Here’s a question for you, to help me understand the way science activities and science inquiry are developed in early childhood classrooms. It relates to the topic of the March 2011 issue of  Science and Children, “Shifting from “Cookbook Labs” to Full Inquiry.”
What questions do your preK-grade 2 students ask, investigate, document, and present their findings, all on their own? Any?
In the classes I work with, I see a lot of questioning, action to find out what happens, and presentation (showing or telling classmates and teachers) but not much documentation. My students rarely document their findings without my encouragement or request but they often raise questions, by their actions or they voice questions.
Here’s my preliminary list of the investigations my students undertake:

• Which food tastes better?
• Does liquid soap come out of the pump when I push down?
• Will it make a loud sound again when I dump out this basket of small objects?
• Will I get the object if I grab it from another student?
• Where was the snail yesterday (I didn’t see it in the tank)?
• What happens when I touch the magnets together?
• If I throw the scarf with more force will it go higher into the air?
• What plants do the green caterpillars live on?
• Will the sand hold a hole shape as I dig?
• Why is the tunnel warm in the sunshine and cool in the shade?
• How does my voice sound when I talk and then shout into a big cardboard tube?

And some additional questions from preschool teacher Marie Faust Evitt who has many photos of the activities online:

In the sand box:

• What happens if I put sand in a gutter as water from a hose runs down? Can I block the water?
• What happens if I dig a big hole where water is pouring into the sand?
• How can I make a lake the fastest way—letting water run down the gutter into the sandbox or filling a sand pail with water from a sink and dumping it in?

Block area:

• How tall can I make my block tower before it falls over?
• Which cars go fastest down ramps?
• How can I make cars go faster down ramps?
• How tall  can I make a building out of magna tiles?

Painting/color mixing:

• What happens if I mix these colors?
• What happens if I mix all the colors?
• What happens if I pile oodles of paint on the paper?
• What happens if I squeeze the glue container as hard as I can?

Marie says, “This is just a start. Actually when I think about it, they are posing and exploring jillions of questions… but as you say, they don’t document. They are busy doing.”
We can make a request for documenting their work and findings at times when it will extend rather than end their work. Children will refer back to this drawing/writing/photograph later in further discussion about the activity. This happened in my classroom with a drawing of how much rain was in a playground rain gauge  —a drawing made in October. Now at the end of our winter I am reintroducing the gauge (it was inside for winter) with a container for “making rain” and a tub to hold it all. The children poured water through container with holes in the bottom to make “rain”. The rain fell into the rain gauge and into the plastic tubs (and a little spilled). I asked the children, “How can we measure how tall the water column is, and how can we tell other people about it?”
Children pointed to the numbers (inches of rain) marked on the column, recognizing them as measurement. They also selected the previously introduced unit cubes, “measuring hands” (hands cut from paper and taped into a length) and links of chain as a way of seeing how tall the water column was. Others compared it to another object such as a pencil, string of beads, or the edge of a mirror. Then one child pointed to the drawing of the rain gauge hung on the wall last fall. This inspired other children to make drawings to show the height of the water in the column. I was so delighted at the various measuring strategies they used. The old drawing from the fall led to this further documentation months later, and I hope this documentation will lead to additional documentation in later weeks.
Understanding about measurement develops with experience. Being able to understand a “one to one” correspondence (saying one number for each item as we count, or matching two sets one-to-one) is a pre-kindergarten skill. Discussion about how to measure and how to count is a big part of learning about science. Playing a Weather Bingo Game is another way the children worked on math skills while learning science content.
Now that the temperatures remain mostly above freezing I put the rain gauge back out on the playground. A teacher pointed out the first sprouts of daffodil leaves poking above the soil in the backdoor garden beds. Spring is on the way! Maybe someone will measure the growth of those leaves….
Peggy