from Tomorrow’s Child Magazine – May, 2021 | by The Montessori Foundation
We are all scientists at heart. Do you remember how curious you were as a child when you were growing up? You would question your parents and teachers about how things worked in your environment, sometimes unceasingly. When you had your queries answered, you were joyful and, consequently, more motivated to come up with additional questions to examine. In reflecting about this natural tendency in yourself, you could now appreciate the interests of young children today as parents and as teachers, when they inquire about how and why certain phenomena are the way they are in their environment. The variety and number of questions they ask demonstrate to us that they are budding scientists and need to have their fascinations addressed genuinely, in order to not lose that capacity as they grow older.
Maria Montessori stated that children are natural scientists and that we can nurture that inquisitiveness and enthusiasm with thoughtful, caring replies. As an avid scientist herself, cultivated from her studies as a physician, Maria Montessori indicated that science and math were her favorite subjects. Consequently, she encouraged teachers and parents to bring to the attention of young children the real names of objects in their environment and not be concerned that the words would be too difficult for them. As children mastered their language and acquired new vocabulary, all words had the same intricacies for them. Montessori also advised adults to introduce children to all the sciences, in a manner that would respect the children’s level of understanding. What happens if, as parents and teachers, you are hesitant about teaching science and do not know the answers to the children’s questions?
You may think that it is too difficult, that you don’t understand it, and that you don’t have the abilities to converse with children about science. You may have a little voice in your head that tells you that discovering new knowledge about science is just not something you are capable of doing. While topics about biology and botany may come easier for you, because you studied it in school or university, many people shy away from delving into the ‘hard’ sciences (e.g., physics and chemistry) with children. When children sense this fear of science in adults, they can adopt these feelings as their own and become reticent about exploring their environment. However, there are a number of ways that you can embrace science and enjoy it. Christoph has some great solutions on how to lower this barrier of being fearful of science.
First of all, science is everywhere around us. Therefore, you can make science more relevant to the children’s everyday experiences. For example, everyone needs energy. We, and other animals, get it from our food. Plants get it from the sun and use some of it to make food for us. The plants can turn into coal and oil, which still contains some of that energy that they got from the sun. We can burn these things to make heat, steam, and electricity, which can do work.
A related example is heat. You can explain to children that it is the disordered movement of atoms or molecules. This helps explain how water goes from ice, which is a solid, to liquid water, to steam, which is a gas, as water is heated up. First the molecules are arranged in a neat orderly way (ice), then they start moving around but still stick together (liquid water), then finally they move so much that they fly apart (steam). Children can act that out by being close together for ice, farther apart and moving for liquid water, to moving around the room rapidly, for gas. Other examples are the concepts of electricity and magnetism. Children can learn about them using simple, everyday objects. The child can rub balloons to create static electricity, and fridge magnets can demonstrate magnetism. In both cases the children can see that objects don’t need to touch each other to have an effect on each other.
If your understanding is not perfect, it is still acceptable. You can acquire the spirit of being comfortable with not knowing about everything. Instead, you can be transparent by telling children that you are not sure about a response, and you can do the research together to seek the answers. In science, there are always open questions. When you deepen your understanding of how things work, you develop a mindset that is wonderful for children to see: like the children, it is fine to not know. You can be like children, open-minded. Instead of becoming discouraged, you can learn that it is enjoyable to learn new things. It will change the way you view the world. On a cautionary note, we would like to emphasize that it is important not to give children incorrect information. As an alternative, it is valuable to say to the children, “I am not sure.” They will realize that adults do not know everything, and we are all learning together. Everybody can learn at their level. Even experts in science do not know everything. Taking this stance, we can all teach science to young children. like Montessori, that children have a natural scientific mindset. They want to explore new phenomena to them, learning about them repeatedly under different conditions to really understand how they work. This would be what changes, what remains the same, what is important and what is coincidental. We encourage you to take the plunge and begin exploring new facets of science to convey to the attention of young children. It will bring them joy.
References
Montessori, M. (1972). The secret of childhood. New York: NY: Random House Publishing Group. Montessori, M. (1995). The absorbent mind. New York: NY: Hold Paperback.
Christine M. A. Lapierre, PhD enjoys being a parent and is passionate about the Montessori philosophy. She holds a PhD in adult learning and sees everyone as a lifelong learner. Being a MACTE trained early childhood teacher, she believes strongly in bringing Montessori principles to teams, businesses, and other organizations. She can be reached at clapierr@ucalgary.ca.
Christoph Simon, PhD is a happy father of twins currently attending a Montessori elementary school. He is a professor of physics at the University of Calgary, where he studies applications of quantum physics to information technology and neuroscience. He can be reached at csimo@ucalgary.ca.
