Science in preschool through college should be viewed more as a verb than a noun, its not so much

a body of knowledge as it is a way of thinking and acting. Science is a way of trying and discover the
nature things the attitudes and thinking skills. In 1996 the national research council published the
National Science Education Standards. Which were designed to support the development of a
scientific literate society. The content standards help identify what children in different ages should
know and be able to do in the area of science. They also identify the processes skills, and attitudes
needed to successfully understand science.

Science as inquiry:

Inquiry is presented as a step beyond such process skills as observing, inferring and predicting. This
skills are required for inquiry. According to the standards, engaging students in inquiry serves five
essential functions.

-Assist in the development of understanding of scientific concept.

-Helps students know how we know in science.

-Develops an understanding of the nature of science .

-Develops the skills necessary to become independent inquiries about the natural world .

-Develop the dispositions to use the skills abilities ,and habits of mind associated with science .

In order to develop scientific inquiry skills, kindergarten, and primary grade children need the
following skills :

-Plan and conduct a simple investigation .

-Employ simple equipment and tools to gather data .

-Use data to constract reasonable explanations .

-Communicate the results of the investigations and give example.

Teaching process of inquiry:

Children discover the content of science by using the processes of science inquiry .This can be done
through science investigations, class discussions, reading and writing, and a varity of other teaching
strategies. These are the thinking skills and process necessary to learn science .

Science process skills are those that allow students to process new information through concrete
experience. The skills most appropriate for preschool and primary students are the basic skills of
observing ,comparing, classifying, measuring and communicating. This skills will enable them to
perform intermediate process skills that include gathering and organizing information, inferring and
predicting. If students have a strong base of primary and intermediate process skills they will be
ready to reach the abstract skills, that include hypotheses and separating variables .
Basic process skills :
-Observing : using the senses to gather information about objects or events.

-comparing : looking at similarities and differences in real objects.

- classifying : grouping according to properties such as size, shape, color, and so on.

-Measuring : quantitative descriptions made by an observer .

-Communicating: communicating ideas, directions and descriptions orally or written such as

pictures, map, graphs or journals .

Intermediate process skills:

-inferring : a situation that can be directly observed .

-predicting : making reasonable guesses based on observations and prior knowledge .

Advanced process skills :

-hypothesizing : devising a statement based on observing .

-defining and controlling variables: determining which variables in an investigation should be studied
or should be controlled .

Science process skills used in inquiry :

-observing:

Is the most fundamental of the scientific thinking process skills. In this process we are able to receive
information about the world around us by using our senses. Is the first step in gathering information
to solve a problem. Students will need opportunities to observe size, shape, color, texture and other
objects.

-comparing:

Children will naturally begin to compare and contrast and identify similarities and differences. Which
sharpens their observation skill is the first step toward classifying .

-classifying:
It begins when children sort and group real objects. The grouping and sorting are done based on the
observations they make about the object characteristics.

-measuring;

Is the skill of quantifying observations. This can involve numbers, distances, time, volume and
temperature, which may or may not quantified with standard units.

-communicating:

That the scientist share their findings with the rest of the world. Communicating refers to the skill of
describing a phenomenon. A child communicate ideas, descriptions, directions orally or in written
form, such as in pictures, maps, graphs, journals and reports.

-inferring:

When children infer they make a series of observations, categorize them, and then try to give them
some meaning. The process skills of inferring requires a reasonable assumption of prior knowledge.
It requires children to infer something that they have not yet seen. For this reason this process is
most appropriate for middle-level grades and the science content associated with those grades.

-Predicting:

When you predict, you are making a statement about what you expect to happen in the future. You
make a reasonable guess or estimations based on observations of data. Keep in mind that this
process is more than a simple guess. Children should have the prior knowledge to make a reasonable
prediction.

-hypothesising and controlling variables:

A hypothesis is a statement of a relationship that might exist between two variables.