Toddler and Pre K scientific inquiries

Toddler and Pre-K Scientific Inquiries

Student’s Name

Institution’s Name

Date

Children are curious beings and this is because they are constantly learning and getting accustomed to the world around them. When they come across a new activity, they tend to delve in it a lot more, probably to get a better understanding of it. I once visited a farm with my nephews and luckily we got there when the workers were milking the cows using the automatic milking systems. My nephews have never known the source of milk. They were so excited about the whole process of milking the cows and stayed at the point the entire time, constantly inquiring from the farm personnel the process of milking, and packaging to when it gets to the stores. They constantly were bending down to see how the machines were working and at one point, one of the workers offered to show them how it can be done by use of hands. He was even kind enough to let them try and it really excited them. They couldn’t stop talking about it for months.

Curiosity behaviors help in informing teachers in planning science activities and inquiries in that they help the teacher in noticing the areas of interest for the students and hence help them create activities that would ensure each student learn on those areas (Susskind, 1979). Therefore, to be able to focus the children on their curiosity, there are several questions that could be asked. These questions can include:

What were you attempting to accomplish?

How has what has happened made you feel?

Is there anything you learned from the activity?

How can you apply what you have learned in your future experiences?

Do you have any ideas for solutions now?

There are five scientific areas that could be used in deepening curiosity among children. The scientific area that I will take a look in this case is open exploration. At this stage, the teacher could let the student take the lead. This is because it is difficult to create curiosity in passive learning where the student as well lacks control. For instance, the students can be left to use self-directed learning models when creating their project-based learning unit (Eckhoff, 2020). The activities in a class setting can be coined to use something that the student(s) are familiar with. This according to Jirout et al., (2018) could be their own culture, a relatable environment or even knowledge as they would gain courage to inquire more so that they could get accustomed to it better. They tend to feel comfortable in the space they are familiar with.

References

Eckhoff, A. (2020). Provoking Curiosity: Student-Led Steam Learning for Pre-K to Third Grade.

Jirout, J. J., Vitiello, V. E., & Zumbrunn, S. K. (2018). Curiosity in schools. The new science of curiosity, 243-266.

Susskind, E. (1979). Encouraging teachers to encourage children’s curiosity a pivotal competence. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 8(2), 101-106.