Science Experiences for the Early Childhood Years An Integrative Affective Approach

We have revised this book with the goal of helping you inspire children to care about their world and how it works, to enjoy their investigations, and to proudly remember what they have figured out. It is that kind of emotional involvement which makes any significant learning possible. That crucial element, sadly, is missing from the national mandates decreeing what studentswilllearn. We believe that the role of emotion in learning must be recognized to revitalize education in this country. To reach our goal, we are bringing you the important work of Stanley Greenspan, M.D., defining the emotional origins of intellectual development. We have also added the broadened neuroscience understandings about the complex interactions between emotions, thought processes, and memory. We have recast the learning objectives for the science activities to reflect our convictions about the importance of connecting children's feelings with meaningful explorations for lasting learning. Other updates in this revision include new classroom experiences with insects, things that move in the air, simple machines, and crystal formation. We continue to value taking science outdoors and, to facilitate this we suggest new ways to improve the schoolgrounds. As usual, we have sorted through the outpouring of new publications to recommend books and other resources to enrich exploration of the topics covered. During the course of our revision process, we were privileged one afternoon to have tea with Stanley Greenspan, discussing how best to present his insights to you. We also asked his advice for teachers. His answer was clear and impressive. He said, "Engage emotionally with kids, and have a lot of respect for their individual differences." We believe that when you do so, you will find as much satisfaction and pleasure as we found in "doing" science with the children in our classrooms.Harlan, Jean is the author of 'Science Experiences for the Early Childhood Years An Integrative Affective Approach', published 2003 under ISBN 9780130384997 and ISBN 0130384992.