Anyone who visits Illa Podendorf's classroom at the Laboratory School, University of Chicago, is soon aware that her successful teaching is based on encouraging children to work on their own and to investigate and solve problems as scientists do.
Discovery through experiments and activities is fun. But children also learn more by developing their own concepts through first hand experiences. They improve their skills of observing, collecting information and thinking. And as they do experiments, children improve their reading skill and the capacity to follow directions intelligently. Knowledge gained through personal discovery is knowledge retained to build upon.
There are many experiences in discovering science in this book through which children see or hear or otherwise observe what happens in a very small part of the universe. In this way they build understandings and concepts that help explain events in a larger universe–the goal of all scientists.
Paul E. Blackwood
Specialist for Elementary Science
Office of Education
U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare
Did you find this review helpful?