Young Children March 2012
Problem solving and physics: any subject can be taught
effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of
development
Too often, curriculum planning focuses on interests but
fails to incorporate the process of learning such as problem solving,
experimentation, theory, building and making predictions
Inquiry-based planning focuses on the process. It is hands-on and minds-on
·
Such as: making comparisons with pre made
shakers vs. allowing the students to fill the shakers, make predictions, listen
·
Minds-on: experimentation, hypothesizing,
problem solving and as a result are thinking, reflecting and communicating
·
Give them a problem to solve so they have a
purpose and you can introduce variables
o
Lift a lion
o
Make a mouse house
o
Shaker with a low sound like the voice of the
lion in the story or high sound for the mouse
Problem solving: more than free exploration with
great tools
What will happen if I swing the pendulum harder?
How can I get the water from the sensory table to the bucket
using these tubes
Force and motion: how does it move?
Putting it all together
1.
Define the problem: pose the problem or set up
the challenge
a.
how can we make the marble change directions
(without marbleworks or curved pieces)
b.
I wonder if there are other directions that we
can make the marble travel besides up and down? (left/right).
c.
Demonstrate the reason: If the ramp is against
the wall, it would need to turn the corner
d.
Help them stay focused
2.
Develop a procedure
a.
Encourage communication
b.
Offer clipboards, paper, markers, journals, clay
etc to represent thinking and recording ideas
c.
Draw the ramp plan: think about additional
materials needed
d.
Book: roll, slope, slide to connect for additional ideas
3.
Conduct the procedure
a.
Test and retest
4.
Draw conclusions
a.
Often overlooked: discussion of discoveries
(reflections): are they happy with solution? Is there another or better way to
solve the problem?, documentation/assessment
b.
Use representations of work or drawings as a
springboard for talking about their ideas
Asking good questions
·
Acting on objects to see how they react.
o
See what you can do with these
o
what would happen if you connected the two
pathways
o
What would happen if you put another block under
the ramp?
·
Acting on objects to produce a desired effect
o
Ask questions to build on initial experiences
and ideas
o
I wonder how you could make the ramp longer
o
How could you help kyle make the marble move
faster
·
Becoming aware of how one produced a desired
effect
o
Age 4-5 are able to do many things with practical
intelligence but are not aware of how they produced a result because
explanations must go beyond what is observable.
Difficult for them to explain why something happened
o
How did
you do that
o
I wonder how that happened
o
Tell me about the blocks you used to make your
marble go this way
·
Explaining causes: encourage them to talk to
each other about their ideas
·
Wow, that’s a great idea. Can you tell stella how you did that?
·
‘wonder’ out loud: I wonder why the marble falls
off the ramp and doesn’t turn
·
Know when to intervene: mostly when thinking is
stalled by providing specific materials, encouraging collaboration, help focus
on details.
·
when you know something will not work, let them
think it out
Criteria for planning physical knowledge activities
1.
Children must be able to produce the movement by
their own action
2.
Must be able to vary their actions
3.
The reaction of the objects must be observable
4.
The reaction of the objects must be immediate
Vary the materials
·
Building blocks,
·
ramps or pathways, (cove molding, carpet roll
tubes)
·
pendulums, (yarn, tape, crumpled paper)
·
pulleys,
·
mazes,
·
rollers,
·
water play with tubing or containers with holes
·
texture, size, quantity
vary the inquiry
·
balance,
·
roll,
·
swing,
·
push,
·
pull,
·
tilt,
·
slide,
·
dump,
·
throw,
·
blow on,
·
drop,
·
flick
**scan page 23
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