Learning & Development: Science - Discovery channels

For Archimedes it was water tipping over the edge of the bath, for Isaac Newton it was an apple falling on his head, while for Alexander Fleming it was mould growing in a petrie dish.

And the 'eureka' moment of scientific discovery for staff at Brucehill Education and Childcare Centre came when they struggled to answer the question from a puzzled child, 'Why does an ice cube stick to the table?'

It led them to develop an innovative approach to teaching science, which has transformed practice in the West Dunbartonshire nursery and established a truly child-led active learning environment where adults join children on limitless scientific explorations and experiments.

The centre staff contacted colleagues teaching in secondary schools for answers to tough questions, such as the ice cube query. But the replies were so technical they realised that if they could not understand the answer they had no chance of explaining it to the children, and they had better discover the answer for themselves.

This realisation led the team to build up a collection of themed science boxes. Each contains the nucleus of two experiments, one set of which the children are allowed to take home to do with their parents, the other set used in the nursery.

Lynn McCafferty, the centre's head, says the project began after the team assessed their science teaching when they were doing a self-evaluation exercise to develop an improvement plan.

'We asked, "how good are we at science?" And we realised that while we did magnets and seeds, we had been doing these same things since we trained. We asked, "is what we do stretching and challenging? How do we feel about our knowledge of science?"

'We admitted that we felt uncomfortable when children asked questions like "Why does the ice cube stick to the table?" and we didn't know the answer.'

Initially the boxes were developed with the parents as a homelink project to create resources, so that families could be involved with and support their child's learning.

Ms McCafferty says, 'The parents often say they hated science at school, but when they actually discover what science is, they really enjoy it and have good fun.

'It is just learning by doing. It is experimenting and saying, "Let's see what will happen." If you don't know, the proof will be there in front of you. We just ask questions as we go along.'

21 THEMES

Twenty-four boxes, covering 21 themes, are available to go home with the children. Each contains resources for the experiment and a Polaroid camera.

'A lot of the parents do not have computers, so there is no point sending out a digital camera. The idea is that they take a picture to show what they have done. Little children want something in their hand that they can see and that they can show,' says Ms McCafferty.

The boxes for use in the nursery are stacked on shelves but because they are transparent, a child can see the contents and ask a member of staff for a particular box.

'If there is something an adult wants to introduce to the children to extend their learning, then boxes are used for that. Or a child will say, "Let's get this one out, what's in there?", or they will go back to a box they have played with before.

'They will never exhaust a box, because there is always a different route to explore in experiential play. You could come at the same box from 5,000 different angles.

'Yesterday a little girl asked for the box on "waterproof" because she saw inside it was a raincoat just like hers. They were trying out the raincoat to test if it was waterproof and then thinking about other things that are waterproof, like wellies. But you could have gone on and talked about skin and before you knew it you would have had water down your leg.

'When the children are playing with the boxes their ideas grow wings and fly. There are no limits. It is about taking the child's lead.

'The staff used to cling to the security blanket of working with things where they knew what would happen, like putting the seeds in the soil. But they didn't really know how a spring works.

'Now, they are not anxious in case the children ask them a question and they do not know the answer because of the confidence they have gained.'

Everything is science

'Before, when we did baking, we didn't think of it as science,' Ms McCafferty says. Now when someone is making, say, a smoothie, they will talk to the children about switching on the blender to make it work, and what makes it work: the electricity.

'It is not about explaining what electricity is to a three-year-old. We are not talking to them about eons or anything that would go straight over their heads, but we can talk about energy and power and how we get energy into our bodies. We get the children to switch on the switch - they love it. They are often not allowed to do anything with electricity at home. They can put batteries in the right way round. They don't understand about positive and negative, but they can match up the signs to put the batteries in.

'I don't have any background in science, but I have learned with everybody else. We are all still learning.'

Learning by experiment

Ms McCafferty is adamant about what makes their approach effective. 'One of the most important aspects is how we explain things to very young children. If they can't see something, it is meaningless to them. We need to explain things in simple terms, and this is a skill that the staff have developed. It is not boring, it is not hard - it is fun.

'It is about skilful interaction. It is about the child learning through experiential play. Because the child has carried out that experiment, they retain that knowledge

'It has transformed practice in the nursery. It is now all about experiential play and active learning. What we try to do is give the children the skills to problem-solve.

'They want to learn, they love learning. If we took control of taking the learning forward, that enthusiasm would fall flat. You can get into real difficulties when children are bored and unchallenged.

'But we can capture this enthusiasm, this curiosity. When the children go on from here they know how to solve problems, and they have the skills to work things out.

'A few years ago there was an attitude that the adult should be in control of the children's learning, and the children were not consulted. Learning was done to the children and not with them. Responsibility for children's learning was in the hands of the educators.

'But all the research shows that we can't do it in isolation. We need to consult the children and to listen to them to get a better understanding of where they are with their learning.

'These boxes were created out of experiential work. We asked each other questions and had to find the answers. That's where our confidence comes from. We did the experiments and found the answers.

'Some of the young boys have quite scientific minds and like to delve deeper and they will ask questions we can't answer. Now we say, "Let's find out" and take them to go and look it up on the internet, or say "I haven't a clue, let's try it out and see what happens." Their inquiring minds are being stimulated the whole time.'

BOXED IN

Every box contains:

- resources for two experiments

- an information sheet including a vocabulary list and suggested questions

- a book relevant to the topic

- an audio activity tape for non-readers

- evaluation sheets for the parent and child

- a Polaroid camera.

'The boxes all have jazzy names,' says Mrs McCafferty (see page 22). 'On an evaluation sheet from one that has just come back, the mother says, "We had a great laugh doing the experiment and were slightly naughty because we took two photos." The child's evaluation says what was the best bit - "Taking the photographs and playing with the torch in my bed." There is nothing in the box about playing with the torch in bed. They obviously went on from using the torch to look at coloured light to trying it in the dark under the bedclothes. That phrase "slightly naughty" just shows they must have had huge fun doing the experiment.

'We have two boxes called Bright Sparks to do with electricity. One contains a circuit board. The aim is to become aware of the flow of electricity and how we need a circuit for electricity to flow.

'You open the switch to the right hand side and see what happens, and then you close it and see what happens. You then open and close the switch to the left hand side and see what happens

'What you see is that when the switch is closed the circuit is complete, and one way a light comes on and the other side a buzzer sounds. When the switch is open, the circuit is broken and the light does not come on and the buzzer is silent.

You then talk about what you have seen and think, what is making this happen? Electricity.Where is the electricity coming from? The batteries and through the wires.

'We started the project in 2004 and it took about 18 months to develop the boxes. Each child only gets to take one box home a year, but we have other homelink projects, so they take something home every six to seven weeks.

'We gather up the resources for the boxes pretty easily from around the nursery. Boxes only go out in term time. I mark off on a grid who has what and we note down who has requested which box. We have 112 children and 24 boxes. If I wasn't organised I could miss children out.'

SCIENCE BOXES: EXAMPLES

- Air Power Small toys, small and large stones, paper, cardboard, feathers, straws, balloon pump, bicycle pump, hairdryer, jumping frogs.

- Making Perfume Pestle and mortar, mixing bowls, graters, oranges, lemons, flowers, herbs, water, small bottles, sieves, labels.

- Weather Or Not Art straw, grass fasteners, washers, windmill template, coloured pens, weather cards, weather book

- Head To Be Paper bag, straws, bubbles, bowl, paint mixture, paper, apron

- Waterama Clear box, 3 cups, apron, 2 corks, 1 rubber band, 2 cocktail sticks, 2 triangular sails, felt tip pens, scissors, straw

- Mini Mania Seed tray, bug box, tweezers, magnifying glass, plastic insects bugs, rotting fruit and vegetables

- Ready Steady Cook Plastic cup, baking cases, bowl, chocolate drops, rice cereal, cornflour, wooden spoon, dino dinner book, apron

- Magnets (Finding North) Large darning needle, magnet, small rectangles of paper, glass or bowl

- Magnets (Let's Go Fishing) Three rods, magnetic fish, pond

- Make A Spring Length of wire, piece of dowelling and pencil

- Grow A Lot Seeds, kitchen roll, 2 small shallow trays, watering can.