All children are natural scientists at first, exploring the world through their senses, and using their reasoning abilities to form hypotheses and test them. But some children seem to be drawn to science the way others are drawn to the arts or sports. How can we nurture them in their early years?

The preschool scientist

The preschool years are all about science. Learning to talk is the process of developing linguistic tools. Learning skills such as sorting blocks requires the beginnings of the process that scientists use to categorize. Children learn social rules through observation, making hypotheses, and testing them.

The preschool years are also the messy years. Preschoolers don’t just do better with hands-on learning—hands-on learning is what they do. To adults, this sort of learning looks more like playing than learning, but that is only because adults have been taught to believe that learning is hard work.

The preschool years are the magic years. These are the years in which the properties of baking soda and water versus baking soda and vinegar are wonderful and full of mystery. Most preschoolers have no interest in written explanations of such chemical marvels, but they learn the fundamentals of chemistry and other sciences in a more tactile and intuitive way.

The preschool years are also those which define “normal” to a child. Parents who speak babytalk to their small children, deflect their many questions about the world, and don’t engage them in serious discussion are missing an opportunity to mold a science lifestyle for their children. A child scientist has been raised to use the correct word for terrarium, to know that the word’s root is terra, or earth, and to question what can live in a terrarium and how it must be cared for.

The elementary scientist

One of the saddest victims of recent educational trends is the loss of science in the elementary grades. The focus on forcing all children to learn a set curriculum at specific ages, and the shift to standardized testing as a way to measure children’s learning rather than depending on the perceptions of the adults who work with them has led our society to view children as shelves with slots for pieces of knowledge.

There is, of course, a body of knowledge and skills that children will need to attain, but anyone who has nurtured a young scientist knows that not all children take the same path to acquiring that knowledge. Science in the elementary years can teach all the skills necessary for elementary education while also nurturing the scientific brain and readying it for more rigorous education.

Science in the elementary years generally focuses on exploring our world in ways that appeal to children: from the development of plants to our solar system and beyond. As children gain reading and writing skills, science can allow them to formulate their ideas and ask questions based on what they know. Elementary science shows what children can observe and do in the real world that they live in.

Elementary science is also the time to set up the basic skills necessary for operating within the scientific method. Children learning the scientific method at this age will adopt the process easily, and will be prepared to jump right into using it as they graduate to higher-level experimental work.

The elementary years are also the idea years. Where your preschooler once viewed nature as magic, now your child will be enticed by scientific ideas. It’s not important for your child to have studied the specifics of any science discipline to appreciate each discipline’s great concepts. Without an understanding of the great concepts, learning the details will seem like pointless drudgery.

A number of great scientists have said that the foundation for their studies was a childhood full of curiosity and exploration, combined with understanding adults who encouraged and nurtured their interests.

Scientists are not created once their minds are ready to learn the hard facts and their hands ready to do the hard work. Scientists are nurtured step-by-step through their early years.