Helping Young Children Develop Early Science Skills

With Sesame Street: Ready for School! A Parent’s Guide to Playful Learning for Children Ages 2 to 5, Dr. Rosemarie Truglio shares the research-based, curriculum-directed school readiness skills that have made Sesame Street the preeminent children’s television program for the past 50 years. The book features eight chapters on key areas of learning and child development, including language, literacy, math, science, logic & reasoning, social & emotional development, healthy habits, and the arts, and offers hands-on activities to help parents incorporate playful learning opportunities into their daily routines. The following is an excerpt on early STEM learning:

Science Skills & the Scientific Process

Through the lens of science—both natural science and physical science—children build on their understanding of the world. They learn how to adjust their ideas, as new experiences give them new information and more questions to investigate.

This ongoing pathway of discovery is part of the process called “scientific inquiry.” Early science skills include exploring, observing, asking questions, predicting, and testing ideas about how things work. Parents can help children develop their science knowledge and vocabulary simply by encouraging them to explore, ask questions, and talk about their discoveries. Most importantly, they learn to persevere and not to give up in the face of failure or setbacks.

Young children start to understand concepts related to the natural and physical world quite early, including living things, weather, force, and engineering. When these science topics are introduced through familiar, everyday experiences and in child-friendly language, young children can learn what might seem like complicated concepts. Children learn how to observe and ask questions. They develop their ability to collect and consider new information and draw conclusions about what they see.

Specifically, as children build their science skills, they start to:

  • Use all five senses to observe. They ask questions and gather new information through their eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin. Their senses help them identify the problem to solve. (“When my cup is in the sun, I see that the ice goes away and my water tastes warm. What happened to the ice?”
  • Use simple tools to observe. They use tools (like a magnifying glass, a ruler, a scale, paper, and crayons), when needed, to help them investigate, see up close, measure, and record information.
  • Make guesses and predictions. Children participate in simple experiments. They observe and use what they know from previous experiences to make a thoughtful guess about why something is happening (hypothesis). Then they make predictions and test their ideas (putting an ice cube in the sun and one in the shade to see which one melts more quickly).
  • Collect and consider information to answer a question. Children learn to collect information (data) using simple charts, drawings, and photos. They learn how to organize the information so they can read it and draw conclusions. (For example, a child makes a simple chart with a drawing of a sun and a rain cloud and uses a check mark to record the weather each day for a month. From the number of check marks under the cloud, she concludes that it has been a rainy month.) During this process, children may learn that their initial ideas were wrong and will rethink their initial understanding or pose a new question.
  • Share and explain conclusions.  In time, children learn to report on what they’ve learned by describing a problem or question they investigated and explain what they discovered. To do this, children need to reflect and think about how and why things happened, based on their observations (“It happened because…”). This is an important milestone in cognitive reasoning. (Conclusion: She decides to keep her cup in the shade after discovering that the ice didn’t melt as fast there.)

 

Deep Dive: Parents as co-learners

As parents, we are often stumped and sometimes even intimidated by our child’s “Why” and “How” questions about the natural and physical world because, frankly, we often think we don’t have the scientific knowledge to answer the questions accurately. This feeling could lead to avoiding playful learning opportunities that involve exploring, investigating, and learning about nature or how the physical works with your young child. The good news is that you don’t need to have all the answers! Join your child as a co-learner and investigate and learn wonderful “Aha!” ideas together. So the next time your child asks a question and you don’t have the answer, say, “That’s a great question! I don’t know the answer. Let’s find out together.”

Then, as co-learners, guide each other’s observations and talk about what you are observing. Remember: Your role is not to give the answers or be a dispenser of facts, which can stifle learning. Instead, empower your child to be an independent thinker and learner. By modeling scientific skills, not only are you enhancing your own knowledge, but you are experiencing the joy and wonder of learning with your child! This approach to learning helps your child become an active and engaged learner. As a parent, you will be delighted by all you learn from your child’s questions and your co-investigations. Remember: It’s okay to make mistakes (Oops!), because very often, through your errors, you can discover so much (Aha!)

 

Play and learn: Let’s go find the wind

A wonderful way to introduce even very young children to weather and the environment is to talk about the fascinating aspects of wind, especially with reference to the senses. Here are a few suggestions:

  • We can see the wind when it creates ripples on a lake as it blows across, or musses our hair, or blows our hat off in an unexpected gust.
  • We can hear the wind in the rustling of leaves through the trees, or when it unexpectedly blows the back door shut.
  • We can feel the wind when a soft breeze caresses our cheeks, or as a strong wind makes it harder to ride a bike up a hill!
  • We can smell the wind when it catches the scent of roses in a garden or hamburgers cooking on an outdoor grill, and blows the wonderful scents our way.
  • Can we taste the wind? This is a tough thought! When talking about the wind, ask your child to come up with ways she can see, hear, touch, smell—and even taste the wind, and see what she comes up with!

 

 

Rosemarie T. Truglio, PhD, is the Senior Vice President of Curriculum and Content at Sesame Workshop. Dr. Truglio is responsible for the development of the interdisciplinary curriculum on which Sesame Street is based and oversees content development across platforms (e.g., television, publishing, toys, home video, and theme park activities). She also oversees the curriculum development for all new show production, including Esme & Roy, airing on HBO. Her current book is Ready for School! A Parent’s Guide to Playful Learning for Children Ages 2 to 5 published by Running Press (2019). 

The Most Successful Edtech Business Plan You’ve Never Read

This article was originally published on Medium in 2016 when Sesame Workshop joined forces with Reach Capital to invest in emerging companies innovating in education, health, and social welfare for children, and appears here with permission.

We are honored to partner with Sesame Workshop, one of the world’s most innovative, venerable education organizations for nearly 50 years. Sesame’s experience in children’s media, early childhood development and social-emotional learning is invaluable to our fund and portfolio companies. At Reach, we believe these are key levers that can improve opportunities and change life outcomes for children. We recently made our first early childhood investment in Kaymbu and will leverage Sesame Workshop’s deep expertise in this space to grow our early childhood investing. In the year since Reach launched, the Sesame team has supported our portfolio by providing one-on-one mentorship, offering strategic support and sharing research.

We were drawn to Sesame Street’s culture of innovation embodied in its founder, Joan Ganz Cooney. Fifty years ago she published one of the most compelling ed tech business plans I’ve ever read, a concept paper that laid the groundwork for what would become the revolutionary television show that has delighted well over a hundred million children around the world, helping them grow “smarter, stronger, and kinder.” Though conceived half a century ago, Ms. Cooney’s concept paper is timelier than ever, and instructive to ed tech entrepreneurs around the globe. The report that Ms. Cooney submitted to the Carnegie Corporation in 1966 was titled The Potential Uses of Television in Preschool Education. Television had become ubiquitous in American households, and yet children’s programming was conspicuously absent. Children started watching TV as early as two years old, but found themselves watching adult westerns or memorizing advertising jingles. The prescient Cooney saw an opportunity — she envisioned how television might become a medium to support the emotional and intellectual development of children, especially the underserved.

Today the same opportunity exists. The technology is different, with mobile devices and the internet rather than TVs at the frontier, but the issues are analogous. Ninety-seven percent of children use mobile devices, often starting as early as age one. According to a recent article in the New York Times:

“The average child in America spends more time consuming electronic media than going to school, with many teenagers going online “almost constantly.” And parents aren’t necessarily being good role models. A British study showed that while six in 10 parents worried that their children spend too much time in front of a screen, seven in 10 children worry that their parents are the ones who are plugged in and tuned out.”

Just as in 1966 when Cooney published her paper, technology has once again outpaced educational content and tools. While over 1,500 ed tech companies exist, in many ways the industry is still nascent with incipient collaboration between educators and tech developers. In the meantime, Ms. Cooney’s paper serves as a blueprint for today’s ed tech entrepreneurs. Here are a few of my takeaways:

  1. Ground your startup in research — Ms. Cooney’s vision is rooted in research from leading “cognitive development psychologists, preschool education researchers, teachers and curriculum specialists.” In section III, “What Leading Educators Think About A Television Series for Preschoolers” she shares key insights from educators- the show ought to be interactive, cover the alphabet and have a male host to contrast the predominately feminine early learning atmosphere. Ms. Cooney explores an area of sharp disagreement among the research community: could the same television show be of real value to both middle class children and disadvantaged children? Ms. Cooney argues the affirmative case and defends her position clearly. Driving learning outcomes is challenging, so when possible, the best education entrepreneurs build upon existing research with a strong point of view to increase the odds of success, then push beyond the evidence base to break new ground.
  2. Differentiate Content and Instruction — Throughout the paper, Ms. Cooney describes a scaffolded approach to learning. She suggests that each program should proceed from simple to complex concepts to provide multiple on-ramps to the content. By varying modality and complexity, children from diverse backgrounds can derive value. Sesame Street Workshop is a beautiful example of differentiation, a concept edtech companies ought to embed in their products.
  3. Be Visionary & Pragmatic — Ms. Cooney astutely toggles between a 30k-foot vision and the actual execution of it. In one section she cites Jean Piaget and questions the artificial distinction between work and play in nursery schools. In the next, like all great entrepreneurs, she’s scouting for talent and dropping names of gifted animators and other media specialists who are currently “uncommitted” or “interested in the project.” Throughout all her conceptual exploration, she keeps the final product in sight and surfaces evidence that she has a plan to make her bold vision a reality.

Finally, Ms. Cooney embraced the Lean Start-Up mindset before it was a thing. She reminds the reader that the absence of information is an opportunity and feels compelled to drive forward “We cannot wait for the right answers […] — there is no substitute for trying it, and evaluating its effects.”

Fifty years later Cooney’s philosophy is still at the core of Sesame Workshop, and it very much echoes the founding philosophy of Reach: supporting companies that use research, differentiation and exploration to scale the educational applications of their technologies to best serve children.

Jennifer Carolan is a General Partner and Co-founder of Reach Capital. She began her career in teaching and soon became interested in differentiated learning and teaching tools. After studying at the Stanford School of Education, where she also taught, Jennifer joined NewSchools in 2006 and co-founded the Seed Fund in 2011. She has led more than 50 investments and sits on the boards of six edtech companies (EdSurge, Nearpod, Education Elements, FreshGrade & WriteLab). Jennifer developed a math camp for her kids and their friends, scuba dives with her daughter, and learns piano with her sons. 

“Let the learning flow!” (…and other proven framing strategies)

To get people thinking differently about the importance of connecting STEM learning environments, and to increase public engagement in the issue, we need to start talking differently. Empirically tested strategies for how to do this are presented in a free, user-friendly communications toolkit called Wiring Up: Strategies for Talking about Connecting STEM Learning Environments. It was produced by the FrameWorks Institute and based on original research made possible through the Families Learning Across Boundaries (FamLAB) Project as well as the generous support of funding from the Heising-Simons foundation, Bezos Family Foundation, and Verizon Foundation. Here are a few highlights:

The first step in changing the conversation on any important social issue involves knowing what you’re up against—including what kinds of public-facing messages are likely to backfire, and why. (Step two is knowing what to do about it. We’ll get there in a second!) A key finding from FrameWorks’ research is that people think of the learning that takes place in informal settings—like museums, libraries, and backyards—as a nice “extra”, while they see real learning as the kind that takes place in school. Talking up the benefits of extracurricular learning may be one way the field unintentionally reinforces the “basic” vs. “bonus” STEM learning divide.

Fortunately, FrameWorks’ research has also identified an effective strategy for shifting this perception. We can help people see STEM learning as a complex system, like a machine with multiple different (and equally essential) moving parts. The metaphor of Wiring Up builds public understanding about the importance of ensuring that formal and informal STEM learning environments are effectively wired together, so that the knowledge and hands-on skills that kids develop at individual sites are allowed to merge and flow.

Another impediment to effective communication has to do with for whom STEM education is considered to be appropriate. A common assumption is that STEM learning isn’t for everyone. The thought is that STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) are complicated and require an advanced skillset, which may be helpful for future engineers or star pupils with an aptitude for science but isn’t necessary for the average learner.

Appealing to the principle of Opportunity for All helps convey the importance of making connected STEM learning accessible to all children, and with their full range of interests and aptitudes in mind. This cultural value, which is deeply held and widely shared, orients public thinking to a critical fact: Universal participation in STEM not only taps the unmet potential of previously excluded groups—like students of color, students from low-income communities, and girls—it strengthens the rigor of education programs, expands the number and quality of available opportunities, and improves learning outcomes for everyone.

A related communications challenge for advocates of connected learning is to help the public recognize that institutionalized inequities exist. Sadly, many messages that aim to build understanding about the causes of educational disparities, and about the need for system-level solutions, backfire. What often intercepts communications about structural inequality is a powerful trend within public thinking that lays all responsibility for children’s outcomes at the feet of parents. Within this model of thinking, a child who isn’t doing well in math is presumed to come from a home where math skills are not sufficiently valued, or where the parents just aren’t doing enough to support that child’s progress in the subject area. In other words, the public has a very hard time appreciating that wider social and environmental factors—like under-resourced institutions, limited transportation options, varying employment demands on caregivers, inadequate healthcare coverage for families, and the uneven geographical distribution of parks, zoos, community gardens, and other learning sites, just to name a few—influence learning outcomes significantly.

To bring structural factors forward in the public mind, the metaphor of Charging Stations can help. Describing sites of learning as stations that power up kids’ knowledge and skills enhances public understanding about the importance of multiple, high quality environments. It’s also a tool for explaining that some children are in high-wattage, densely networked areas that provide lots of opportunities to get charged up, whereas others have to operate in dead zones where there just isn’t much to plug into. The Charging Stations metaphor helps convey that our current infrastructure is patchy but, more importantly, that we can rewire our power generation systems to ensure all kids, no matter where they’re located, have meaningful opportunities to energize their learning and skills. (Tip: The Wiring Up and Charging Stations metaphors, as well as the Opportunity for All value, work together as well as separately.)

Lastly, the public knows that teachers, school administrators, and classroom aides have a lot on their plates. People are reluctant to support anything that seems like it could pile on additional responsibilities for education professionals. Advocates can avoid activating this skepticism by highlighting the ways that connecting STEM learning environments supports, rather than complicates, the work of teachers and schools. Citing specific examples of productive partnerships between formal and informal educators, including how they bring greater relevance to the classroom setting and enhance student engagement, is an effective and proven framing strategy.

There’s lots more where this came from! For further information about the above framing strategies and how to use them, check out the full Wiring Up communications toolkit. You can also read FrameWorks’ Strategic Brief when you’re ready to take a deeper dive into the research findings and associated recommendations.

 

Jessica Moyer is a sociologist and geographer, and a Senior Associate at the FrameWorks Institute where she helps advocates working across a range of progressive social issues engage the public in more productive conversations—ones that build public understanding and drive positive change.

 

A Blueprint for the Future

Michael Levine and Michael Preston

The Potential Uses of Television in Preschool Education provided a rationale, initial research base, and blueprint for the Children’s Television Workshop, now known as Sesame Workshop. Joan Ganz Cooney envisioned a program with such broad appeal that it would reach all children, especially those living in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Sesame Street has inspired children worldwide with an approach to early learning that has left an indelible imprint on generations. Its academic effectiveness has been documented in hundreds of research studies, in business case studies, and in the enduring popularity of the show’s characters, stories, and songs. Sesame Street was groundbreaking because its creators understood children and were committed to achieving specific learning outcomes.

In 1966, Mrs. Cooney set out to explore the potential of television to teach young children. While the media landscape has evolved considerably since then, Joan’s report still resonates with today’s educational and socio-economic challenges, and many of its central tenets still apply in today’s interactive and connected world. How can we tap the appeal of digital media to support and accelerate the learning and development of all children, wherever they are?

In 2007, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center was founded at Sesame Workshop to explore these questions. Led by Michael Levine for its first 10 years, we have produced a series of multidisciplinary studies, launched field-building design experiments, brought attention to emerging best practices and standards, and led a national conversation about the ways in which industry, policymakers and educators could make sense of how new media have transformed everyone’s lives.

Today, we see ourselves at a media and education crossroads of potentially transformative significance. With Michael Preston at the helm of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, we continue to explore the possible benefits of the media that children consume today. Can we promote a balanced and practical approach to address the educational inequalities that continue to compromise our nation’s potential? How can we leverage what we know about child development and media to develop interdisciplinary partnerships to create great content that helps kids learn?

We are honored to reissue this blueprint to confirm the enduring, highly relevant vision of the Workshop’s Founder, and to energize the debate over the role that media can and should play in promoting opportunity for all children. Our greatest hope is that, following in the footsteps of Joan Ganz Cooney, we will inspire leaders across sectors and disciplines to better harness the power of media to educate and delight the next generation, starting now!

 

Michael D. Preston, PhD
Executive Director
Joan Ganz Cooney Center, 2019-

Michael H. Levine, PhD
Executive Director
Joan Ganz Cooney Center, 2007-2018