Science and Engineering in Preschool Through Elementary Grades The Brilliance of Children and the Strengths of Educators (2022) / Chapter Skim
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4 Developing Children's Proficiency in and Through Investigation and Design
4 Developing Children's Proficiency in and Through Investigation and Design
Pages 73-98
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From page 73... ...
• Children's engagement in investigation and design involves the full range of science and engineering practices. The practices and the forms of activity can be undertaken in any order and combination and this engagement looks different across pre school through fifth grade.
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From page 74... ...
Next, the chapter explores how children develop conceptual understanding through investigation and design, showing the sophistication of children's ideas. Then, the chapter turns to the proficiencies children bring to investigation and design, unpacking how children orient to phenomena and design challenges, collect and analyze data and information, develop explanations and design solutions, communicate reasoning, and connect learning across both content areas and sites of activity.
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From page 75... ...
. A focus on design recognizes that the overarching enterprise of engineering differs from that of science and that engineering design provides a 1 Portions of this section include content from a paper commissioned by the committee titled "Engineering Education in Pre-Kindergarten through Fifth Grade: An Overview" (Cardella, Svarovsky, and Pattison, 2020)
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From page 76... ...
The next section depicts how the science and engineering practices -- with disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts -- are in play in the forms of activity of investigation and design. FEATURES OF INVESTIGATION AND DESIGN The evidence presented throughout this chapter shows that preschool through elementary aged children can engage productively with investigation and design, and through investigation and design can engage in meaningful and robust learning.
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From page 77... ...
, and can be undertaken in any order and in any combination. TABLE 4-1 Examples of Children's Experiences Within Forms of Activity of Investigation and Design Orient to Construct Connect Learning Phenomena Gather and Explanations Communicate Across Content and Design Analyze Data and Design Reasoning to Areas and Challenges and Information Solutions Self and Others Across Contexts Develop and ask Plan and conduct Develop Develop models Use threequestions about investigations models of the and artifacts to dimensional the causes of or tests of relationships communicate learning to phenomena.
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From page 78... ...
The Framework therefore recommends that from kindergarten, children be supported to use, connect, represent, and refine understanding through science and engineering practices, with the idea that such activity
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From page 79... ...
In the second grade example, children are discussing why a town flooded after a dam was built, collecting data on how water moves through different substances; they are making progress on disciplinary core ideas in Earth Sciences and are supported to attend to scale and cause and effect. In the fifth grade example, children explore issues of water contamination and water access through the context of the Flint water crisis.
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From page 80... ...
Crosscutting Concepts Cause and Effect Systems and Systems Thinking Phenomenon or Design Children explore how to move water at a water table with Challenge a pegboard, tubes, sieves, cups, and bottles, and a funnel. Data and Information Children gather information from posing and trying out challenges (e.g., moving the water out of a container faster or slower)
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From page 81... ...
Cause and Effect Cause and Effect Scale, Proportion, Quantity Systems and Systems Thinking Children discuss why they think the town Children read about the Flint water crisis, of Moncton flooded a year after a dam was asking questions about water contamination, placed on the other side of a mountain. water access, and water as a human need.
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From page 82... ...
" and "What is water justice, and why would it benefit society? " In Module 1, children first read a news article outlining the dangers of lead poisoning and the Flint water crisis.
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From page 83... ...
. Similarly, the 10-year-olds in Box 4-1 and Table 4-2 likely knew that humans need clean water for survival, and instruction supported them in extending their knowledge to the ethical implications of access to clean water and how race relates to environmental justice, as well as to develop more sophisticated understanding about mixtures and solutions, water quality, and the environmental impact of humans (Davis and Schaeffer, 2019)
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From page 84... ...
Box 4-2 presents two engineering design challenges and shows how they support opportunities for children to engage in collecting data and information, posing and evaluating design solutions, communicating their ideas, and making connections. The water-related phenomena in Table 4-2 similarly open up opportunities
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From page 85... ...
Chil BOX 4-2 Orienting to Engineering Design Challenges Engaging with the Wee Engineer materials, preschoolers can engage in a design challenge of building a basket through using a set of materials that pro vides an initial frame for the design work. Children explore materials at will during open play before sharing ideas for different designs.
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From page 86... ...
. Children Collect and Analyze Data and Information Developing empirical systems and gathering and analyzing data are central to science and engineering activity, including making decisions about what data to collect and about how to organize it to identify patterns.
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From page 87... ...
Fifth grade children collect data on water quality but also use second-hand data from research and newspaper articles to draw conclusions about water quality and access to clean water. Cultural knowledge and family experiences shape children's engagement with data and data analysis.
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From page 88... ...
. Children Construct Explanations and Design Solutions As children orient to phenomena and design challenges, they work toward developing explanations and design solutions.
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From page 89... ...
As educators recognize the richness in youths' cultural repertoires of practice, they come to appreciate the high-level, cognitive complexity in relational ways of thinking (Bang, Medin, and Altran, 2007) , the use of everyday language as a means to communicate scientific understanding (Warren et al., 2001)
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From page 90... ...
Fifth grade children constructed an explanation that went beyond cause and effect and involved taking a stance on water as a human right, supporting their claims with evidence from their investigations, text, and engagement with community activists. Further, fifth grade students might use molecularlevel understanding to explain contaminated water as a mixture and to describe the mechanisms used in water purification systems (Kenyon, Schwarz, and Hug, 2008)
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From page 91... ...
. Developing Design Solutions A design solution in an engineering context can be defined as one of many possible ways to solve a given problem.
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From page 92... ...
articulated a framework for thinking about engineering design across ages 3–8, and note that by the upper age band, design solutions can include designs that are entirely new to children. One main area for support in terms of children's design solutions is consideration of the role of failure; however, further research is needed to more fully explore areas in which children may need support in developing design solutions.
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From page 93... ...
Poza (2016) , for example, found that fifth grade emergent bilingual children's language and science learning deepened when they were encouraged to use their full linguistic repertoire -- such as coordinating and flexibly using Spanish and English across speech, text, and digital imagery.
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From page 94... ...
. Children Connect Learning Across Content Areas and Across Sites of Activity Learning about the natural and designed worlds entails learning across an individual's lifespan, learning across the various contexts that individuals navigate and move between, and learning by making meaning of natural phenomena and design challenges through the lenses of personal and cultural value systems (Bell et al., 2012; Bricker and Bell, 2014)
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From page 95... ...
Table 4-2 shows how children can make progress toward these ends through making connections to their local environments. Preschool children can solve design challenges that are related to the phenomena and/or disciplinary core ideas under consideration, such as how water can flow from one place to another; connections often involve children engaging with a series of interrelated experiences that build coherently upon each other.
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From page 96... ...
, also exploring the Flint water crisis with fifth graders, found benefits for children's science knowledge, critical consciousness, and agentic identities. Both examples, though taking on the same specific issue, illustrate the broader point of helping children see how science and engineering can be a part of justice movements.
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From page 97... ...
Thus, engaging in investigation and design work toward the vision of the Framework by engaging children in three-dimensional learning (NRC, 2012)
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