Our Students
Our investigation was based off of the interests of the children in our preschool class. We spent the first few weeks in the classroom simply observing the children and watching what they did during their free time. We saw that the children enjoyed five things the most: the art center, the computer center, the instruments in the classroom, the kitchen center, and the cars and blocks center.
In order to determine which of these topics to use for our investigation, we picked the three science related topics and brought in content related materials. We let the children explore them during their free choice time if they wanted to. The results are listed below.
In order to determine which of these topics to use for our investigation, we picked the three science related topics and brought in content related materials. We let the children explore them during their free choice time if they wanted to. The results are listed below.
Sound Area
This area was used on February 5, 2013 and created with water bottles and various hard objects such as noodles, cereal, and rice. We also had tissue boxes with rubber bands and old containers set out. The instruments could be hit, shaken, or plucked. The children also liked to stack them.
Children Present15 children at school today
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Visited the Area11 children
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Ramps and Motion
This area used cars, binders, and long blocks to interest the children in rolling cars and friction. We were looking at angles and speed of the cars when rolling them down various ramps. This was done on February 12, 2013.
Children Present13 children
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Visited the Area2 children
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Kitchen Science
On February 12, 2013 we brought in pepper, dish soap, and bowls to show a basic kitchen chemistry experiment. I put water in a small bowl and add pepper to this. I had the children touch the water and tell me what happened. They then put a little dab of dish soap on the tip of their fingers and touched the pepper water to see what would happen.
Children Present13 children
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Visited the Area11 children
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After the three activities, it was realized that 73% of the students participated in the sound center, only 15% of the students present visited the ramp area, and 85% of the students participated in the kitchen chemistry area. The kitchen chemistry area had not only the most students compared to the other students, but also only two children did not voluntarily visit. The students that came were enthusiastic and many students wanted to do the experiment multiple times. The students' joy in this experiment led to an easy decision in choosing kitchen chemistry for our investigation with our students. We then began to plan a hook activity to determine the students' prior knowledge and questions about the topic so we would know where we should take our investigation.