Tag Archives: standards

Peering into students’ “private universe”

By Debra Shapiro | Published: March 4, 2010
Bookmark and Share

Get some insight on students’ “Private Universe” in Philadelphia. You’ll find sessions addressing misconceptions at all grade levels, in a range of science fields.

Posted in Conferences | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Magnifiers

By Peggy Ashbrook | Published: November 16, 2009
Bookmark and Share

Did I tell you how happy I was to see the returning three-year old students use magnifiers appropriately? Because this half-day preschool for 2-5-year-olds had moved to a new space over the summer, the “usual place” for everything had to be determined. It is one thing to design a preschool in a set of rooms [...]

Posted in Early Years | Also tagged , , | 1 Comment

Are children getting enough direct experience with natural materials?

By Peggy Ashbrook | Published: October 25, 2009
Bookmark and Share

There has been an interesting discussion going on among the middle and high school science teachers on the NSTA General Science email list about the lack of direct experience in their students’ background. Some have suggested that early childhood and elementary schools are not laying the groundwork for the later learning. One teacher said, “I [...]

Posted in Early Years | Also tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

What science should we teach in early childhood?

By Peggy Ashbrook | Published: October 11, 2009
Bookmark and Share

I’m interested in your opinions on what should be included in early childhood science standards. We don’t want to underestimate the abilities of young children to understand relationships in natural systems, nor overestimate their ability to understand the concepts of a “fair” test or the importance of collecting data. Many states have early learning standards, [...]

Posted in Early Years | Also tagged , | 5 Comments

Thinking BIG, Learning BIG: Summer reading becomes September’s lesson plans

By Peggy Ashbrook | Published: September 27, 2009
Bookmark and Share

July is a distant memory of 6am wake up calls for my high-schooler who took PE over the summer, balanced with my getting more than five minutes of peace and quiet—time to read about early childhood and science, to think my own thoughts and get hungry for conversation. Summer school is a wonderful thing and [...]

Posted in Early Years | Also tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Showing the science: using children’s work to document your program

By Peggy Ashbrook | Published: August 10, 2009
Bookmark and Share

Digital photography changed the way I do science with my students. I reflect more on what has happened and what is being left out as I look over the photos, in moments after school, at home on the computer. I have this luxury as a parent of older children who are themselves busy on the [...]

Posted in Early Years | Also tagged , , | Leave a comment

When does science become significant?

By Peggy Ashbrook | Published: July 28, 2009
Bookmark and Share

Math and Science in Preschool: Policies and Practice, a National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) Preschool Policy Brief, says that teachers usually do not plan and support science and math learning in pre-K. How does that happen when young children are so curious about the world and so interested in who has more, is [...]

Posted in Early Years | Also tagged , , | Leave a comment

Raise your hand if you’re a scientist!

By Peggy Ashbrook | Published: June 19, 2009
Bookmark and Share

I received the greatest compliment while sitting at the lunch table with a mixed age group of my students who are enrolled in the end-of-school-year camp. The children were playing a conversation-starter game they’ve developed of asking the lunchers to raise their hand if they fall into the named group (have a red lunch box, have [...]

Posted in Early Years | Also tagged | 1 Comment

Experiences with nature

By Peggy Ashbrook | Published: June 2, 2009
Bookmark and Share

Although I credit my early childhood exposure to orchard, field, woods, and creek as the foundation for my understanding of the natural world, I would despair if I thought that same understanding is lost to children who grow up in urban, constructed places, or mostly indoors. My father told of swimming in Wissahickon Creek, a Schuylkill River tributary, [...]

Posted in Early Years | Also tagged , , | 3 Comments

Preschool play as assessment tool

By Peggy Ashbrook | Published: June 1, 2009
Bookmark and Share

Preschool play can reflect young children’s knowledge about the natural world and the human interaction experiences they’ve had. I get to observe and learn what the children express through play when we finish our opening discussion and they move about the room. Twelve four-year olds and two teachers spend about 45 minutes in the Tree [...]

Posted in Early Years | Also tagged , | 4 Comments