Guest blogger Cindy Hoisington is an early childhood science educator at Education Development Center Inc. in Waltham, Massachusetts. She brings to her work more than 20 years of experience teaching young children, developing educational materials, and instructing and mentoring early childhood teachers. Cindy is a member of the EDC/SRI research team working on the CPB/PBS Ready to Learn Initiative, which is funded through the US Department of Education. Welcome Cindy!

As an early childhood teacher, or a parent of young children, do you generally like science and think you are “good” at it? Or does just hearing the word “science” make you sweat? (I’m assuming that since you are reading this blog, you have at least some interest in science!) Which science topics do you most enjoy exploring with children and which do you avoid? Do you like investigating earthworms or does the prospect of picking one up make you shudder? Do you relish collecting and categorizing rocks or does the thought of it bore you to tears? What about observing the moon over time? Or taking things apart and putting them back together?

EDC photo/Burt Granofsky

Think about your interest, motivation, and (I hope) your passion for doing, learning, and teaching science and how it developed.  If you are anything like the hundreds of science students, science educators, and even famous scientists like those described in Sherry Turkle’s book Falling for Science; Objects in Mind, it is likely that your own attitudes were shaped not at school, but at home, and in a family that provided “stuff’ for you to explore, nurtured your curiosity, and proudly encouraged your investigations, ideas, and interests. Neil deGrasse Tyson, prominent astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, has said, “I am where I am not because of what happened in school but in spite of it.” He credits his mother with nurturing his early interest in science by providing him with opera glasses to look at the night sky and by taking him to museums on the weekends. 

EDC photo/Burt Granofsky

What does this mean for a teacher’s work with young children? As the world becomes increasingly science- and technology-oriented, all students will need to be proficient in science, whether they choose careers in agriculture, health, education, science, or any other field. STEM education has become a national priority and early childhood teachers are being asked to think more deeply about the quantity and the quality of the science experiences they provide, particularly for their black, Latino, and female students and economically-disadvantaged children.

Science in early childhood now incorporates a focus on big science ideas (like properties of matter; motion and forces; characteristics and needs of living things) and children’s use of science and engineering practices (like asking questions and identifying problems; planning and carrying out  investigations; and constructing explanations and designing solutions).  However, in these critical early years, teachers also need to nurture children’s attitudes toward science (like curiosity, persistence, and self-confidence about science), and their motivation to do and learn it. These attitudes develop early, and impact a child’s science achievement well into the future. One way teachers can promote children’s’ positive scientific attitudes is by connecting with their students’ families about science in the same way they do regarding social skills or literacy. The first step is to find out more about how families of young children think about science and science learning. By doing so, teachers can help families maximize their potential in supporting children’s scientific inquiry and attitudes. 

A newly released national study, What Parents Talk About When They Talk About Learning; A National Survey About Young Children and Science uncovers parents’ beliefs and attitudes about science and gives educators a place to start in making home/school science connections. Researchers spoke with over 1400 parents across the country with diverse economic situations and educational backgrounds. Below are a few of the findings with brief suggestions for how teachers might use this information to partner with families.

EDC photo/Burt Granofsky

• Almost all parents want to be involved in their children’s learning but many feel that science is less important to support at home than literacy and social skills development.

Although the term parent involvement has traditionally meant parents coming into the school to support school activities, a more current view of parent engagement refers to linking parents to the learning that is happening at school in a variety of ways (phone calls, emails, or classroom social media sites). Provide family-friendly resources about children’s learning using sites such as NAEYC for Families. Talk directly to parents about the increasing importance of science in children’s lives and their role as models in developing their children’s science attitudes, motivation, interests, and achievement. Display photos of people using science, engineering, and technology (reflecting the races, ethnicities, cultures, and languages of your students) in white, blue, and pink collar jobs and careers that are familiar to your families. Point out that doing science involves language (as children talk with and listen to others about what they are doing, noticing, and thinking), reading (reading stories related to science topics and doing research in nonfiction books), and writing (drawing and writing and/or dictating about their observations). Science also supports social skills as children share materials, work together during investigations, and share their observations and ideas with each other.

EDC photo/Burt Granofsky

• Fewer parents feel “very confident” in their ability to support their children’s science learning than in other areas.

Unconfident parents report not knowing much about science and feeling unprepared to answer their children’s science-related questions. Even parents who report feeling “very confident” may benefit from guidance in supporting inquiry. Communicate with families about science as an active process that includes exploring, observing, and talking with their children about their evidence-based ideas (even if they are not scientifically correct) and how these experiences support curiosity, persistence, and self-confidence in doing and learning science. Take and display photos and/or videos of your students actively exploring; talk with parents about the science children are doing; and make connections to home activities. Let parents know that they support their child’s science abilities and attitudes when they encourage them to observe insects or collect leaves; notice how cooking ingredients change when mixed; or share their ideas about how rain falls or where butterflies go in the winter. 

EDC photo/Burt Granofsky

• More than half of parents report engaging their children in science-related learning activities daily. 

Although they are sometimes unsure about how these activities relate to science, many parents do engage their children in exploring outdoors, in cooking and building activities, in using science-related videos and digital games, and reading science-related books. This should be exciting news for early childhood teachers, who often feel that it is a challenge to get parents engaged in supporting children’s school learning. Remember that involvement is a two-way street. Seek out information from parents about their home activities, and whenever possible, make connections to a classroom science topic (for example, picking vegetables in grandma’s garden is related to observing plant parts in the classroom). Making these connections helps children make connections between separate activities and deepen their understanding of concepts (all plants have parts that help them survive and grow). It may also encourage them to approach future plant experiences from a science point of view. Making these connections explicit for parents gives them positive messages about what they are already doing and encourages them to do more. 

EDC photo/Burt Granofsky

• 7 out of 10 parents say that knowing what young children need to learn, and/or having ideas for using everyday materials, would help them do a lot more science.

The more ways you can link parents to classroom science investigations, the more they can extend these experiences at home. Keep parents informed about topics, concepts, and skills children are being introduced to at school and provide ideas for related activities they can do at home with everyday materials (freezing and melting ice cubes or building with containers of different sizes and shapes connect to investigations of solids and liquids). Give parents high-quality resources for supporting science at home such as Peep and the Big Wide World parenting videos and activity ideas and 4 ways to explore science with your child. Provide ideas for sentence starters parents might use as they interact with their children like “What do you notice…?” and “What do you think about…….?”

Children’s attitudes toward science are shaped at an early age and have a lasting impact on their motivation to do and learn science. Because of the close, nurturing relationships they have with their children, families are uniquely positioned to support children’s science inquiry and thinking, nurture their curiosity, and shape their developing attitudes toward science and science learning. By forging relationships with parents around science, teachers can provide their students with the best possible foundation for education, work, and life in the 21^st century.

Curiosity, joy, and wonder. Our youngest students possess an over-abundance of these qualities, and when their teachers successfully tap into them, they help nurture a lifelong love of science.

But finding resources to help make science education relatable and engaging for three- to seven-year-olds can be challenging. That’s why educators will enthusiastically welcome William Straits’ wonderful new book A Head Start on Life Science: Encouraging a Sense of Wonder, which offers 24 inquiry-based lessons that encourage children to make scientific discoveries on their own. We dare you to resist the urge to explore a book whose cover features three wide-eyed, smiling youngsters enthusiastically observing the natural world around them.

Straits directs the National Center for Science in Early Childhood where he works with  teachers who “lovingly and tirelessly” dedicate their careers to helping children expand their joyful “sense of wonder” about the natural world. In writing this book, he collaborated with an extensive list of science and early childhood educators. Photos that capture some of the engaging lessons in action were taken at the Harry and Grace Steele Children’s Center at Orange Coast College and are featured throughout the book.

“We believe that a sense of wonder is part of all children’s experience and that children are intrinsically motivated to explore the natural world,” Strait says. “Therefore, it is important that all children have access to culturally relevant science experiences that are of value in learners’ everyday worlds. Our goal is not for children to acquire ‘facts,’ but to be active explorers, reveling in the process of discovering more about the natural world around them.”

Each lesson is aligned with high-quality early childhood science education and inspired by the learning cycle’s three-part teaching that first orients children toward the topic to be investigated, then gives them a chance to explore and develop an understanding of the concept; and finally offers students a situation where they can apply their new understandings.

This book is a follow up to NSTA’s popular A Head Start on Science and allows teachers to generate a greater interest among their students in life science by: offering a diverse range of inquiry-based and engaging lessons on animals, plants, and nature walks; connecting to a range of other subjects such as reading, art, writing, dramatic play, and math; and extending learning beyond the classroom with activities—written in both English and Spanish—so that children can continue to explore life sciences with their families via activities that are related to their everyday lives.

Read the free sample chapter, “Science for Young Children”, to understand the components of a high quality ECSE and what constitutes developmentally appropriate science; get a lesson overview, learn how to plan for a lesson, and more.

This book is also available as an e-book.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to make science accessible to your youngest students. There are jumping crickets, earthworms, and snails to observe; plants to smell, compare, and measure; weeds to investigate and map where they grow, outdoor scavenger hunts to plan, and so much more. 

Follow NSTA

Coryn Cange, a member of the NSTA Student Chapter at Stony Brook University, guides high school students as they study water filtration in a chemistry teaching lab. Photo courtesy of Judy Nimmo

Whether they’re helping to judge a regional science fair; conducting family science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) nights; or learning about professional norms from an inservice teacher, members of NSTA Student Chapters are laying the foundations for their professional lives.

At Stony Brook University, New York, all science teacher preparation students are strongly encouraged to join NSTA and the Science Teachers Association of New York State. “This is the beginning of their professional preparation; we encourage them to become part of the larger science teacher community. We try to set [our students] off on a path that will shape their professional careers” by encouraging membership in professional organizations, explains Linda Padwa, associate director of Stony Brook’s Science Teacher Preparation Program. The students, typically either seniors or graduate students, interact with inservice teachers and secondary school students through volunteer work with the Science Olympiad and regional science fairs. They also work as assistants in the university’s Institute for STEM Education after-school program and teaching labs taught by faculty members.

“These are genuine interactions with students. [Stony Brook preservice teachers] demonstrate how to use equipment and guide [the grades 7–12] students through the lab protocols. Our students who participate in teaching labs are really ready for student teaching: They’re comfortable; they’re ready to go when they get into the classroom,” Padwa asserts. “When our students participate, they meet inservice teachers…they frequently make connections that lead to placements for student teaching and even future employment.”

She likes to remind her students of the importance of creating a professional network, telling them, “You never know where it can lead. There are no guarantees, but if you’re out there, you stand a chance.”

The NSTA Student Chapter at Central Michigan University (CMU), formed in 2002, was the seventh in the country, according to Jim McDonald, professor of science education and the chapter’s faculty advisor. The group currently runs three programs to bring more science to local schools: Family Science Nights, STEM Involvement Nights, and Science Hours.

“The students organize three family science nights a semester,” explains McDonald, who also serves as the president of the Council for Elementary Science International. The events feature six or seven activities for parents and children to do together and often include handouts if they want to continue at home. The STEM Involvement Nights are a “mix of math, science, and technology…You could call it a maker lab if you want to put that label on it.”

Only 10–15 families attend the STEM events due to the program’s more hands-on, intensive nature. CMU students give attendees a problem and a selection of recycled materials to work with as each family collaborates on a solution. “We may target different grade levels every year,” he adds. “This is not for gifted kids; it’s for kids who maybe need a shot in the arm as far as science, math, and engineering go.”

Local teachers invite CMU students to their classrooms to teach a lesson for the Science Hour programs. “Our students prepare and teach the whole lesson, and confer with the teacher to address the standards the teacher wants to address,” McDonald says. “It goes over well and is a great opportunity for our students to get some hands-on experience.”

In addition to their work with the local community, CMU students receive support from the university to attend and present at one NSTA conference a year. “The rationale is for them to present professionally and get some professional development. I want them to give back to the science education community. I want them to network with other science teachers. They’ve gotten really good feedback on their lessons, strategies, and ideas for their family science activities [when they present at conferences],” he contends.

Making Connections

Usha Rajdev, professor of math and science and the NSTA and International Association for STEM Leaders (IASL) Student Chapter Faculty Adviser at Marymount University (MU) in Arlington, Virginia, says she was concerned about “exhausting” her students if they were expected to conduct too many activities, so the NSTA and IASL student chapters work with students in the Masters in Education and Curriculum Instruction (EDCI) STEM Leaders group on four events during the academic year.

The EDCI plans the events each year, which a “core group” of NSTA and IASL student members then conduct. This year, as many as 40 students from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington assisted the MU students during individual events at area schools. Each event features multiple activities spanning life, Earth, and physical science. She describes the events as based on science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics, but “with the emphasis in engineering and design.

“There’s some core math and technology, some show-and-tell. Sometimes parents join in. We have leaflets for them to take home and replicate,” explains Rajdev. “I’m partial to taking students to schools where the need is higher and the principal wants parental involvement.” The schools typically include a Catholic school, a school where a current student or alum is teaching, and Fort Belvoir Elementary School on the Fort Belvoir Army base.

The “finale” event is held in the MU campus gym. “It’s very similar [to the other events], except much larger. We’re not only serving the Arlington community, [we’re] also serving children of our faculty,” says Rajdev. “We have rockets; we have a professor from the arts and sciences department with a 3-D printer, a planetarium. This year, we have several community outreach programs participating, including NASA, the Arlington police department, and a nature center.” She estimates the four events reach about 1,000 children annually.

“We go to the same school for two years. The goal is the school will know how to do events and will do their own,” she declares. “We’re not only doing community service, but [also] spreading the wealth [of knowledge] we have.” The MU students “spend a lot of time over the year planning, researching, and conducting the events… This would be nothing without the students,” she maintains. The students receive certificates recognizing their community service, and the experience also helps make them more marketable in their careers, according to Rajdev.

Inservice teachers, including Catherine Sadowski (right) and Andrew Barnes (second from right), attend NSTA Student Chapter meetings at the University of Missouri, offering advice on topics such as interview clothing and professional development after graduation as part of the chapter’s effort to create a professional community. Photo courtesy of Melissa Grindstaff

When she started advising the University of Missouri (Mizzou) NSTA Student Chapter in 2016, Patricia Friedrichsen wondered—due to the chapter’s size and fluid membership —if it was possible for students to attend a chapter meeting and not interact with other members. “I started thinking about how to connect them…make them feel someone recognized they were at the meeting.”

Her solution was to invite inservice teachers to attend meetings and act as mentors to the students. “I reached out to people at different levels. It was natural to reach out to past officers… it’s a way to keep alumni connected to the club. We wanted to mentor at all levels: elementary, middle, and high school,” Friedrichsen says. During the Fall 2017 semester meetings, the mentors arrived early to discuss the meeting’s focus, and students would sit with mentors teaching their grade level or content area at each meeting. The mentoring groups created smaller communities within the chapter.

Kara Schulte, a ninth-grade physics teacher at Simonsen Ninth Grade Center in Jefferson City, Missouri, was excited about mentoring Mizzou students. “I graduated in Spring 2017 from Mizzou. The people I met in college were such a huge part of who I became [as a teacher] that I wanted to help students transition from being pure students to being a teacher,” she explains. “As a mentor, I’ve attended all chapter meetings. They talk to me about their content exams…interview questions, what to wear on an interview, what principals will ask… We basically go over things so they’re not blindsided when they go through them on their own as actual teacher…I can give very tailored advice to people who are going to be teaching the same thing I teach.”

“I’ve seen vertical mentoring with the classroom teachers mentoring undergrads. There’s also horizontal mentoring [when students discuss classes to take and assignments with peers] going on,” Friedrichsen states. “Students move through the program in cohorts. They get to know their cohort, but don’t have many other opportunities to get to know other cohorts, other years. It’s very intentional how we’re building community at the beginning of the meeting.”

She notes it was important to her to foster connections between her students and teachers in the classroom in informal settings. “To me, it’s all about connections…helping students network, get to know people outside their immediate circle.”

Another way she encourages students to expand their circle is by presenting at the Science Teachers of Missouri (STOM) conference. The Mizzou students shared apps “that highlight particular Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) standards. They presented different tech tools to help with the implementation of NGSS.”

Friedrichsen reports that the presentation caught the attention of the STOM board, and STOM recently appointed a Mizzou student to serve as a director at- large as the group explores ways to draw more preservice teachers to the conference.

This article originally appeared in the March 2018 issue of NSTA Reports, the member newspaper of the National Science Teachers Association. Each month, NSTA members receive NSTA Reports, featuring news on science education, the association, and more. Not a member? Learn how NSTA can help you become the best science teacher you can be.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

Follow NSTA