Scientific Inquiry in Early Ch

The NRC (2000) has synthesized inquiry-based teaching into five (5) essential features: learners generating investigatible questions, planning and conducting investigations, gathering and analyzing data, explaining their findings, and sharing and justifying their findings with others. One two-year-old, for example, called a Scottie dog a “funny cat” because her only acquaintance with small furry black animals had been her own large female PERSIAN CAT.

Body care can even be turned into a chance to learn science.

• Concrete Operational Stage (ages six to eight to age eleven and even to adulthood)—At this stage, the child begins to be able to form classifications and to see the similarities among categories despite their differences. Textbook explanations would put a damper on inquiry. ” (Chaille – pg 14)

• Quite clearly, I feel that children (from birth to age seven) are natural scientists. Gender bias also comes into play as they fall prey to the stereotyped assumption that MALES have a stronger aptitude for science than females. These factors, coupled with classes that emphasized rote memorization of facts rather than the WONDERMENT OF SCIENCE that surrounds our daily lives, create negative attitudes toward science and DAMPEN INQUIRY.

New York, 2000

Singer, Dorothy G. Some theorists say there is a sixth sense, the KINESTHETIC, or the sense of where the body is in the relation to space. New York, 2005

Owocki, Gretchen Literacy Through Play,

Heinemann, A division of

Reed Elsevier Inc. Even children who don’t want to be scientists, engineers, or computer technicians will NEED SCIENCE to cope with their rapidly changing environment. We can point out that it is up to you to take good care of your body. I would assume that children in a hands-on science program achieve more, like science more, and improve their problem-solving skills more than children who learn from traditional textbook-based programs.