Educators hold a common belief in the natural curiosity of young children and their eagerness to learn about themselves and their natural and local environment. Human beings have an intrinsic desire to make sense of their world, and they learn best when they are personally curious, deeply involved or in a social situation (Kamii,Clark & Dominick, 1994). This natural curiosity drives science (Raloff, 1996). These early childhood explorations know no limits unless an adult sets them (Smith, 1981; Greenman, 1989). Early childhood science experiences in the classroom involve learning about the natural world, such as sunlight, air, plants, shadows, water, animals, as well as machines and magnetism. Taylor(1991) believes young children are spontaneously and naturally involved in science. His description of young children's exploration of their physical world indicates that they do, in fact, use the scientific approaches of observing, identifying, inferring, classifying, hypothesizing, predicting, testing, generalizing, reaching conclusions, readjusting, retesting, interpreting, and drawing conclusions. Children process these scientific approaches through active learning based upon what they already know and understand (Bruer,1993; Trotter,1995).
The desire of children to experience and analyze their world makes science a part of their everyday existence. "Almost everything is a part of science, and young children are interested in what is going on around them"(Taylor,1991, p. 150). Children obviously deal with what is immediately perceptible to their senses, for example, the visible phenomena. There exists, however, a vast invisible world of microorganisms that occupy a major portion of science. The world of microbes, through biotechnology, helps to transform and revolutionize human living (Selsam,1953; Fitcher,1986). Currently engineered microbes are manufacturing drugs, vaccines, hormones, and antibodies. Through their continued research, scientists will be able to manufacture superior medical products. Microbes are used to fight against world famine by increasing crop production. When grown along with corn, rice, wheat, barley and other cereal grains, microbes transform nitrogen into a useable form for these crops. Bacteria are also being used to help clean up the environment by eating up oil spills and other wastes. Yeasts are turning plant wastes into fuels. This exploration of microbes' uses is an important area of research in its early stages of development. The impact of this realm of science on today's culture and economy is so great that an understanding should be developed at an early age. The existence of microbes, simply stated, universally affects the daily existence of all people. For this reason young children need to develop a knowledge of the existence of the invisible realm of microbes.
Educators readily recognize the necessity to incorporate activity-based science curriculum that center around young children's physical world within early childhood programs. The realm of microbes, however, has been ignored or inadequately considered as an integral part of the physical environment. Especially in today's society with the existence of the HIV virus responsible for the spread of AIDS, young children need to become knowledgeable about the world of bacteria and viruses. In today's world babies are being born with the AIDS virus. Children may attend school with classmates who are HIV positive or have AIDS. These young children need to learn about the disease because it directly affects them. Spodek (1991) maintains that the knowledge young children need to acquire should be consistent with their present circumstances and what they should be equipped to know for the future. In order to understand, young children must be exposed to the existence of the realm of microorganisms. The introduction of an awareness within young children to the realm of microbes would expand the children's scope to an important aspect of their physical world.
PURPOSE
The purpose of my research was to investigate the interest and
knowledge young children had about mold and bacteria. It examined whether
the teaching of microorganisms to young children could be effective under
the support and guidance of an adult. I conducted my research by using the
theoretical framework of Vygotsky's (1978) zone of proximal development and
Rogoff's (1990) apprenticeship and guided participation, and Brown and
Campione's (1994) guided discovery. Vygotsky's zone of proximal
development, defined by Berk & Winsler (1995) as a dynamic zone of
sensitivity in which learning and cognitive development occur, lends itself
to strong educational implications. One implication indicates that a child
can reach, with aid, to the upper levels of success not previously envisaged
by either the student or the teacher. At the same time, Rogoff (1990)
expands Vygotsky's zone of proximal development into the terms of
sociocultural cognitive development. Rogoff (1990) views Vygotsky's theory
as resembling an "apprenticeship", in which novice and expert work closely
together in the zone of proximal development. This apprenticeship is part
of the child's involvement in a social activity with companions who stretch
children's understanding and ability to use social tools of their culture.
The mutual engagement between children and an adult provides support for
development. Brown and Campione (1994) admit that guided discovery, where
the teacher acts as a facilitator, can be difficult to orchestrate.
According to Brown and Campione(1994), the teacher must be a sensitive
guide, being capable of knowing when to intervene and when to leave the
student alone. Young children can experience higher levels of questioning,
manipulations, and time spent exploring when an adult provided sensitive and
collaborative support (Browm and Ferrara, 1985; Bruner, 1985; Henderson,
1984). As a result of this support, the child's potential cognitive
development expands.
It was my hope that by using these methods, young children would be able to perceive the invisible realm of microorganisms, specifically mold and bacteria. I also wanted to learn if young children would develop an interest in performing experiments with mold and bacteria growth.
A literature review on the connection between early childhood science and microorganisms revealed a paucity of information or research in this area. The study of microbes was not a part of the early science curriculum. Science textbooks and literature introduced microorganisms at the intermediate through middle school grades.
In researching how to introduce young children to the study of
microbes, my study examined the following hypotheses:
1. Young children will be able to perceive, through their senses, the
invisible realm of microbes when under the structured guidance of an adult.
2. By using the scientific process and through the manipulation of
scientific instruments as directed by an adult, young children will find the
study of mold and bacteria meaningful and interesting.
SUBJECTS
To conduct my research, I used 17 first grade students from working
class families, living in a small city in Central Ohio. The ages of the
children at the onset of my project ranged from 5 years ll months to 7 years
8 months. Seven males and ten females made up the class.
GENERAL PROCEDURES
I established a schedule that would permit me to work with the
students for two hour sessions at least once a week for nine weeks. I
transformed a science table into a simulated research center. I designed a
white sign with red letters, stating "Research Center" on the wall above the
former science table. The space at the Research Center permitted three to
four students to work together at the table at one time.
The students used small glass jars with lids to grow mold on samples of bread, raspberries, lemons, oranges, and cheese. To grow bacteria, they used sterilized petri dishes filled with agar and an incubator. Each student was responsible for maintaining a learning log to record the experiment results. In order to keep a record of my observations and data, I used a tape recorder and field notes to formulate my findings.
My first form of investigation, designed to establish prior knowledge and exposure the students had with mold, required the children to describe orally in their own words, the mold samples growing on raspberries, bread, a slice of lemon, cheddar cheese, and cream cheese.
At that time, not one child was able to accurately identify the jars of food samples as moldy food. The descriptions of "stale", "old", and "not good" were the closest to identifying the condition of the food samples. Other descriptions included: "white & green stuff", "black spots", and "green things", "dirty", "burnt", "poison", "ugly", "fuzz", "furry stuff", "black ants", and "hairy". From the children's initial responses and reactions to the moldy food samples, I concluded that the students held little understanding and recognition of the realm of mold.
MOLD EXPERIMENT #1
When I identified the glass jars of mold samples and introduced the
students to the terms "mold" and "spores", and "invisible", three of the
seventeen students believed that they knew what invisible meant. One student
observed that the raspberries had, "become furrier" when he re-examined the
jar at this time.
In setting up their first mold growing experiments, the entire class displayed enthusiasm and interest in working together in small groups of three or four. They enjoyed being at the Research Center. The students began their experiment by placing two raspberries in one glass jar, and a piece of bread in another glass jar. Then they screwed on the lids, and put the jars in a warm, dark corner of the Research Center. As they worked, the students showed strong signs of cooperation by sharing and taking turns with the medicine droppers used for moistening the bread.
When the students returned to the Research Center the next week, the jars containing the raspberries had grown grey mold, but the bread showed few signs of mold growth. At this time I introduced the need for scientists to log their experiment results. Since these children had little writing experience, I told them to draw, using colored pencils, what they saw in their glass jars. I gave the students hand lenses to examine their mold. Exploring and experimenting with the hand held magnifying lens added a new interest to the students' examination of their food samples because they lacked prior experience with this instrument. When they had finished drawing their observations, I wrote at the bottom of the page their explanations of their drawings. As the students worked in small groups of three or four, they displayed intense concentration as they drew and colored their representations of the mold growth which appeared on the raspberries.
When the students returned to the Research Center the following week to examine the mold growth on their bread and raspberries, they demonstrated an increased level of awareness and interest in their work. They spent more time examining their jars of moldy raspberries and bread than they had the week before. The students' entries into their "learning logs" reflected more detail and observation. One boy said, "Wow!" when he saw he had an extraordinary amount of mold on his raspberries. Later he commented that his raspberries will, "maybe make more spores." His classmates were eager to examine his specimen. The children observed that the mold had grown the most on his raspberries. As a result his classmates treated him with admiration.
The students showed high levels of interest in their work. Throughout this session, they continuously practiced observational skills, comparing and contrasting mold specimens, and sharing skills. The students remained focused and serious throughout the ten to fifteen minutes each child spent at the Research Center. One child gave up his computer time to remain at the Research Center to work with his mold. Other students constantly approached me and asked when it was going to be their turn to come back to work at the Research Center. As a result I was forced to restrict the time each student could remain at the Research Center to allow everyone an equal opportunity to examine and record their mold growth experiments. This practice continued throughout the duration of the project.
In this session the children used the term "spores" as well as "mold" when describing their drawings. In comparing the development of the use of the term "mold" or "spores" to identify the growth on the food, 59.2 % of the students advanced to integrating these new terms into their vocabulary.
BACTERIA EXPERIMENT #1
The previous mold experiment facilitated the transition and
introduction to the topic of microscopic bacteria. In attempting to convey
the microscopic size of a bacterium in comparison to mold spores, I asked
the students to tell me the largest number they could imagine. Most of the
students replied that 100 was the largest number. When I then showed them a
dot the size of a typewritten period on a 3" x 5" card, and explained that
the period was like a huge city block to a lonely bacterium, one male
student expressed his amazement at the size of a bacterium. The other
sixteen students made no comment. Next I introduced the students to a
prepared petri dish filled with an agar medium, and an incubator. They were
unfamiliar with these scientific instruments. The students were, however,
eager to touch and hold the petri dishes and asked many questions concerning
them. Because two types of agar, blood agar (1% sheep blood) and trypticase
soy agar (2%) (TSP) plates were used, the students became inquisitive about
why the agar plates looked different. When the researcher informed them
that sheep's blood made the agar red, the students accepted the fact without
exhibiting signs of repulsion. One student asked why they were called petri
dishes.
I went on to explain that the students were going to grow their own bacteria by gently rubbing their fingers on the agar and by putting a cotton swab in their mouths and then rubbing the moist cotton swab on the agar. At first the students were hesitant to place their fingers in the agar. After they overcame that reluctance and touched the agar, they enjoyed the tactile experience. Many of the students seemed uncertain about placing the cotton swab in their mouths and rubbing the swab on the agar. During this part of the project, I reinforced the concept of bacteria and its properties of being invisible, "good" and "bad". Some of the students understood the "bad" bacteria in terms of germs. Although I did not stress the concept of the incubator, one male student retained the term "incubator" and requested to put his own petri dish into the incubator without assistance.
Two days later the students examined the results of their bacteria growing experiments. Again the students proceeded to make drawings of their observations, which I wrote down at the bottom of page. The children used the words "germs", "spots", "white", "green", "white stuff", "mold", "wet pollen", and "yellow dots" as responses when I asked them to describe what they saw in their petri dishes.
The color of the bacterial colonies depended upon which agar medium they grew in. In the blood agar, the colonies appeared green, while those growing in the TSP agar appeared pale yellow. Two students, upon examining their bacterial cultures stated, " it stinks". Another student, upon viewing his bacteria growth inside the petri dish, exclaimed, "Wow!".
In the students' learning logs, they drew the patterns of the colonies as they appeared in the petri dishes. Two students replicated the pattern in the agar made by the bacteria with a high degree of accuracy.
Similarly as with the mold experiments, the students worked in groups of three or four at the Research Center. They were constantly interacting with one another by observing, comparing and contrasting experiment results, and sharing colored pencils and magnifying lenses. During this session seven of the children retained and used the term "bacteria" to describe their drawing entries into their science logs. Nine students required prompting. I defined prompting as the term used when a student would use a term other than bacteria when describing the log drawing. At that point, I would ask, "Do you remember what the name of it is?" If the student then replied, "bacteria", I defined the recall as "prompted". One student showed no retention of the term "bacteria".
During this session, two students asked me why the incubator was needed. Another child asked, "What would happen if it were cold, would the bacteria grow?" I asked one male student, who was examining his finger tip through a magnifying lens, if he could see any bacteria on his finger. The student replied that he could not see any. When I asked if that meant that there were no bacteria on his finger tip, the boy said that there were bacteria on his finger, and that it did not matter if you could not see them.
MOLD EXPERIMENT #2
By this stage of the project, the students had become familiar with
the procedures of the Research Center. This repeat of the initial exposure
to the glass jars filled with moldy bread, raspberries, cream cheese,
cheddar cheese, and lemon gave the students confidence when responding to my
questions. One child, upon viewing the mold on the bread sample, stated,
"Man, that's growing!" Figure 1 represents the number of students using the
descriptions when identifying the mold.
Before beginning the mold growth experiment #2, I asked the students to predict the outcome of the experiment. Fourteen out of the sixteen children (88%) accurately predicted that the food would change by becoming moldy. The two other students knew that the food would change, but did not mention the term "mold". One student did not comment. Mold growth experiment #2 was designed to grow only penicillium mold, using only oranges and cheese.
While observing the results of their predictions, the students, working together in groups of three or four, made their third log entries by drawing the changes in the food in the glass jars. When asked to describe their log entries, fourteen out of seventeen children used the term "mold" (83%). One of the fourteen students combined the terms "mold" and "spores" to describe his observations. The three other students needed prompting to use the term "mold" (17.6%).
During this session I overheard one student use the term "research" as a verb, when he called across the classroom to one of his classmates, and said, "It's your turn to go and research." One week later, the students returned to examine their mold samples. The orange samples had turned brown because I had placed them in too warm of a location. The cheese showed indications of mold growth. I felt I needed to compensate for my error, and brought in a glass jar containing a lemon from my refrigerator with ten week's growth of penicillium covering it. When I asked the students if they knew what was in the jar, they could not identify the lemon. I identified for the children the penicillium mold and explained to them that the "pink medicine" that they had to take when they were sick came from that green mold. All of the students were familiar with the "pink medicine"; a few expressed dismay about the pink medicine coming from mold.
BACTERIA EXPERIMENT #2
Repeating the bacterial growth experiment revealed continued
interest by the students toward the petri dish. During the final observation
of the bacterial colonies, I introduced a light microscope which attracted
much attention. All students eagerly examined their bacteria cultures and
any object found in the Research Center with this instrument.
When reviewing the terms "bacteria", "petri dish" and "incubator", the students retained little. I tried prompting the students for recall, but they applied the term "mold" when identifying the bacteria. As the students were setting up their bacteria experiments, I continued to reinforce the concept of "bacteria", "petri dish", and "incubator" by frequently repeating these terms around the children. Again the students made science log entries by drawing the results of their experiments. During this second bacteria experiment, eleven students retained the term "bacteria", four students required prompting, one student had no recall, and one student was too shy to make a response to me when I asked for their descriptions of their log entries.
I performed a poll during this last session in the Research Center by asking each student which experiment had been more interesting and why. Fifty percent of the students preferred experiments with bacteria, while the other 50% preferred experiments with mold. The students who preferred bacteria focused upon their enjoyment of rubbing their fingers in the agar and putting the cotton swab in their mouths. Mold received votes because the children liked the "fuzz," and they believed it looked better.
FINAL WRITING PROJECT
With the completion of the mold and bacteria growing experiments,
the subjects' first grade teacher and I collaborated on a final group effort
to record what the students had retained and enjoyed while working at the
Research Center. The class participated in a group effort to brainstorm
ideas for writing about what they did at the Research Center. We used a
large sheet of white paper to stretch across the chalkboard and titled the
project, "What we did at the Research Center". We placed two categories of
"Mold" and "Bacteria" as headings after the students told us those terms.
I created the heading,"What we used," as a means of classifying the
information the students volunteered. The students demonstrated good
retention of the materials used and what type of experiments they performed.
Although the children did not mention the incubator, one student did
differentiate between mold and bacteria by stating that heat was used when
growing bacteria.
Table 1: WHAT WE DID AT THE RESEARCH CENTER
MOLD WHAT WE USED BACTERIA
looked at it yellow paper drew it drew it magnifying glass looked at it fun jars studied it pretty petri dish Q-tip in mouth stinks rubbing finger in dish water on bread heat food: oranges cheese and berries pink medicine
Once the students completed this portion of the project, their first grade teacher instructed them to draw a picture of the Research Center on the top of their drawing paper. When the students had finished their drawing, they were instructed to write about the Research Center using the ideas we had listed on the large sheet of paper attached to the chalkboard(See Figure 2).
At the end of the nine weeks, when all the experiments had been completed at the Research Center, I began packing up the materials and equipment I had used. As I was packing, a male student asked if he could help. He found the 3" x 5" index card with the 1 centimeter line drawn on it. He looked at it and commented that 500 spores could fit on that 1 centimeter line.
Nine weeks later, the first grade cooperating teacher informed me that the same male student, while participating in a class discussion on, "What you want to be when you grow up", stated he wanted to be a scientist. Additionally, the student's mother, in order to encourage her son to learn to read, asked his teacher to assist her in finding books that were about scientists as this topic interested her son.
DISCUSSION
The purpose of this study was to determine if the teaching of some
harmless molds and bacteria in early childhood science would be relevant and
interesting to young children. By introducing the students to the invisible
realm of microorganisms through the students' familiar, related, and visible
world, the researcher was able to guide them to the abstractions of
microorganisms.
When the students were asked to identify the contents of the glass jars which contained moldy food, it was evident, based upon the students' descriptions that they had little awareness of mold. A few students, however classified the food in terms of being "old", "poison", and "not good". These descriptions revealed some awareness that the mold represented food which should not be eaten. Replies of this nature may indicate that these children may have seen food with mold growing on it, and knew not to eat it. Some of the children may have been familiar with mold through seeing food that had spoiled in their own homes. Thus, although they were unaware of the term "mold", the concept of mold was familiar to some of the children.
The students' initial contact with the bacteria colonies also revealed the same lack of exposure to these microorganisms. However, the students' natural curiosity about these natural phenomena urged them to ask questions about mold and bacteria. The invisible properties of mold and bacteria did not hinder the children's interest to investigate and learn about growing mold and cultivating bacterial colonies.
The mold was grown on food familiar to the students. They wanted to watch and observe the food samples change. Mold's rapid growth rate kept the children's attention. In addition, the physical properties of black mold, grey mold and penicillium mold offered a diversity of colors and shapes for the children to examine, compare and contrast.
When introducing the concept of bacteria, the children displayed no previous knowledge of these microorganisms. They did, however, identify the "bad" bacteria as "germs". Unlike the mold experiment, the students did not have the opportunity to examine bacterial colonies prior to cultivating their own colonies. This may have affected the students' reactions to identifying the bacteria. The students spent less time working on bacteria than on mold. An additional week working with bacteria may have revealed different results. The bacteria, even smaller than mold, attracted the students' interest because they grew bacteria from their own finger tips and from their own saliva. The children found this experiment meaningful because they discovered a new component of their physical makeup. Young children are always intrigued with learning more about themselves.
When the students were asked to describe the mold and the bacteria, the more diverse physical properties of the grey, black and penicillium mold drew out more imaginative responses than those applied to the bacteria colonies. Therefore when the researcher polled the students which experiment had been more interesting and why, she expected the students to prefer the mold experiments. However the students enjoyed the direct physical contact they had with the petri dishes and the cotton swabs, which accounted for the balanced split in experiment preferences.
COGNITIVE ABILITIES
There exists in a young child's world invisible beliefs which they
commonly accept as real such as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth
fairy, are a few examples. Consequently when the researcher explained to the
students the invisible property of mold spores and bacterium, the children
accepted the concept of "invisible" to the eye without difficulty.
The introduction to the concept of mold and bacteria did involve the abstract concept of the invisible. But once the mold grew on the food and the bacteria colonies appeared on the agar medium, the microorganisms became visible and tangible. By the children participating in two small segments of microbial culture, the researcher was introducing them to a "manageable chunk" (Rogoff, 1991,p. 94) of microbiology. Bredekamp (1987) recommends that children should manipulate real objects and learn through hands-on direct experiences. Manipulation of real scientific instruments and procedures, used by the children while experimenting at the Research Center, was another means of facilitating the children's understanding of the abstraction of the invisible. Through the use of discovery-based and manipulative activities, young children came to understand some of the visible properties of mold and bacteria and how they affect the students' daily lives. Children's own eagerness and participation in relevant activities involved with other people assisted them in their development (Rogoff, 1990).
RECALL AND RETENTION
Recall and retention of the term "bacteria" required more prompting
by the researcher than the term "mold and spores" . Pronouncing and
retaining the monosyllabic words of "mold" and "spore" in comparison to the
polysyllabic word "bacteria", may have accounted for this difference.
LEARNING LOGS
The use of learning logs (Santa and Alvermann, 1991) increased the
students' retention. Writing can help the process of integrating new science
information and encourages active involvement in learning(Santa and
Alvermann, 1991; Shepardson and Britsch, 1997). The log, or science journal,
encourages children to attend to focus on details and accurate
observations(Santa and Alvermann, 1991; Shepardson and Britsch, 1997).
Drawing their observations allowed the children to communicate their
perceptions to others and to increase observational and representational
skills (New, 1990). Through the drawing of their observations, the students'
observational skills developed which naturally lead them to pose questions
(Santa and Alvermann, 1991). They asked questions about the differences and
similarities in their experiment results. Children wanted to know why one
food sample grew more "fuzz" than another during the mold experimentation.
They also were inquisitive why, in the first bacteria experiment, some
students' bacterial colonies were green, while others were yellow or white.
The researcher believes that unless they had to select colored pencils with
which to draw their observations, the students would not have been so
inclined to question the differences in results. Students became aware of
the differences in the color of the bacterial colonies because the children
who grew bacteria on the red blood agar had green-colored colonies. Children
who grew bacteria on the pale yellow TSP soy agar had pale yellow -colored
colonies. This exercise provided feedback and direction needed to learn the
skills of observation (Santa and Alvermann, 1991; Shepardson and Britsch,
1997).
COLLABORATIVE WORK
This project was structured and designed to permit and encourage
children to interact with one another and to engage in inquiry, allowing
them to construct knowledge jointly. The researcher intervened to stimulate
the children's thinking and enhanced their understanding (Inagaki,1992). In
this arrangement, the students were able to practice cooperative strategies
among one another. While working at the Research Center the children had to
share materials, which they did without fighting and complaining. When the
children spoke among themselves, they were courteous. The children
continuously compared and contrasted their experiment results with one
another.
By rotating the students who could be at the Research Center, it often happened that the researcher had instructed one student on how to carry out a task. Then, in turn, that student would become a peer instructor,or a simplified reciprocal teacher (Brown and Campione, 1994), informing a new incoming student how to perform the task. This practice was strongly evident the session that the researcher brought in the glass jar containing the lemon covered with penicillium mold. Each time a new student came and sat at the Research Center, a student already at the Center, would immediately educate the newcomer. The information about the pink medicine coming from mold growing on a lemon was passed down from student to student without the researcher's assistance. The children who worked in this manner were acting as groups of peers becoming "resources" for exploring new domains (Rogoff, 1990). Asking the children to dictate what they drew to the researcher also increased the students' communication skills because they had to be able to describe what they drew. Although the children were engaged in much conversation with the researcher and among themselves, one student, at varying sessions of this project, did not speak or respond to the researcher.
The groups of peers working collectively enhanced the children's own eagerness to learn and to participate in the experiments. The children's interaction with the researcher assisted them in their development by guiding their participation in the realm of microorganism through "mutual engagement" (Rogoff, 1990). It aided the children in adapting their understanding to the new situation (Rogoff, 1990).
LIMITATIONS
Lack of space and time were the most apparent limitation to this
project. Working with children who had weak writing and language skills
restricted the communication between researcher and students. This was
especially apparent during the final project in which the students were
requested to draw and write about their experiences at the Research Center.
(See Figure 2). The children had little difficulty in drawing, but many
expressed a high level of frustration when they attempted to write about
their experiences. This writing exercise represented the students' first
formal attempt at writing. If the students had some more practice with
writing, the researcher feels the children may have been less anxious and
more confident about what they could write. Consequently their final papers
would have included more information about the activities at the Research
Center.
Another factor for consideration was the researcher's own bias. In one sense her enthusiasm, interest and involvement with the children aided the student's enthusiasm, interest and involvement. But at the same time, the researcher's attitude should not be considered unique. Any successful educator, in order to give the students any motivation to learn any topic, would also display enthusiasm. This behavior would not be regarded as out of the ordinary.
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS
This research demonstrated that concepts that appear abstract to
young children, can be perceived by them. These concepts needed to be based
upon their own experiences and presented in some familiar form to the
children. Adult or teacher assistance provided a means for the children to
go beyond their familiar experience and to acquire and create new knowledge.
Experimentation with mold and bacteria can be considered a part of
children's experiences in the realm of the surrounding natural phenomena
that affects their lives. The children in this study definitely indicated a
strong interest and understanding of the world of mold and bacteria.
The findings of this project suggest that the realm of microorganisms lend themselves to the science curriculum of early childhood education when implemented under structured guidelines. The realm of microorganisms requires establishing an area for manipulation and collaborative exploration to aid the student's scientific investigations. Early science curriculum can include and introduce scientific methods and processes. Children in this study developed strong observational and recording skills through continuous exposure and practice. When introducing new information, the process of recording observations can strengthened retention and development.
Permitting students to handle and explore scientific instruments heightened their intrigue. The petri dishes, the incubator, the agar medium, the light microscope and the hand lens conveyed to the students the importance of their experiments. The correct and appropriate terms, without dilution, for the instruments and materials can and should be used around young children.
Copyright © 1998 by Rebecca Evans, all rights reserved.
