HOW TO TEACH YOUNG CHILDREN BASIC SCIENCE

Children older than about seven years old can be taught scientific principles and phenomena conceptually, as they can see things into context. They are able to place them into a greater whole which they have already formed for themselves – they have a starting point, a base line from which they can understand. They can deduct from what they already know.

Teaching younger children science needs to begin from a completely different starting point, as they do not yet have that ability to contextualize, they cannot yet relate an item to a greater whole. They do not have that base line from which to reason and understand; therefore any teaching method needs to be inductive for them. Showing them pictures or films about a particular subject do not yet work well at this age, because they cannot translate the 2D images into 3D images in their minds; they do not have similar information against which they can benchmark. In the Montessori teaching, even in math, we don’t start teaching in numerals; we associate numerals with quantities of objects, so they can see, touch, and count.

The same teaching principles apply to science – teaching them about ‘living things’, such as plants, animals, the human body, requires visual representations, which they can touch and examine. They can then record everything in their mind, and this in turn becomes the material against which they can benchmark other objects.

Teaching about an animal, for instance, should be about an animal that can be easily observed and dissected, and ideally is an animal that’s already in their life in one way or another – this makes it more solid and understandable for them. It should be basic, but easy to reach. In my curriculum therefore, I start teaching about a fish. I make a clay model of a fish in front of them, and also make a clay model of all the organs of the fish. I cross-reference the various organs and parts of the body of the fish to other animals or humans – ‘here are the eyes of the fish; we also have eyes’, and so on. In these teaching moments they can see and touch, and try to find a similar organ in their own body. Interestingly, they pay more attention to the organs that are different from their own body, such as the fact that fish have an anus that is used for urination, bowel movements and laying eggs. They tend to also make connections with frogs and tadpoles.

The two organs they pay most attention to, however, are the air bladder and gills of the fish. They can understand the function of the air bladder because they can relate to the inflation and deflation of a balloon, the moving up and down. Gills are a new phenomenon for them, but even adults often do not understand exactly how they work – in any event, understanding that it is an alternative way to breathe is good enough. In these moments they can begin to deduce that fish cannot live in air because they don’t have lungs, and we cannot live in water because we don’t have gills.

I encourage them to draw what they see; a lot of what they draw is often difficult to recognize, but it gives me an idea of what they have paid most attention to. If I think the class is ready to take the next step, I bring in an actual fish and dissect it, and all together we try to find the organs we identified in the clay model. In this way they can close the gap between models and the real world.

When I dissect an animal I prefer to work with an animal they typically come across as dead, as with the fish for sale in supermarkets – I don’t want to unnecessarily shock them in that way.

Teaching science in this way is not only teaching about reality, but it also allows for the creation of a very rich base line against which they can learn about anything else.