March
11th,
2025
Science in Early Childhood
Based on the training and tips from the University of Manresa, the Early Childhood team shifted its approach to working with science at this age. Our main goal is to unlock our children's curiosity and ability to observe and ask questions from a scientific standpoint.
So we set up our LAB or science space. It is a free movement area hosting activities made with real and natural materials (wood, leaves, etc.) that encourage the children to interact by playing. The activities pose challenges which are met by drawing on scientific concepts and ideas about areas of science but through play.
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For example, a light LAB we built featured a variety of tubes (straight, curved, etc.) and the challenge was to get the light from a torch to go through the tubes to see if it would reach the other end and hit the wall. After trying out and experimenting with the various options, the children realised that the light would only go through the straight tube. When asked: “And why's that?”, the children's answer was: "Because light can't turn". This is a brilliant reply which shows the students have fully understood that light travels in a straight line, yet they have grasped the concept by experimenting and through observing and using their brains. In another educational approach, we might have started by saying "light travels in a straight line", thus answering a question the children would not yet have thought about and hence stifling their innate curiosity about these things.
In the science space, the adults' role is not to give answers but rather to trigger and encourage this curiosity, to guide the children to think about questions and find the answers through experimenting.
