Name of the Resource

The article titled ‘NSTA Position Statement: Early Childhood Science Education’ is a Portable Document File (PDF) that has been used to present information about science education in early childhood. PDF is a document format that captures all characteristics of printed documents as electronic images that one can view, print, navigate, or pass it over to someone else electronically. These files are created by the use of Adobe Acrobat or other similar software. A user has to use the Acrobat Reader software to help open the PDF files. Once the user installs the reader, PDF files will automatically open once they have been downloaded. PDF documents are especially useful viewing documents such as brochures, white papers, flyers, or magazine articles because they preserve the original appearance of graphics online. PDF files are also helpful in learning because users can zoom in and out according to their preferences and they can lock the documents using a password for confidentiality and safety.

The Overall Idea of the Slideshow and its Relation to Science

The article observes that adults such as parents and teachers often undermine children’s ability to learn core science ideas and realities early in life. For this reason, therefore, they fail to give children experiences and opportunities to enable them to foster and build an accurate understanding of scientific concepts effectively. Similarly, the article asserts that adults also undermine the length of time it takes children to grasp scientific concepts and explorations. The article, however, argues that even at an early age, children possess the ability and propensity to carefully observe, discover, and explore their world and therefore adults should encourage and support these abilities in early years of children’s lives. The article emphasizes that learning engineering and science practices in early life enhances not only a child’s sense of curiosity but also an interest in exploring the world thus laying a firm foundation for learning science throughout their lives. The article additionally emphasizes on six essential factors that adults should focus on when teaching science at an early age.

The first point is that children can practice scientific concepts and adequately understand them at conceptual levels. The article also emphasizes that children require varied and multiple opportunities to actively engage and practice scientific explorations because they learn best when they experience scientific explorations on various levels. Multiple opportunities give children a foundation for observing patterns, formulating theories, exploring different alternatives, and intensely building their knowledge base. Furthermore, young children do not only need formal settings to gain scientific knowledge; informal settings also provide abundant opportunities for them to discover and explore science. Lastly, the article asserts that children develop useful scientific knowledge and skills by engaging in adequate experiential learning. This concept, therefore, means that adults should invest in preparing experiences and environments that allow children to experiment with scientific materials practically.

Lesson learned

The concept that stood out the most for me was using outdoor activities to deepen the scientific understanding of children. The article emphasized that letting children experiment with practical scientific materials in real life enhances their knowledge and helps them develop an interest in exploring and discovering new things in science. Previously, I have been focusing on creating classroom environments that mimic natural environments, but this paper has shown that using actual natural environments helps the students to observe and explore their world better; thus they get a better ability to understand science further. It is a lesson that I plan to carry further in my classroom.

Reflection

One factor that caught my attention in reading the resource is the fact that as adults we often underestimate the ability of children to grasp scientific concepts and skills. Often, adults perceive children as young people whose minds are not yet fully developed to understand and explore complex scientific ideas adequately. The article has informed me that the minds of children are young and curious and therefore this gives them the ability to comprehend scientific experiences and understand science skills and knowledge effectively. The article has also highlighted the importance of adults building a platform for children to experience with scientific concepts and experiences adequately. It is a valuable lesson that I intend to carry further along when teaching my students about science.