Those

pages are about science and how people think of science, they generally
think of the content of science. Science is often viewed as an encyclopedia of
discoveries and technological achievements. Formal training on science classes
often promotes this view by requiring the memorization of seemingly endless
science concepts. Science has been compiling literally millions of discoveries,
facts, and data over thousands of years.

Science starting in preschool and continuing daily straight through high school
you could make only a small dent learn everything. Yet despite this, far too
many teachers approach the task of teaching children science as if it were a
body of information that anyone can memorize.in fact, it is nearly impossible
to predict what specific information taught to preschool and primary grade
students today will be of use to them as they pursue a career through the
twenty-first century.it is possible that todays body of science knowledge will
change before child graduates from high school.

The national science education standards. Which were designed to support
the development of a scientific literate society. The content standards help
identify what children at different ages and stages should know and be able to
do in the area of science. The standards describe appropriate content for
children in kindergarten through the fourth grade they also identify the
processes, skills, and attitudes needed to successfully understand science.
Also, the national science education standards emphasize science as inquiry,
which is divided into abilities children need for second scientific inquiry and
understandings they should have about scientific inquiry. Inquiry is presented
as a step beyond such process learning skills as observing, inferring, and
predicting. These skills are required for inquiry. Engaging students in inquiry
serves five essential functions:


- Assists in the development of understanding of scientific concepts.
- Helps students know how we know in science.
- Develops an understanding of the nature of science.
- Develops the skills necessary to become independent inquirers about
the natural world.
- Develop the dispositions to use skills, abilities, and habits of mind
associated with science.



In order to develop scientific inquiry skills, kindergarten and primary grade
children need to following skills:
- Plan and conduct a simple investigation.
- Employ simple equipment and tools to gather data.
- Use data to construct reasonable explanation.
- Communicate the results of the investigation and give explanation.


The skills most appropriate for preschool and primary students are the basic
skills of observing, comparing, classifying, measuring, and communicating.
Sharpening these skills is essential for coping with daily life as well as for future
study in science and mathematics. As students move through the primary
grades, mastery of these 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 prepared by the time they reach the intermediate grades to
apply those skills to the more sophisticated and abstract skills. Such as forming
hypotheses and separating variables, that are required in experimentation.

There are five science process skills which are observing, comparing,
classifying, measuring, communicating.

- Observing: Is the first step in gathering information to solve a problem.
Students will need opportunities to observe size, shape, color, texture,
and other observable properties in objects.
- Comparing: Is looking at similarities and differences in real objects. In
primary grades, student begin to compare and contrast ideas, concepts,
and objects.
- Classifying: Grouping and sorting according to properties such as size,
shape and color.
- Measuring: is the skills of quantifying observations. This can involve
numbers, distances, time, volumes, and temperature, which may or may
not be quantified with standard units.
- Communicating: ideas, directions, and descriptions orally or in written
form such as pictures, maps, graphs, or journals so others can
understand what you mean.


Intermediate process skills:

- Inferring: Based on observation but suggests more meaning about a
situation than can be directly observed. When children infer, they
recognize patterns and expect these patterns to recur under similar
circumstances.
- Predicting: Making reasonable guesses or estimations based on
observation and prior knowledge and experiences.

Advanced process skills:

- Hypothesizing: Devising a statement, based on observations, that can
be tested by experiment. A typical form for a hypothesis is
If water is put in the freezer overnight then it freezes.

- Defining and controlling variables: Determining which variables in
an investigation should be studied or should be controlled to conduct a
controlled experiment.