What Can 4-yr-olds Understand About Science?

dr.karl.b asks: "My 3 and a half year old son is in Kindergarten. Here in Germany that includes 3 to 6 year olds. He is supposed to explain what his parents' occupations are. I am a scientist, and despite all the advice I have received saying he can't understand what I do, I am determined to try. I study self-motion perception, from basic-science vestibular processing to the role of real-motion cues in flight simulation. We have several cool labs in my institute, like robot-arm motion simulators and full-immersion virtual reality set-ups. We can easily compete with amusement parks for wow-factor, but I have 2 questions: How can I explain my work to my son? How can I invite his class (3-6 yr olds) to our institute to have them learn AND have fun, rather than ONLY have fun?"

Comments

Anything Non-Numeric, with Patience

[bill_mcgonigle]

My daughter will be four in a couple months. She understands quite a bit conceptually - how our bodies work (most organs, muscles, bones, red vs. white blood cells), how the Moon was created, what the atmosphere is like on Venus, why we see the moon in different phases (use balls and flashlights!), why the sky is blue, how trees reproduce, why magnets attract (as much as I do anyway...), why balloons go up, why pancakes rise, and lots more.

But, she's just learning basic addition and subtraction now, so I'm not even bothering with conceptual models of chemistry, physics, etc. I also don't think she gets how far it is to her grandmother's house, much less what a light-year is.

These are a few guidelines I find useful:

• relate everything to something they know, and use every opportunity of something unexplained to learn about science
• describe the idea science - how we can test whether an apple will always fall downwards, vs. how we can test if Uncle Steve is an angel now (the study of the natural vs. supernatural)
• start basic and teach in little pieces over time - they all build on each other.
• If they don't get it you haven't broken it down enough - you may find yourself not fully comprehending a subject when you try to teach it
• Be patient
• Don't ever say, "because that's how it is."
• "I don't know," is a great answer
• "Let's look it up," is even better.

Because of the building-blocks nature of science, I'm not sure how much you can teach to an entire group of kids who may be at square-1, but you can start with square 1. Maybe make them aware of their physical presence. Have them notice that they feel something when you flip them over. Play a movie for them with lots of motion while they're standing up and have them notice that they sway side-to-side.

Perhaps the greatest realization is that those first basic concepts are just as important as understanding the curvature of space in a warped fifth-dimension string theory, because you can't get anywhere without any of the underlying layers. And the sooner you start, while the brain is making connections like mad, the better off they're going to be later in life.

Oh, and make it fun. Science is a kick.

I dealt with this situation last week.

[CrankyOldBastard]

Last week I was walking my 3 youngest children (ages 8, 6 and 4) to school, when the eldest of them ( my daughter) said "Dad, Elisha's Dad is a policeman!"

The 6 year old then said "But our Dad's a scientist". The youngest then said "So you mix things together to make explosions then Dad?"

I said "Some Scientists do that, but I don't. But all scientists ask questions, measure or count things, and then write about it".

"Oh" he said. "so what do you do then?"

"It's like this - see how the road is a bit slippery?" - it had just rained that morning. "I start by having an idea that might explain why the road is slippery. Maybe there's lots of tiny little slimy fish on a wet road, and that makes it slippery". He had been amazed by how slippery fish are just the week before.

"That's silly Dad!" he retorted.

"Well, let's see if we can find a way to check if that's why the road is slippery. What do cats do when there's a fish lying on the ground?"

"They lick it" He said. suddenly looking very serious.

"Is our cat licking the fish on the road? What about the cats that live in both houses next to ours?"

He looked about. "No, I don't see any cats"

"So if we counted the number of cats licking little tiny fish so small we can't see them we'd get the number zero."

"Yes" he said.

"And we all agree that if there were tiny slimy fish lying on the road making it slippery there would be at least one of the 3 cats licking them?"

"Yes" he said.

"So is it likely there are tiny slimy fish on the road making it slippery?"

"No, there are no cats there".

"So we decide that the fish idea isn't right. A scientist will then get another idea about why the road is slippery, and he thinks up a way to measure or count something to see if it's a good idea. We keep on going until we get an idea that we can't prove is wrong. That's what all scientists do, no matter what sort of science they study"

He now has a fair understanding of the scientific method, and he knows that we have to measure (or count) things.