provide helpful starting points for developing scientific reasoning
• Adults play a central and important role in helping young children learn science.
Everyday life is rich with science experiences, but these experiences can best contribute to science
learning when an adult prepares the environment for science exploration, focuses children’s
observations, and provides time to talk about what was done and seen. It is important that adults
support children’s play, support their learning attempts, and regulate the complexity and difficulty of
levels of information.
• Young children need multiple and varied opportunities to engage in science exploration and
discovery (NAEYC 2013).
Young children develop science understanding best when given multiple opportunities to engage in
science exploration and experiences through inquiry. The range of experiences gives them the basis
for seeing patterns, forming theories, considering alternate explanations, and building their knowledge.
• Young children develop science skills and knowledge in both formal and informal settings.
Opportunities to explore, inquire, discover, and construct within the natural environment and with
materials that are there need to be provided in formal education settings through intentional lessons
planned by knowledgeable adults. In addition, children need to have opportunities to engage in
science learning in informal settings, such as at home with cooking activities and outdoor play or in the
community exploring and observing the environment
• Young children develop science skills and knowledge over time.
To effectively build science understanding, young children need opportunities for sustained
engagement with materials and conversations that focus on the same set of ideas over time. For
example, investigating the concept of light and shadows over several weeks indoors and out with a
variety of materials and multiple activities will allow children to re-visit and re-engage over time,
building on observations and predictions from day to day
• Young children develop science skills and learning by engaging in experiential learning.
Young children engage in science activities when an adult intentionally prepares the environment and
the experiences to allow children to fully engage with materials. The activities allow children to
question, explore, investigate, make meaning, and construct explanations and organize knowledge by
manipulating materials
American Association for the Advancement of Science
By the end of the 2nd grade, students should know that
•Everybody can do science and invent things and ideas.
•When a science investigation is done the way it was done before, we expect to get a very similar
result. 1A/P1
•When a science investigation is done again in a different place, we expect to get a very similar
result. 1A/P2*
Scientific Inquiry Skills
Young children are naturally curious about their environment and are struggling to make sense of the
world around them.
A good science program engages all children in a way that builds on this natural curiosity, supports their
attitudes and dispositions toward learning, and fosters inquiry skills
Scientific investigations involve asking and answering a question and comparing the answer with what
scientists already know about the world
Scientists develop explanations using observations (evidence) and what they already know about the
world (scientific knowledge). Good explanations are based on evidence from investigations.
There are no wrong predictions in science.
Science is Simple / Ashbrook
Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum, 1993.
The scientific method is a way of figuring out what question to ask, what steps to take to answer that
question, then doing our best to make sure that the information gathered is not biased.
An activity is simply watching something, or perhaps interacting with it in some way so as to cause a
reaction.
An experiment is an activity that is designed to answer a question
Scientastic Handouts and Supporting Theory
These classes will encourage you to experience the world as scientists.
We will be emphasizing the following steps which are a simplified version of the scientific method.
What do I see? Smell? Hear?
A scientist first observes what is around him or her.
I think.....
What will happen when I _____?
A scientist forms a hypothesis, a theory or estimate of what will occur when he or she interacts with
something.
I try _____ .
How can I find out?
A scientist does something logical to investigate or manipulate materials in an attempt to study these
events.
Gather information.
What does it mean?
Why?
A scientist thinks about what was just experienced.
How does what happened fit in with what is already known?
Tell someone.
How can I tell?
What can I tell?
A scientist shares the information-- draws a picture, makes a chart, or talks to someone about it.
Children learn to communicate in a variety of ways when they have regular opportunities to represent
their experiences and ideas.
Representation gives children a chance to reflect on a recent experience. They can think about the
elements that were important to them, and ultimately gain new understandings of the science they are
exploring.
Experiences are the basis of science learning, but reflection on those experiences is what leads children
to modify any previous naïve beliefs to form more sophisticated theories.
Representation and discussion are two primary ways to encourage children’s reflection.
Thinking in this way while having fun is a powerful way for young children to learn. It encourages them
to look for patterns in their world, and to be systematic in their understanding.
It can also help them…
•understand that doing the same actions again will result in a similar outcome even in a different
setting
•realize that science is an integral part of life.
It can also help them learn how to apply information learned in a past experience to a new situation.
This is recognized by early childhood experts as a vital skill
Scientastic Activities
[2-6 year olds unless otherwise noted]
AIR
Activities
• Bubble wrap
• Newspaper bags
• Musical water jars
• Club soda & dancing raisins
•
Blow up balloons
• Alka-Seltzer and water
• Baking soda and vinegar
VERTEBRATES
Activities
• Invertebrates
•Model of ant
• Vertebrates
• Bones
• Pelts
• Feathers
• Turtle shell
• Arapaima scale
SENSES
Activities
• Auditory: drum, matching game
• Olfactory: peppermint, cinnamon, etc.
• Tactile: wool, silk, petrified wood, etc.
• Gustatory: maple syrup and snow
•
•
•
Balance
Kinesthetic
Strength & weight
Colors, tints, hues
How we see colors
Magnifying glass
Matching sounds
Textures
Vibrations
Tuning forks
Transparent, translucent, opaque
Comparing weight with or without a scale
COLOR, LIGHT, AND SHADOW
Activities
• Light
• Spinning top
• Rainbow box
•
•
•
Prisms
Mirrors
Color vision
Shadows
Black absorbs light
COLOR, LIGHT, AND SHADOW [4-10 year olds]
Activities
• Cellophane triangle
• Electromagnetic energy
MAGNETISM AND STATIC
Activities
• Magnetic sculpture
• Magnetic train
• On the farm magnetic book
• Sizzling magnets
•
Flip and Twirl Magnetic Center
Push and Pull Magnetic Center
Float and Spin Magnetic Center
Magic Wonder Window
Magnetic sculpture
Ceramic magnets (Neodymium)
MAGNETISM AND STATIC
Plexiglas
Magnetic Rods and Spheres
Balloon and Spider
[4-10 year olds]
Static
• Plexiglas
• Balloons
STATES OF MATTER
Activities
•
•
Liquids
•Density
•Surface tension
Solids
• Gases
• Club soda & dancing raisins
• Blow up balloons with carbon dioxide
• Alka-Seltzer + water. Baking soda + vinegar
Water
Oobleck balloons
Milk
Air vortex cannon (Airzooka)
Resources
Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP)-- NAEYC
National Science Education Standards (National Research Council)
Next Generation Science Standards-- Utah and Virginia
NSTA Position Statement: Early Childhood Science Education
Rivers Bend Association for the Education of Young Children (Missouri)
Science in Kindergarten / Ingrid Chalufour and Karen Worth
More Mudpies to Magnets / Robert Williams
Mudpies to Magnets / Robert Williams
Science is Simple / Peggy Ashbrook
Science Play / Jill Frankel Hauser
Science Through Children’s Literature / Carol Butzow
Talking Sense in Science / Douglas P. Newton
Themes with a Difference / Moira Green
978-0-87659-150-5
978-0-87659-112-3
978-0-87659-272-4
978-0-8249-6799-4
978-1-56308-651-9
978-0-415-25351-2
978-0-7668-0009-0
Quotations
Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think Albert Einstein
Experiment
Fail
Learn
Repeat
Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist / Carl Sagan
I have not failed. I have discovered 10000 things that don’t work / Thomas Edison
I’m a librarian! What’s your superpower?
Keep calm and do science
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source
of all true art and science / Albert Einstein
Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing / Wernher von Braun
Remember, kids, the only difference between screwing around and science
is writing it down / Adam Savage
Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our sense-experience correspond to a logically
uniform system of thought / Albert Einstein
Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner
possible / Richard Feynman
Theory is when you understand everything, but nothing works. Practice is when everything works but
nobody understands why. On this station, we combine theory and practice in a way that nothing works
and nobody understands why / Jan Mayen Experimental Station
We should not teach children the sciences, but give them a taste for them / Rosseau