Big science for growing minds : constructivist classrooms for young thinkers / Jacqueline Grennon Brooks ; foreword by Doris Pronin Fromberg.
Strong evidence from recent brain research shows that the intentional teaching of science is crucial in early childhood. Big Science for Growing Minds describes a groundbreaking curriculum that invites readers to rethink science education through a set of unifying concepts or "big ideas." Using an i...
| Uniform Title: | Early childhood education series (Teachers College Press)
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Teachers College Press,
[2011], ©2011.
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| Series: | Early childhood education series (Teachers College Press)
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| Subjects: | |
| Physical Description: | xi, 179 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm. |
| Format: | Book |
Contents:
- Foreword / Doris Pronin Fromberg
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part 1: Science In Early Childhood:
- 1: Young scientists with growing ideas
- Children grow up by growing ideas
- Children grow smart by growing ideas
- Constructivist classrooms
- Professional knowledge standards
- Technology for young citizens
- Importance of simple
- Spaces for growing ideas
- National Science Education Standards
- Simple message
- 2: Constructivist view of learning
- Building big ideas
- Problems of emerging relevance
- Points of view
- Tie teaching to assessment
- Pursuit of making sense
- Deliver opportunities, not concepts
- How we learn determines what we learn
- Can classrooms really work that way?
- 3: Learning to care and caring to learn
- Teach-assess-reflect cycle
- Good curriculum, good behavior
- When good curriculum in not enough
- Assessment within teaching
- Errors lead to truths
- Productivity of wrong answers
- Structured reflection
- Becoming a master learner
- Reflection in steps
- Ever a learner
- Part 2: Landscapes For Learning Science:
- 4: Science as disciplined wonder
- Amazing ideas begin with wondering
- Wondering within the curriculum
- Classifying: What not to do
- Classifying: Another try
- Classifying: Inventive perspectives
- Classroom structure
- From procedures to concepts
- Artful guidance
- Teacher as provocateur
- 5: Science learning within family, community, and nature
- Laboratories everywhere
- Childhood physics: a cargo-crossing challenge
- Learning in nature
- Mindful engagement
- Lesson as a journey
- 6: Science of learning
- Children's emerging capacities
- New questions about old ideas
- Two sides of learning
- Mental structures
- Reflective abstraction and theory of mind
- Learning that transfers
- Neuroscience research
- Classroom research
- 7: Liberty and science for all
- Spaces of liberty
- Richness of differences
- Children with limited English proficiency
- Children with special needs
- Collaborative settings
- Learning context
- 8: Negotiating the science curriculum
- Meaningful curriculum
- Designing better science lessons
- Thinking with children, not for children
- Animals that live in the cold: an example unit
- Understanding content and cognition
- Part 3: From Unifying Science Concepts To Curriculum:
- 9: Unifying science concepts
- New perspective on teaching science
- Search for patterns
- Topics, concepts, and key ideas
- Simple and complex all at once
- Learning from some great scientists
- Collective scientific thinking
- 10: Unifying concepts: the physical environment
- Relate form and function
- Look at whole systems and their order and organization
- Examine equilibrium and evolution
- Make models, collect evidence, and offer explanations
- Measure what changes and what stays constant
- Planning a lesson using unifying concepts
- Water studies: a physics unit
- 11: Unifying concepts: the living environment
- Relate form and function
- Look at whole systems and their order and organization
- Examine equilibrium evolution
- Make models, collect evidence, and offer explanations
- Measure what changes and what stays constant
- Plant growth: a biology unit
- Part 4: From Curriculum To The Wonder Of Science
- 12: Science in the shopping cart: a chemistry unit
- Clean-up time
- Color without crayons
- Shake it up
- Sticking together
- Cover with crackers
- 13: Water, soil, sand, and salt: an earth science unit
- At water's edge
- Squeaky-clean water
- Fruits in a flood
- Waterwheels at work
- Sand from shore and store
- 14: Putting it all together
- Classroom as laboratory
- Verbs for learning science
- Lesson plan model
- Becoming a professional
- Conflicting messages
- Simple message
- References
- Index
- About the author.