Starting Inquiry Based Science In The Early Years

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.

Young children arrive at school with unrestrained curiosity and wonder about the world. A fact-based, hands-on activity approach to teaching science, however, is not enough to help them deepen their scientific thinking or discoveries. In Starting with Science: Strategies for Introducing Young Children to Inquiry, Marcia Talhelm Edson explores the big ideas surrounding inquiry-based science; she helps teachers thoughtfully plan for and implement a conceptual approach to teaching and learning science so students can engage in observation, questioning, predictions, collaboration, data collection, and a deeper understanding of topics important to their lives. Through numerous examples from classroom discussions, teacher commentary, and children's work samples, Starting with Science provides practical suggestions and models for beginning teachers as well as those who are fine-tuning their practice. Four key questions underlie the book: What is inquiry-based science? How can pre-K, kindergarten, and primary-grade teachers incorporate inquiry-based science when faced with limited science background, insufficient time, and lack of resources? What roles do the children, the teacher, and the environment play in an inquiry-based science program? What instructional strategies are effective in implementing inquiry-based science? In answering these questions, Edson provides a framework from which teachers can devise their own in-depth inquiry investigations based on district requirements and students' own interests. She also integrates literacy opportunities as well as explicit suggestions for effective assessment of inquiry-based science. Starting with Science shows us what inquiry looks like in an early childhood classroom and introduces strategies teachers can employ to confidently and competently teach science to students in grades pre-K-2. Children will gain skills for problem solving and an attitude about learning that they will carry with them not just to the next grade but throughout their lives.

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 educational provision for early years is growing and changing across many parts of the world, not least in the UK. While this book leans heavily on the mounting literature on early child development in its broadest sense – physically, emotionally, linguistically – its central focus lies squarely on the growth of children’s scientific thinking and activities. Written by educators, this book is based both on formal educational research and professional practice-in-action. The authors describe children’s science concept development; their curiosity-driven exploration; emergent ecological literacy; their learning through science play; the assessment of early learning; the role of parents and practitioners within early education contexts; and some question the very basis of the science being taught. Illustrations and examples of practice are not confined to the UK, though the messages to be derived from each chapter have application way beyond the immediate context. This book was originally published as a special issue of Early Child Development and Care.

You asked for it---now you've got it In a focus group at a recent NSTA convention, teachers of prekindergarten through second grade clamored for help. They do want easy-to-do science activities they can use for everyday teaching. But they don't want to be forced to adapt material meant for older children. So here's the solution. Start Young offers a wealth of simple educational activities designed to use right away with even the littlest scientists. The book includes a chapter of helpful background on the latest thinking about effective ways to introduce science in early childhood. But the bulk of the book is two dozen articles compiled from Science & Children, NSTA's award-winning journal for elementary school teachers

Humans, especially children, are naturally curious. Yet, people often balk at the thought of learning scienceâ€"the "eyes glazed over" syndrome. Teachers may find teaching science a major challenge in an era when science ranges from the hardly imaginable quark to the distant, blazing quasar. Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards is the book that educators have been waiting forâ€"a practical guide to teaching inquiry and teaching through inquiry, as recommended by the National Science Education Standards. This will be an important resource for educators who must help school boards, parents, and teachers understand "why we can't teach the way we used to." "Inquiry" refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and in which students grasp science knowledge and the methods by which that knowledge is produced. This book explains and illustrates how inquiry helps students learn science content, master how to do science, and understand the nature of science. This book explores the dimensions of teaching and learning science as inquiry for K-12 students across a range of science topics. Detailed examples help clarify when teachers should use the inquiry-based approach and how much structure, guidance, and coaching they should provide. The book dispels myths that may have discouraged educators from the inquiry-based approach and illuminates the subtle interplay between concepts, processes, and science as it is experienced in the classroom. Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards shows how to bring the standards to life, with features such as classroom vignettes exploring different kinds of inquiries for elementary, middle, and high school and Frequently Asked Questions for teachers, responding to common concerns such as obtaining teaching supplies. Turning to assessment, the committee discusses why assessment is important, looks at existing schemes and formats, and addresses how to involve students in assessing their own learning achievements. In addition, this book discusses administrative assistance, communication with parents, appropriate teacher evaluation, and other avenues to promoting and supporting this new teaching paradigm.

Students often think of science as disconnected pieces of information rather than a narrative that challenges their thinking, requires them to develop evidence-based explanations for the phenomena under investigation, and communicate their ideas in discipline-specific language as to why certain solutions to a problem work. The author provides teachers in primary and junior secondary school with different evidence-based strategies they can use to teach inquiry science in their classrooms. The research and theoretical perspectives that underpin the strategies are discussed as are examples of how different ones areimplemented in science classrooms to affect student engagement and learning. Key Features: Presents processes involved in teaching inquiry-based science Discusses importance of multi-modal representations in teaching inquiry based-science Covers ways to develop scientifically literacy Uses the Structure of Observed learning Outcomes (SOLO) Taxonomy to assess student reasoning, problem-solving and learning Presents ways to promote scientific discourse, including teacher-student interactions, student-student interactions, and meta-cognitive thinking