Emergent Science

Emergent Science is essential reading for anyone involved in supporting scientific learning and development with young children aged between birth and 8. Drawing on theory, the book helps to develop the essential skills needed to understand and support science in this age range. The book is organised into three parts: development, contexts and pedagogy, exploring the underpinning theory alongside practical ideas to help trainees, teachers and childcare practitioners to create high-quality science experiences for the children they teach. The text includes guidance on developing professional, study and research skills to graduate and postgraduate level, as well as all the information needed to develop scientific skills, attitudes, understanding and language through concrete, social experiences for young children. Features include: Reflective tasks-at three levels of professional development;- early career/student, developing career/teacher and later career/leader. Case studies that exemplify good practice and practical ideas. Tools for learning - explain how science professionals can develop their professional, study skills and research skills to Masters level

Emergent Science is essential reading for anyone involved in supporting scientific learning and development with young children aged between birth and 8. Drawing on theory, the book helps to develop the essential skills needed to understand and support science in this age range. The book is organised into three parts: development, contexts and pedagogy, exploring the underpinning theory alongside practical ideas to help trainees, teachers and childcare practitioners to create high-quality science experiences for the children they teach. The text includes guidance on developing professional, study and research skills to graduate and postgraduate level, as well as all the information needed to develop scientific skills, attitudes, understanding and language through concrete, social experiences for young children. Features include: Reflective tasks-at three levels of professional development;- early career/student, developing career/teacher and later career/leader. Case studies that exemplify good practice and practical ideas. Tools for learning - explain how science professionals can develop their professional, study skills and research skills to Masters level

To what extent do complex phonological patterns require the postulation of universal mechanisms specific to language? In this volume, we explore the Emergent Hypothesis, that the innate language-specific faculty driving the shape of adult grammars is minimal, with grammar development relying instead on cognitive capacities of a general nature. Generalisations about sounds, and about the way sounds are organised into meaningful units, are constructed in a bottom-up fashion: As such, phonology is emergent. We present arguments for considering the Emergent Hypothesis, both conceptually and by working through an extended example in order to demonstrate how an adult grammar might emerge from the input encountered by a learner. Developing a concrete, data-driven approach, we argue that the conventional, abstract notion of unique underlying representations is unmotivated; such underlying representations would require some innate principle to ensure their postulation by a learner. We review the history of the concept and show that such postulated forms result in undesirable phonological consequences. We work through several case studies to illustrate how various types of phonological patterns might be accounted for in the proposed framework. The case studies illustrate patterns of allophony, of productive and unproductive patterns of alternation, and cases where the surface manifestation of a feature does not seem to correspond to its morphological source. We consider cases where a phonetic distinction that is binary seems to manifest itself in a way that is morphologically ternary, and we consider cases where underlying representations of considerable abstractness have been posited in previous frameworks. We also consider cases of opacity, where observed phonological properties do not neatly map onto the phonological generalisations governing patterns of alternation.

Young children are intuitive scientists. This book builds on their inherent curiosity and problem solving as they move forward in their scientific thinking. Science develops from early beginnings and a solid foundation in the early years is essential for their future learning and engagement with the subject. Starting Inquiry Based Science in the Early Years shows you how you can support children’s emerging scientific skills by working with them and scaffolding their inquiries as they experiment, hypothesise and investigate building on their natural curiosity. Full of practical advice, it offers a wide range of scientific activities that can be carried out in partnership with young children. Each activity presents a challenge for the child to solve by thinking and talking through their ideas and then carrying out their own investigations. This invaluable guide focuses on helping children to follow their own line of inquiry and supporting them in mastering the skills and vocabulary they need in order to do this. Features include: An explanation of the key skills children need to acquire and practical ideas for developing these; Useful lists of relevant vocabulary and everyday resources; Cue questions to encourage children’s thinking skills; Cross-curricular links to show how the activities support early literacy and mathematics. Providing a rich bank of resources for promoting scientific experiences and learning, this highly practical book will help you ensure that the children in your care have the strong foundations they need to become confident, successful scientists in the future.

The book provides clear descriptions, definitions and explanations of difficult scientific concepts, carefully chosen to reflect the needs of those involved in primary science education.

Photographs and simple text describe some of the many liquid and frozen solid forms of water, such as rain, tap water, frost, rivers, and icebergs.

Build literacy with easy and adorable reproducible mini-books on favorite science topics.

Changing relations between science and democracy – and controversies over issues such as climate change, energy transitions, genetically modified organisms and smart technologies – have led to a rapid rise in new forms of public participation and citizen engagement. While most existing approaches adopt fixed meanings of ‘participation’ and are consumed by questions of method or critiquing the possible limits of democratic engagement, this book offers new insights that rethink public engagements with science, innovation and environmental issues as diverse, emergent and in the making. Bringing together leading scholars on science and democracy, working between science and technology studies, political theory, geography, sociology and anthropology, the volume develops relational and co-productionist approaches to studying and intervening in spaces of participation. New empirical insights into the making, construction, circulation and effects of participation across cultures are illustrated through examples ranging from climate change and energy to nanotechnology and mundane technologies, from institutionalised deliberative processes to citizen-led innovation and activism, and from the global north to global south. This new way of seeing participation in science and democracy opens up alternative paths for reconfiguring and remaking participation in more experimental, reflexive, anticipatory and responsible ways. This ground-breaking book is essential reading for scholars and students of participation across the critical social sciences and beyond, as well as those seeking to build more transformative participatory practices.