The observation has been taken place in a science and technology room in kindergarten where children play with strategic games and toys. For this observation, this room is selected because, it would allow to observe the interest of the children on science, technology and mathematics. The focus of this observation was a group of 4 children. Every one of them was 4 years old. The observation has been conducted after getting the acknowledgement from school authority and educators. The science and technology room has several interesting tools such as computer, building blocks, hanging ball, push back toys, fibre vacuum box, math puzzle box, number system chart, and other technical and scientific learning materials for the children of 2 to 5 years old.
The age of 4 is very crucial for social, communicational, intellectual and cognitive development. The growth rate of every child is different and the growth distribution of those several aspects are not same. For instance, a child might have more cognitive development than the development of intellectuality or reasoning. The growth rate and pattern largely depend on the child’s perception and interest on the surroundings. Therefore, in order to assist the children of this age group proper understanding of their interest is also important. This study has been focused on the science, technology and mathematics learning pattern and learning interest of the chosen group of children.
The focus of the study was 4 children namely child 1, child2, child3 and child 4 respectively. Because of their similar age, the chosen group of children showed a similar pattern of interest and concepts about science, technology and mathematics. The set of tasks were given to test their learning interest. For mathematical learning process, most of the child are found to more interested to learn through tool based calculation process rather using written format of calculation. Children were tending to use calculation tool based learning such as multiple coloured balls, string and feather and others. It allowed them to get involved in the calculation process with better practical understanding. At the same time it also helps to enhance their reasoning capability while having a playful mind.
All of the 4 children performed very well in the science based observation as well. It has been found that most of the children perceived the computer as a tool of watching colourful pictures or videos of animals, plants or other attractive pictures of nature. The attractive pictures and videos kept them motivated towards using the computer mouse and keyboard. When it comes to science, majority of the students were found to be interested in learning about animals with the unique habits like ant eaters, sloths and manis instead of popularly known animals like Lion and tiger. Apart from that, all the children have demonstrated interest in the activities organized to help them learning the science behind every phenomenon like the egg drop activity or the “Tornado in a bottle” activity. The egg drop activity helps them to gather knowledge about gravitation. Moreover, the activity also helps them to enhance their motor activities while they gets involved in trying to save the eggs from breaking. Thus it was noticed that call the children are showing interest in learning scientific facts from activity based learning instead of book based learning.
The chief focus of the learning plan is to promote the physical, social, creative as well as cognitive development of the children. Considering the fact that all the children are of similar age range, the strengths and interests as well as the development requirements of the children are similar. When it comes to mathematics, it has been found that children are more interested in learning through tool based activities instead of theoretical learning. Hence mathematical activities will be developed in order to enhance their number sense. Considering the fact that child 2 lacks the ability to count accurately, these activities will enhance their number sense. The key concepts that will be taught to the students under number and counting includes one-one principle, abstraction principle, order-irrelevance principle and cardinal principle. Secondly, number representation will be performed in order to make mathematics numeric real by using pictures, symbols and objects. Other mathematics learning focus includes spatial sense, that latter will be called “geometry”, measurement knowledge of patterns, problem solving and estimation.
For science based activities, the educator will take all the children to the school garden where they will be taught to plant seeds in groups. Each group will contain 2 children. While one child will dig the soil another will plant the seed and cover it will soil. The activity will be done in alteration. Another activity to enhance the Knowledge of the student about water displacement will be incorporated by the educator. A large glass jar filled with one forth of water will be kept in the middle of the class. A good number of stones of different shapes and size will be kept beside the jar. Children will be divided in a group of 2. Each group will be asked to raise the level of water by dropping stone inside the glass jar. With the rising level of water will enhance the children’s interest. In order to make the game more attractive to children, small tortoise will be clipped at the mouth of the jar and they will be told that they are helping the tortoise to get reach of the water level. While dropping stone children will be able to understand that stone of which shape is appropriate for enhancing the level.
In order to enhance their knowledge about technology, children will be taught how to use the gardening materials. Since, all the children are found to be interested in learning about unique scientific facts and prefer activity based learning over theory based learning, the science learning plan will be developed keeping these factors in mind. Students will be taught about how to identify proper gardening tools, color identification of plants and their offspring’s and how to grow plants with the help of activity based learning. Activities like finger using planting a plant will be introduced. Apart from that, children will be taught about plant body parts. The key concepts that will be taught under the mentioned topic include uniquely of each individual, function of bones, muscles, heart, lungs and senses. Apart from them, every child will be taught about air, water, rocks and minerals and gravity with the help of the gardening activity as well as theory based learning.
The chief aim of the learning plan is not only to enhance the knowledge of the children but to develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency.
The following EYLF outcomes have helped the educator to plan the experiences for individual learning and curriculum.
Learning outcome 1: Children have developed a strong sense of identity
Learning outcome 2: Children have developed connection as well as contributed to their world
Learning outcome 4: Children have developed confidence and has become an involved learner.
Considering the fact that he learning plan is developed for school students, the setting that will be used for the experience includes classrooms. According to researchers, classroom setup has the potential to dramatically affect the attitude of the children and their learning habits (Charlesworth, 2015). Children will be provided with a classroom ambience which is comfortable, stimulating as well as organized in order to provide effective learning experience. According to psychologists, children generally prefer colourful materials. Hence, the cards will be printed with bright colours like yellow red and green. Apart from that the small garden will be wide open in order enhance natural light in it. However, the gardening materials will be placed away from the boundaries in order to keep the children in safe distance from the fence. All the equipments need for learning experience will be placed inside the small garden.
For theoretical learning of both mathematics and science, colorfully books will be needed.
In order to achieve the learning outcome it is highly crucial to develop the interest of the children in learning experiences. In order to attract children for mathematics learning experience, activity based learning will be introduced before theoretical learning in order to demonstrate a playful attitude towards the learning process. For instance, in case of mathematical learning experience, the “card number identification” activity can be introduced. In a bucket, several cards with plant pictures and numbers will be given to the children. Each child will be asked to separate toys of a specific color from rest of the toys in the bucket. In order to encourage children in that game, the educator must praise the effort of the student by clapping or using appreciating words. Moreover, in order to enhance the children’s understanding off spatial relationship they will be encouraged to crawl through play tunnels, climb up in a toddler slide and play in a big box.
For science based activities, the educator will take all the children to the school garden where they will be tough to plant seeds in groups. Each group will contain 2 children. While one child will dig the soil, another will plant the seed and cover it will soil. The activity will be done in alteration. Another activity to enhance the Knowledge of the student about water displacement will be incorporated by the educator. A large glass jar filled with one forth of water will be kept in the middle of the class. A good number of stones of different shapes and size will be kept beside the jar. Children will be divided in a group of 2. Each group will be asked to raise the level of water by dropping stone inside the glass jar. With the rising level of water will enhance the children’s interest. In order to make the game more attractive to children, small tortoise will be clipped at the mouth of the jar and they will be told that they are helping the tortoise to get reach of the water level. While dropping stone children will be able to understand that stone of which shape is appropriate for enhancing the level.
In both the activities, no adults apart from the educator will be involved. After each activity, children will be encouraged to clean their classroom by keeping all the materials at their appropriate place. The activity thus will not only enhance their knowledge but will also develop their motor and cognitive skill of the children along with their tendency to work as group and show respect to their peers.
In order to review the learning experience plan, the track of every activities, the reaction of children while playing the activities and their monthly development will be traced down in details. After each and every week, a playful examination of the student will be taken verbally. For children will be asked to pick cards of a specific colour from a bucket full of colourful cards with different plant pictures printed on them. The success of the experience will be determined on the basis of success of children in the exams taken (Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2015). In case of lower success rate in the learning experience, the educator will try to find out the loophole of the learning process and develop strategies that will enable him or her to overcome the loophole.
The chief factor that will be analysed while assessing the degree of success of the learning activity includes the degree of cognitive, motor skill development of each child. Apart from that their adoptability of the world and their degree o understanding while playing with their peers will also be assessed.
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the learning experience plan, several process, including accessing the knowledge of the students through exam as well as feedback collection from their parents have been performed. The aim of the learning process plan was to achieve the three ELYF learning plan. While several learning outcomes were being met, several outcomes are still to be met. While implementing the learning plan, it was evidenced that students are taking greater interest in activity based education instead of theory based education. All the children have shown high interest in the science based activities. In order to incorporate the knowledge of group work and understanding, groups were developed during every activity. It was evidenced that no misunderstanding or quarrels have taken place and all the children have developed the knowledge of understanding. According to researchers, for a child it is highly crucial to understand the effectiveness of team work. Working as a part of a team strengthens the social as well as emotion skill of a child. It also develops their communication skill and confidence which in turn impose a deep impact on their personal skills.
It has been evidenced that the mathematical learning experience have enhanced thee cognitive skill of the children. For instance, the colour detecting skill of child 1 has got enhanced. Moreover, children have developed the skill to crawl through long loops and climb on slides. However, no significant improvement was noticed in the knowledge of numbers. This is because, majority of children have shown reluctance in memorizing numbers. Hence it is highly crucial to develop an effective strategy to enhance their interest in detecting and memorizing number (Yu & Smith, 2012). While implementing the water displacement activity, it was evidenced that every children were able to understand stones of which shape will be able to bring the level of water up rapidly. It was unexpected since the tutor had expected that children will perform mistakes like selecting a stone which is too large to enter the jar or selecting stones that are too small to enhance the level of water (Sikder & Fleer, 2015). In order to understand the development o skills of the children, feedback from parents were taken. 84 percent parents stated that the children are able to identify colours and patterns in their daily life which prove that the learning experience plan has gained success. However, the fact that children showed reluctance when asked to clean the classroom after activity cannot be denied. Hence, strategies need to be developed in order to make the children understand the importance of cleanliness (Pereira, Smith & Yu, 2014). Moreover, for the children who have not experience development of their cognitive or motor skills, different activities targeting their specific area of weakness will be developed.
Being an educator, I think, the requirement to focus on science in the early childhood classroom is based on a number of factors currently affecting the early childhood community. Children, who poses a vast base of experience in domain specific knowledge moves more rapidly towards success since they develop greater ability to acquire complex skills. While developing the learning experience plan for the children, I have developed several learning which have enhanced my experience and has the potential to help me with my future career. Firstly, I learn that, since children are attracted towards colourful objects it is much easier to make them learn numbers with the help of colourful objects like blocks and balls. I also learned that activity based learning attract students much more than theory based learning. As an educator, I had selected activities keeping in mind the age of the children their abilities and their learning requirements. However, I was surprised to notice the fact that that majority of the student has demonstrated better performance than what I had expected them to do.
For instance, all the students were able to pick the stone of appropriate size in order to raise the water level of the jar. Thus, from this activity, I was able to understand that children at the age of 4 develop enough visual capability. When it comes to my experience while developing and implementing science learning experience plan, I understood that children lack the knowledge of how to dig soil for plantation. Moreover, considering the fact that, child 3 had got hurt during using the shovel to dig soil, I understood that during outdoor activity it is highly crucial for an educator to keep strict invigilation on the activity of the children. During the evolution of the learning process I understood that lack of theory based learning experience has adversely affected the development of knowledge of the student. This understanding will be beneficial for my future since I will incorporate both theory based learning as well as activity based learning in my future learning experience plans.. For instance during planning learning experience for mathematics, I will implement the process of counting to be the initial step. Along with that, I will try to teach maths to the children with the help of everyday objects like buttons, money, fruits, vegetables, books and pens. As per my opinion, Maths is easier to teach when one look at all of the physical objects that can be counted, added or multiplied. Apart from that, I will invest on abacus to enhance the knowledge of students in future. Children love to slide abacus beads back and forth along the wires. An abacus can be used to teach kids addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Finally, it can be said that the science and mathematics learning plan have helped me gather an in-depth knowledge of the capabilities of the children and the loopholes that must be avoided in order to enhance their overall development.
Reference List
Charlesworth, R. (2015). Math and science for young children. Cengage Learning.
Hirsh-Pasek, K., Zosh, J. M., Golinkoff, R. M., Gray, J. H., Robb, M. B., & Kaufman, J. (2015). Putting education in “educational” apps: Lessons from the science of learning. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 16(1), 3-34.
Pereira, A. F., Smith, L. B., & Yu, C. (2014). A bottom-up view of toddler word learning. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 21(1), 178-185.
Sikder, S., & Fleer, M. (2015). Small science: Infants and toddlers experiencing science in everyday family life. Research in Science Education, 45(3), 445-464.
Yu, C., & Smith, L. B. (2012). Embodied attention and word learning by toddlers. Cognition, 125(2), 244-262.
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