Relevant Science Learning Paths for Preschool - Rochel Gelman
1.
2. Partial Funding From NSF LIS and ROLE Relevant Science Learning Paths for Preschool Rochel Gelman Psychology and Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science Irvine Stem Conference Feb, 2010
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. How Can THAT Be !? After all, for a very long time Pre-K and K’s said to be: 1. perception-bound 2. without the ability to form abstract concepts 3. absent the requisite conceptual format …… .. For abstract thoughts
17. Causal Reasoning Baillargeon and Gelman Also, M. Bullock, S.Gelman, Gopnik, Saxe, Opfer, DuBois, etc. 3-and 4-yrs olds’ correctly predict the effect of relevant and irrelevant changes in “initial’ cause and mechanism as to whether “Fred” will fall.
18. The Animate-Inanimate Distinction Also R. Baillargeon, S. Carey, S. Gelman, Hatano and Inagaki, Leslie, Opfer, E.S. Spelke, etc Different sources of “energy”, stuff, and interaction potential: 1. Animate’s - from within and ‘biological material and internally determined organization 2. Inanimate’s -from external agent, and man-made or inert.
24. More Research Background Natural Number Arithmetic- Lots and lots of people Distinguish between drawing and writing - Landsmann-Tolchinsky, Levin, Brenneman, Massey et al; Learn words very fast if know something about how to use them. . (6-9 words a day). Carey, Lipton, Markman, S. Gelman, etc., etc Adjust communications for different listeners. Shatz, etc. Take to technology with ease -- example of “trash”
40. Healthy Plant: “ They have more leaves than the other ones and they have everything they needed” Unhealthy Plant: “ And this is green but it has little yellow spots” A: Lets look at one of these. If you look at this one, how do you know that this one is the healthy one, and not this one? C: Because this one is standing up, and this one is bending down
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47. Conclusions 1, Can teach preschoolers science, of the kind that puts them on a relevant learning path. 2. Can build positive affect for doing science iff - build on what they know and their exploratory, questioning minds. iff - do not treat science as a fact memorization task
Editor's Notes
Predict whether Fred will fall. Vary material,, length, width of the beginning stick; remove a center block; , woo
As preschool children interact with their environment, they begin to develop knowledge about how items in the natural world grow and change. Across the life span, plants sprout roots and leaves, animals grow and develop features. And physical growth is a natural transformation that can rapidly alter the appearance of living things. For instance, a child must learn that a tree cannot grow into a giraffe and a dog cannot become an egg (Rosengren, Gelman, Kalish, McCormick, 1991).
Young children have some accurate intuitions about differences between animals and non-living objects with regard to capacity for growth, but knowledge about offspring-parent relations and plants generally seems more fragile. However, where they encounter more difficulty is mapping plants to the same category of living things as animals, as plants are not animate objects
Opfer & Seigler, Leddon, Waxman & Medin, Richards & Seigler, Inagaki & Hatano
Just a few of the learning activities
Massey & Roth 2004 No reliable pre-post
Younger group, t (20) = 2.09, p<.001, two-tailed Older children, t (21) = 2.08, p<.001, two-tailed
![Collaborators ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],Co-Authors on PrePS book with RG Current Co-PI’s with RG Partial Funding From NSF LIS and ROLE](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/6-gelman-100225152718-phpapp01/85/Relevant-Science-Learning-Paths-for-Preschool-Rochel-Gelman-1-320.jpg)
