Learning & Development Science: In the lab

Do we give children opportunities to see success in life? This question was posed at a seminar on brain development that a colleague and I went to. It inspired us to think of how we could give the children in our care the chance to see young adults choosing to learn and enquire, to encourage them to become successful and autonomous learners.

Being part of a university gives us a fantastic opportunity to introduce the children to people who want to study. A parent, Dr Fiona Hunter, who works in the university's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, expressed interest in outreach work to help children learn about science, so we jumped at the opportunity to take a group of nine threeand four-year-olds to her laboratory.

Our children have incredibly enquiring minds, but I was concerned that they might be over-awed by the visit. To the contrary, they were attentive and involved. It was wonderful for them to experience an actual laboratory and get hands-on with real equipment, rather than child versions.

Dr Hunter devised some fascinating, safe experiments for the children to conduct. We started by studying mealworms and beetles to discover whether they like to be in dark or light environments. The children each came up with a hypothesis - 'I think this is going to happen...' - and then the creatures were put in petri dishes. The children partially covered them with card, watched whether they rushed into the dark or the light, and counted them.

We found out that mealworms prefer the dark and learned that in their natural habitat they bury inside corn. Through the experiment we used counting and learned the concepts of difference and prediction.

We were then let loose on microscopes and had fun examining prepared slides of ladybird and butterfly wings, which were fascinating. The children were soon using the equipment with confidence and examining and comparing their own fingertips. Looking through the microscopes introduced language such as 'bigger' and we discussed why the objects were bigger. The children learned how their actions, such as magnifying an object, can change its appearance.

We firmly believe that it's not the topic that's important but the process, using IT equipment with confidence. So, we allowed the children to be silly with it as a way of capturing their interests - such as looking up their noses at their bogeys! The children asked loads of questions and had lots of different ideas. It was hard to keep up with all the interest and excitement that they showed.

After the experiments, the children experienced sitting in a meeting room to have orange juice and biscuits. We then went into a huge laboratory where students were conducting research. It was a great opportunity for the children to see people learning and being enthusiastic about it.

It was explained that the students were looking at a species of butterfly and trying to find out why they do not live here any more. One child who is passionate about dinosaurs asked whether the butterflies are extinct, so it was explained that they are still alive but do not live in this country. This led to us talking about the world.

To top off the visit we went to a university museum showing the evolution of life from jellyfish to ape and homo sapien. There were also pieces of dinosaurs and skulls.

Back at nursery, we have continued to enjoy experiments and love using a digital microscope which is hooked up to a computer. It's the squeamish stuff that the children find especially fascinating and hilarious - such as looking up close at each other's tongues and inside their ears to check for dirt!

During the winter we brought inside a leaf with snow on it and watched it melting under the microscope. Seeing it in such depth was amazing. One child was so astounded that he was silent for quite a while afterwards.

It's now six months since our laboratory visit and the children are still talking about it in depth. We have photos from the day on our wall, and the memory of walking into a big laboratory full of students experimenting is an inspiring image which will stick with us all.

Lisa Jane Wildey spoke to Annette Rawstrone

FURTHER READING

• Monthly foundation stage science series by Linda Thornton and Pat Brunton (Nursery World, 16 March 2006 - 15 February 2007, www.nurseryworld.co.uk/go/science_early_years)