{"id":2166,"date":"2010-01-16T12:30:27","date_gmt":"2010-01-16T17:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/archives\/2166"},"modified":"2010-01-16T12:30:27","modified_gmt":"2010-01-16T17:30:27","slug":"teaching-process-skills-with-childrens-literature-teaching-process-skills-with-childrens-literature-how-to-think-like-a-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/2010\/01\/16\/teaching-process-skills-with-childrens-literature-teaching-process-skills-with-childrens-literature-how-to-think-like-a-scientist\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Process Skills with Children’s Literature: How to Think Like a Scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"

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How to Think Like a Scientist<\/em> is written by Stephen P. Kramer and illustrated by Felicia Bond.\u00a0 The book focuses on real world and sometimes comical situations that children encounter.\u00a0\u00a0 The stories focus on the types of questions that arise and how students can learn by putting the scientific method into practice to get the answers to their questions.\u00a0 The illustrator, Felicia Bond illustrator for the series, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, is known for utilizing a comedic element within her illustrations making it appealing to children to read.<\/p>\n

For the sake of brevity, this example will be paraphrased.<\/p>\n

The situation entitled “Because we want to” takes a real world approach to children making choices towards completing homework.\u00a0 In this example, the teacher, Ms. Wilson, assigns a math assignment to be turned in on Monday.\u00a0 You, the student, are working diligently on a math assignment Sunday afternoon when your friend Pat calls and invites you to see a movie that you really want to see.\u00a0 Ms. Wilson has been behind on collecting and returning homework assignments and you and Pat figure she will not collect this math assignment until later in the week.\u00a0 Pat offers to distract her Monday by asking how her weekend went.<\/p>\n

QUESTION: <\/strong>Is Ms. Wilson going to collect the math assignment Monday morning?<\/p>\n

ANSWER:<\/strong>\u00a0 Pat does as promised and asks Ms. Wilson how her weekend went and she responds “I’ll tell you all about it while you’re passing your math papers up to the front of the room.”<\/p>\n

“Suddenly you feel very sick.\u00a0 You were sure the answer to the question would be “no”.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, you were the only person in the whole class who doesn’t have the paper finished.\u00a0 What happened?”<\/p>\n

“Part of the reason you answered the question incorrectly was because of an observation.”<\/p>\n

The book then takes the students through the art of using the Scientific Method.<\/p>\n

Curriculum Connections<\/strong>
\nHow To Think Like a Scientist<\/em> is appropriate for third graders in their development of logic and reasoning as well as the development of practicing the steps of the scientific method.\u00a0 SOL 3.1 a, b, g, h & j are achieved by reading this book and putting these practices in real science experiments either performed at home or in the classroom.<\/p>\n

Additional Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n