Jun23

Celebrate pink!

What was your favorite color when you were five? Many young girls like pink, a stereotypically female color. Young scientist in pink, solving problems

Do girls who love pink ever grow up to be women who do work that historically has more often been done by men? What can we do to encourage all children to think of themselves as capable and support an interest in science? Remember to alternate saying “boys and girls” with “girls and boys”? Monitor who we call on and call on girls 50% of the time? Be sure to display pictures of all kinds of people, including women, doing science?

Many women scientists say they pursued a career in science because a teacher or other mentor encouraged them, and believed in their capabilities, say Ashley Campbell and Gerald Skoog in Preparing Undergraduate Women for Science Career, (The College Science Classroom, March/April 2004 33 (5):24-26). This idea is echoed in many of the life stories of women scientists on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s the "Women of NASA" page. Dr. Deborah Amato of NASAPrint out and post some of the photos to put in a display of scientists at work to inspire and inform children. and testify to women’s presence in science. 

 

The Institute of Educational Sciences Practice Guide "Encouraging Girls in Math and Science" (2007) recommends five key practices. View it on the U.S. Department of Education website. The practical suggestions from Doing What Works are geared towards middle and high school age students but are food for thought for all of us.

A recent report from a National Research Council panel states, “women are not applying for tenure-track jobs at research-intensive universities at the same rate that they are earning Ph.D.s” although “those who do apply are interviewed and hired at rates equal to or higher than those for men.“ The report also noted that “The surveys revealed that most institutional strategies to try to increase the proportion of women in the applicant pool -- such as targeted advertising and recruiting at conferences -- did not show significant effectiveness, the report says.  One strategy did appear to make a difference: Having a female chair of the search committee and a high number of women on the committee were associated with a higher number of women in the applicant pool.”

Implicit Association Tests taken by half a million people in 34 countries revealed that the stereotype of associating science with males is held by most of the test takers in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Lead investigator Brian Nosek, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, said in UVA Today, "We found a general tendency, across every country that we investigated, that people on average have an easier time associating science concepts with male, rather than with female."   

Some tactics I use to try to reduce any suggestion of excluding girls from science are to be sure to call on girls at least half the time (yes, I count), use the pronoun "it" when talking about animals whose sex isn't known or alternate "she" and "he", post pictures of female and male scientists from many cultures, and ask girls as often as boys to help other children with science questions or problems. My take-away thought on this is that every early childhood teacher can do science activities with their class with eyes open to our own biases, in a way that creates a positive environment for all children for loving science. Much later in their education, some will decide not to pursue a career in science, but it won’t be because they think their gender prevents their success. 

Share your tactics by clicking on the word "Comments" below!

Peggy

Published: Jun-23-09 | 1 Comment | 1 Link to this post

Jun21

Food safety in gardening

Read "Safety First" by Sarah Pounders and you can reassure your director and students’ parents that you are informed about how to avoid potential health hazards in eating food from a school garden. Did you guess that washing hands is one of the safety steps to take?

Sarah writes, “Grow it, know it, try it … love it! Educators and parents across the country are using this philosophy to get young gardeners hooked on fruits and vegetables.” Children in my classes take to gardening even when it’s a new experience. The crops that we can grow and harvest before the end of school include snap peas, chives, oregano and other herbs, and strawberries. In a small (1m x 3m) raised bed garden there is room for just a few plants, enough so every child gets a taste of what we grow.

Some children only enjoy gardening if they are not getting dirty

Children seem to observe most closely when planting or watering. Some try hard to keep their clothes and shoes clean, sometimes because of personal preference and sometimes because of parental warnings. To keep it a positive experience, I try to help them limit the mess. Child-size tools can help them control where the dirt goes. How do you handle this in your garden?

Maintaining even a container garden requires a commitment to water and weed. Neglect is the main difficulty faced by the gardens at my schools (I’m not at each school every day). Gardens do best with some daily attention—not hours and hours but at least a few minutes to water when needed, look for “wildlife”, or tie a plant to a support. The rich environment of the school garden is under-used. Sometimes the peas children planted in a raised bed don’t grow taller than a few inches because children were allowed to climb up into and through the bed to look through the fence. Other times children are not made aware of the Cabbage White butterfly caterpillars chewing up collard leaves. Without adult encouragement to attend the garden, zinnia seedlings may dry up rather than sprout up.

I need some advice on how to enlist other teachers to help the children water at least a few times a week, and spend a few minutes talking about any changes. Or maybe I should be planting hardier plants!

Tell me what to try,

Peggy

Published: Jun-21-09 | 2 Comments | 1 Link to this post

Jun19

Raise your hand if you're a scientist!

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 an apple in their lunch, like to eat pretzels...). Then a five-year-old sitting next to me called out, "Raise your hand if you're a scientist!" and all the hands went up.

 

What a gift to have confirmation that the science activities we did throughout the three years I taught him were seen as a process with the students as the central actors, and that all the children self-identify as scientists. Thank you to my students.

Published: Jun-19-09 | 1 Comment | 0 Links to this post

Jun13

Rocks: Collecting and Classifying

On the playground two sisters collected rocks and set them on a bench where they grouped them by size. When I asked, “What kind of rock is that?” one said, “A triangle” referring to its outer shape. They also had a group based on material— small chunks of concrete were put together because “they have little pieces in them.”

Urban rock collecting is discussed on the Neighborhood Rocks webpage. View the identification pages with your class and ask them if they have seen any of the pictured types of rock before, and where did they see them?

Water flows in a creek bed over a variety of rocksIn my east coast urban setting “real” rocks, or rocks naturally in place, are hard to find without excavating. Walking along a creek is one place to find rocks that have been moved there by natural forces, not by humans. Along the Potomac River and its minor tributaries are good places to touch water-worn rocks. (Be sure to wash hands afterwards.) You don’t have to know what type of rock it is, to appreciate that it is smooth and pinkish, or has sparkles, or has holes in it.

Label even the most non-descript rock with the location and date collected, and that single rock becomes the beginning of a scientific rock collection. Maybe a high school earth science teacher would be willing to view the collection and help with scientific names.

 

In the December 2006 Science and Children, The Early Years column discusses exploring sedimentary rock material with young children with an activity on making pretend rocks. Search the journal archives for “rock” find 22 more articles on teaching about rocks. Young children can experience melting ice, deforming playdough or clay, packing snow or sand into a ball, and the softening of hardened clay in water. In your experience, at what age do they typically understand the Rock Cycle?

Peggy

Published: Jun-13-09 | 0 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Jun02

Experiences with nature

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, and digging garnets out of the Wissahickon schist in Fairmount Park in his childhood in the city of Philadelphia in the 1920’s. The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education is where he might go today to learn about ecosystems in Philadelphia.  My mother’s childhood was filled with box turtle sightings and catching gudgeon on the Patapsco River, on land that is now part of Patapsco Valley State Park in Maryland. I wish such experiences for all children.

 

Many of my students spend limited time in natural areas but their sense of wonder is not diminished when they encounter living organisms in human-constructed environments (indoors)—it just needs to be encouraged as the spider episode in class yesterday demonstrates:

 

As the children were gathered around listening to a teacher read aloud, one child drew their attention to a tiny spider slowly dropping on its thread in the center of the group. The teacher directed the children to move a bit and kept on reading. The discoverer came to tell me and get a small viewing container. This is what she told another teacher 15 minutes later, “I caught it from a web spinning from the ceiling. It looks like a bee because it has a ring of fur around its neck.” As they were lining up to leave the room I noticed she was empty-handed and I asked what happened to the spider. “I let it go back to its home.” She understood that the room was the spider’s habitat, an interior one.

Click on the word "Comments" below to share how your class experiences nature.

Peggy
Published: Jun-02-09 | 3 Comments | 0 Links to this post

Jun01

Preschool play as assessment tool

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 House Room where I set up materials more or less tied to the topic of the activity I am sharing that week. The plan was to observe, draw, and read about tadpoles borrowed from a local nature center. But the Fours have been playing “Doctor’s Office” in their classroom with dress-up uniforms, pretend medical tools such as stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs, and plenty of tape for bandages on dolls. The doctor play was especially significant to the Four’s class because the school’s director and one child had casts on limbs for several months.

Children draw "x-rays" showing their knowledge of medical science.

To support this learning, I put out x-rays on the light table, a foam human skeleton puzzle, and small clip boards, but they mostly create their own props, taking some plastic bugs and turtles, and drawing materials from the shelves. Tadpoles do get a little attention but the world the children re-create is most important to them.

A few children lie down on their backs. One child tucked some plastic bugs and turtles underneath the “patient’s” shirts. Enter the doctor:

Child 1: How is my little girl doing?

Child 2: She broke her leg and she had those bugs in her tummy. (Showing an x-ray drawing she made.)

Child 1 (in a quiet aside): I called you “little” girl because I’m pretending to be a doctor.

Later with the second patient:

Child 1: First we have to do an x-ray of what’s in his tummy. (Holds paper over the stomach and draws the turtle.)

Child 1: He has a poisonous turtle in his tummy. You’re going to have to open it because I don’t have the tools.

Child 2 (removing the turtle): It sure is a poisonous one!

The child pretending to be a doctor explains what she sees on the x-ray.

This play is so delightful but that’s not all. I’m delighted to have a window into what children know about doctors and what x-rays are. They certainly know the difference between pretend and real, understand the need for cooperation between medical personnel, and can represent animals through drawing. We can work on “poisonous” turtles next week and the tadpoles will become more interesting when they develop legs.

(Note that the child is making the skeleton "preschool" size without all the leg bones! This may have been his re-design or an accidental omission. Constructing a child-sized human skeleton puzzle.The puzzle allows for several inventive adjustments to the human skeleton. At first I was concerned that the alternate assemblies might create some misconceptions about the human skeleton but when children find a few pieces leftover, or stand back and see the proportions, they usually self-correct. And other scientists often chime in and make changes, and we count the number of “sections” in our actual legs and arms.)

Share your science play stories by clicking on the word “Comments” below!

Peggy

Published: Jun-01-09 | 3 Comments | 20 Links to this post