Website Archive - June, 2007
Spotlight on Science and the Process of Scientific Inquiry
Children
Here are some websites for children to enjoy online.
PEEP and the Big Wide World website is produced by WGBH Boston and 9 Story Entertainment in association with TVOntario and Discovery Kids. There are several interactive games for children to enjoy, including Where’s Quack, a hide and seek game, Bunny Balance, choose bunnies to balance a seesaw, and Which Fish, a pattern game.
On PBS Teachers’ Science and Technology page, there are 4 interactive activities including the marble drop, plumbing pro, potions/properties of liquids, and shadow casting that are related to physical science.
Parents
Here are some activities to encourage scientific exploration with your children.
U.S. Department of Education
The Office of Educational Research and Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education has developed an online book Helping Your Child Learn Science. Although it was written in 1991, it contains a wealth of information about learning science and simple science activities you can do with your child at home, organized from easiest to most difficult. There is also a section on activities for the community, such as activities centering on zoos, museums, farms and other community resources.
PreschoolRock.com
The Preschool Science and Nature Activities on PreschoolRock.com contains activities and science experiments that will help your child foster an interest in science. In the left margin of the webpage, there are links to additional science activities related to preschool astronomy, biology, botany, preschool experiments, and physics, as well as a Preschool Science and Nature Blog with more activities and experiments tried by parents.
PBS KIDS
PBS KIDS Curious George has a Parent-Child Activity page with hands-on science, engineering, and math ideas and activities that you and your child can do at home. There are also helpful tips for parents and a 12 page downloadable Curious George Family Activity Booklet that includes many of the activites and tips plus patterns to be made.
Shirley’s Preschool Activities
The Everyday Preschool Science Activities and Experiments on Shirley’s Preschool Activities website contains ideas to do with your child using everyday items from your home. Talk about the weather, temperature, water, sound, and rainbows as well as many other topics.
Teachers
There are so many websites offering resources and activities on science and the process of scientific inquiry, and we’ve highlighted just a few. So check them out!
NAEYC
An article in NAEYC’s Young Children Journal Science in the Preschool Classroom by Kathleen Conezio and Lucia French explains how children bring curiousity and wonder into the everyday world around them and how this science learning provides a foundation for language and literacy development.
NAEYC
An article in NAEYC’s Beyond the Journal Quick Recipe Science Unit by Kathleen Conezio and Lucia French contains a sample Quick recipe for Liquids which integrates literature, language use and extended exploration of a topic. Included in the quick recipe are 2 books related to the topic, 3 activities, and several open-ended question to assist an educator in the scientific process with an early learner.
Illinois Early Learning Project
CSI: Child Scientist Investigates! is a tip sheet from the Illinois Early Learning Project’s Resources on Early Learning that explains how to assist children in observing their surroundings, collecting information, and recording their observations.
Hummingbird Educational Resources
Hummingbird Educational Resources is a resource site for early childhood and kindergarten educators. On their Lotsa Lesson Plans – Science page, activities range from making cyclones and teaching about gases to making sun prints and a star viewer. Click on the Lotsa Lesson Plan List at the bottom of the page to return to the main page and choose additional topics, such as Sensory Center and Weather/Wind.
PEEP and the Big Wide World
PEEP and the Big Wide World website is produced by WGBH Boston and 9 Story Entertainment in association with TVOntario and Discovery Kids. Their Anywhere Science Activities page has a list of hands-on activities to learn simple science concepts including properties of objects and materials, categorizing, measuring, the way things move, and sound. Science Resources (click on the top of the page) contain the PEEP Explorer’s Guide with teacher preparation tips and 3 units of hands-on explorations. There is also a PEEP Event Kit with resources to run 3 different preschool science events.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium, the Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception in San Francisco, has activiites from The Science Explorer, An Exploratorium-At-Home book. The downloadable lesson plans are comprehensive and easy-to-follow and include activities on sound, bubbles, sink or swim, and surprising structures.
Activity Idea Place
The Activity Idea Place: An Early Childhood Educator’s Resource lists 150 simple science ideas and discussion points for teachers on the Science Fun page.
Teachers.Net
Teachers.Net contains lesson plans for all age levels submitted by educators. Discovery Bottles II has an extensive list of discovery bottles to encourage a child’s scientific inquiry process. The bottles can be used in a lesson plan or as a center activity to develop children’s observation skills, predictability, scientific concepts, and thinking skills.
[Posted on June 7, 2007]
