Scientific Literacy Project - Purdue University College of Education

Overview About SLP Classroom Inquiry Classroom Literacy Family Literacy Outcomes Researchers

Welcome to the Scientific Literacy Project

Young children are curious about the world around them and eager to explore it. This curiosity is reflected in the numerous questions that children pose in everyday conversations at home and in school. However, at the beginning of school, young children are afforded few opportunities to engage systematically and thoughtfully in learning science. On average, less than 10% of instructional time is spent on teaching science in the early grades. Science instruction occurs sporadically and the science activities that are used by teachers in early science instruction tend to be ad hoc and to inhibit inquiry and reflection on the part of young children.

The Scientific Literacy Project (SLP) is a federally funded project designed to help kindergarten teachers use inquiry-based science instruction that integrates literacy with science teaching and learning. An important goal of the project is document how and what children learn about science from such instruction.

Developed by a team of researchers at Purdue University in collaboration with Indiana classroom teachers, the SLP is grounded in the view that science is a process of inquiry in which we construct, evaluate, and reconstruct models of the natural world. Through a series of science units, children explore key scientific concepts, such as the difference between living and non-living things, tools for scientific investigation and measurement, and how living things are adapted to their habitats.

Each SLP unit combines a group of topical books with classroom activities (nature walks, maintaining a saltwater aquarium, watching eggs hatch in an incubator) that engage children in actively learning about science. During teacher-guided activities, children make predictions, record observations in their science notebooks, and discuss their findings. Inquiry and literacy activities are linked to state academic standards for kindergarten and are mapped to Science, English/Language Arts, and Mathematics standards.

Parents can also play a key role in the Scientific Literacy Project. The researchers have prepared a parent guide for each book to help parents read the science books with their child. The guides contain questions that link the book to the classroom activities, the science topic in general, and to other school subjects such as mathematics. After the books are read in class, they can be sent home each week with the reading guides to aid parents in further exploring the science topics with their children and to help extend their children’s vocabulary and reading.

About the Scientific Literacy Project

The Scientific Literacy Project evolved out of the researchers’ interests in science education, children’s early development and learning, and classroom environments that support shared understandings of the importance of scientific literacy through linkages between home and school. With funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Drs. Mantzicopoulos, Patrick, and Samarapungavan, professors of educational psychology in the College of Education at Purdue University, collaborated with public kindergarten teachers to develop the SLP curriculum, which integrates scientific inquiry and literacy.

Over a 3-year period, from 2005–2008, the researchers worked with a number of kindergarten teachers in Indiana to help them implement a series of science units in their classrooms. In 2005 the project was piloted in two schools in central Indiana. Five kindergarten teachers in six different classrooms used the SLP curriculum, provided feedback, and helped shape the inquiry and literacy activities. Three SLP classrooms began with the pilot of a 5-week unit on living things and the life cycle of the monarch butterfly in one school. In a second school, a 10-week unit on living things and marine life was piloted in two classrooms.

In Year 2 the researchers piloted six units and developed the home component of the project. Finally, in the third year of the project the researchers piloted the full classroom component in seven classrooms across two schools. In one of these two schools, 60 families from two classrooms were also involved in the project. For comparison purposes, data were also collected from kindergartens in two schools that simply implemented the regular kindergarten curriculum without the added SLP activities.

Science Learning Units

Structured on the premise that young children can effectively acquire scientific knowledge through adult-guided inquiry, interaction with other pupils in the classroom, and the continuity of home-based study, the SLP program provides learning contexts which allow children to experience the scientific process in a hands-on, meaningful way. The program includes six content-rich study units on a broad range of science topics.

What is Science?

The “What Is Science?” unit introduces children to three key themes that will be used throughout the other SLP units:

Science is the study of the natural world.
Everyone can do science.
Scientists learn about the world through planned and carefully conducted processes of inquiry.

In this unit, teachers introduce children to scientific inquiry through simple experiments with dissolving (for example, examining what happens to a variety of objects such lemonade mix, salt, beans, and a metal paper clip, in water). The teachers scaffold discussions about what it means to do science.

Tools Scientists Use

The “Tools Scientists Use” unit introduces children to ideas of scientific recording and measurement. Children learn about several tools for observing and measuring (for example, a ruler, a magnifying glass, a thermometer) and then use them during their own investigations. For example, teachers introduce the use of balance scales as a tool to determine which of two objects is heavier. Children use these tools throughout the SLP curriculum as they study about living things. The goal of this unit is not to teach formal mathematical concepts of measurement but to give children simple functional tools for observing and recording things around them.

Living Things

In “Living Things” children investigate the properties of living things. The inquiry unit is based on observations of animals and plants in the children’s environment. The unit is designed to help children explore important topics in biology such as:

differences between living and non living things
habitats and how living things are adapted to their habitats
structure and function, or how animal bodies enable them to function and survive

Children learn about these concepts by going on nature hikes to observe living and non-living things in their environments, recording observations in their science notebooks with digital photographs and drawings and writing (using invented spelling or by telling an adult who writes what the child wishes to have recorded verbatim for the child).

Force and Motion

In the “Force and Motion” unit, children investigate how things move. Classroom inquiry activities are based on observations of various types of motion. Children discuss differences in movement between living and non-living things and conduct simple experiments to determine how factors like the slope of ramps and the relative roughness of ramp surfaces influence how fast objects move down the ramp.

Marine Life

In the “Marine Life” unit, children investigate marine life and the properties of living things. Children explore important topics in biology such as:

the differences between living and non-living things
habitats and how living things are adapted to their habitats
structure and function, or how animal bodies enable them to function and survive

The classroom inquiry activities for this unit are based on observations of animals in a saltwater aquarium.

Life Cycles

In the final SLP unit, “Life Cycles,” children explore the life cycles of various living things. They watch eggs hatch in an incubator, observe the life cycle of a frog, and watch caterpillars turn into butterflies. Children make observations and record them in their science notebooks. Children revisit many concepts discussed in previous units, such as the difference between living and non-living things and how animals’ bodies enable them to function and survive.

Classroom Inquiry

Classroom inquiry activities stem from the Scientific Literacy Project’s central tenet that science is a process of inquiry in which we construct, evaluate, and reconstruct models of the natural world. Children participate in teacher-guided activities that involve making predictions, taking measurements, making observations, recording what is seen or measured, comparing observations with predictions, summarizing, and communicating answers to others. In other words, inquiry is central to science.

Each of the six science units includes a number of hands-on learning activities that support the development of important scientific reasoning skills. For example, children go on nature hikes to observe the natural world around them; they explore how friction influences the motion of objects; they practice measuring with a measuring tape; and they make observations of animals in a saltwater aquarium. Each unit includes three types of activities:

Pre-inquiry activities

These are whole-class activities that encourage brainstorming and discussion to activate knowledge that children already have on the subject in question, to introduce the purpose of the investigation, and to provide children with a framework for investigation.

Inquiry activities

Children work in small groups on activities associated with scientific investigation. Children are encouraged to ask questions or make predictions, to discuss how the planned investigation will provide relevant data, to collect and record data, and to draw conclusions from the data. During the inquiry activities, children continue to read science books that are thematically related to the topic of investigation.

Post-inquiry activities

Following the investigation, children discuss the results of their scientific inquiry and share what they have learned, either in small groups or with the whole class.

The unit guides developed by the Scientific Literacy Project (SLP) are provided as examples of how an inquiry-based science curriculum might be implemented in kindergarten classrooms. As an example, the Teacher Inquiry Guide for the Lifecyle of a Chicken Unit is available for download at the bottom of this page. We do not offer classroom kits or curricular materials. Rather, the examples used in the SLP project are meant as guides that teachers can modify, adapt, and extend to suit their needs and those of their students.

In the SLP framework, the teacher acts as a facilitator to support children’s learning from the inquiry units. The teacher scaffolds the children’s learning by asking questions, providing hints and reminders through the process of investigation, and modeling skills for children as needed. The teacher also helps children communicate by encouraging small group and whole-class discussion and developing a system for students to share what they have learned in each inquiry cycle.

Sample of Classroom Inquiry Guide

Download a sample unit guide developed by the Scientific Literacy Project (SLP) as an example of how an inquiry-based science curriculum might be implemented in kindergarten classrooms.

Classroom Literacy

Common Core or not, providing our youngest readers with a thorough grounding in nonfiction is just good teaching. There’s no better way to ensure our students acquire the background knowledge and vocabulary so essential to their understanding of subjects like science and social studies. Helen Patrick and Panayota Mantzicopoulos have written this book to assist you with this all-important effort.

Shared-book reading is an important component of the Scientific Literacy Project. Research shows that reading with young children benefits their language and conceptual development. Children’s learning improves most when the reading program promotes instructional conversation between children and teachers during and after shared-book reading. The SLP promotes reading strategies that build on children’s prior knowledge while inviting them to discuss the books and ask questions. Thus, children learn through active participation in the reading process.

Each SLP unit includes a number of developmentally appropriate, informational science books that encourage language learning while children learn about science. Each book is accompanied by a teacher guide (see download below) that offers suggestions for expanding on the themes in the book. Contrary to often-expressed views that children prefer story books, we have found that kindergarteners are fascinated by informational science books—not just those about animals, but books about tools, force and motion, and science in general. Children study the photos intently and delight in learning and using new and complex vocabulary. By using science presented in literature, teachers can capitalize on children’s natural interests, reinforce science concepts learned during classroom activities, and enhance learning for all children. More detailed guidance about the reading strategies emphasized in the SLP program is provided in the Teacher Reading Strategy Guide (see download below).

Family Literacy

Families can play an important role in the Scientific Literacy Project. The SLP home activities are structured to support the home–school connection by helping parents understand how practices in schools promote their children’s learning and what they can do to encourage learning. These activities are designed to build on children’s cultural and family experiences and their existing knowledge at school.

The SLP home component is coordinated with the classroom activities. It involves weekly shared science book-reading activities between parents and children.

When teachers and children begin the classroom SLP activities, parents are invited to support their children’s continued science and language learning at home. Parents learn about dialogic reading with their children through an in-person presentation that includes videotaped examples of reading strategies and a Parent Reading Strategies Guide they keep (see download below). Dialogic reading strategies involve parents (or other adults) engaging children, as they read together, in meaningful conversations that extend beyond the text that is read. Using different conversational strategies and prompts, which call for different types of reasoning, parents ask questions and guide children to think about, and beyond, the text.

Throughout the six units, children bring home a literacy packet that includes the non-fiction books that they have read in class. Each book has a companion Parent Book-reading Guide to aid parents in further exploring the science topics with their children. These guides are designed to help parents extend their children’s vocabulary, comprehension, thinking skills, and mathematical reasoning. The guides also present examples of dialogic reading strategies that can be used with each specific book. They facilitate parents’ use of the reading strategies while reading with their children, so they can scaffold their own children’s learning.

For example, the guides encourage parents to use the language of science with their children to help them understand and use new content words introduced in the books. The parent book-reading guides also emphasize action words and phrases that promote discussion and extend ideas from the books into the children’s own experiences at home and in school. Parents can use activities and discuss topics included in the guides to encourage their children to make comparisons, to ask questions, to generate explanations, to evaluate information, and to talk about their observations of things in the world around them.

Research Outcomes

Several studies show that the Scientific Literacy Project’s integrated science inquiry and reading activities are yielding gains for young children. Multiple sources of data (e.g., artifacts such as science notebook entries, photographs, activity boards, as well as video-recordings of children engaged in science activities) show that young children can ask meaningful questions, make predictions about outcomes, observe and record evidence, revise and represent their knowledge, and communicate their findings (Samarapungavan et al., 2008, 2011). Not only does participation in the SLP activities promote science learning, but it also fosters motivation for science (Mantzicopoulos et al., 2008; 2013; Patrick et al., 2009). This includes positive competence beliefs (e.g., I am really good at science, and I can do science), as well as perceptions that science is interesting (e.g., I like learning science) and worth pursuing.

In addition, participation in the SLP activities impacts children’s ideas about what science involves (Mantzicopoulos et al., 2009). Children begin to develop meanings about science that include both science content and processes that are integral to the conduct of science (e.g., asking questions, conducting observations, acquiring knowledge through reading relevant texts, conducting experiments, drawing conclusions, sharing their findings). In contrast, kindergarteners receiving only the traditional science lessons hold naïve views about science as a dangerous or magical enterprise that’s appropriate for older children. Their conceptions of science seem to be the result of learning through interactions with older siblings, or from experiences with store-bought science materials (e.g., volcano kits) or toys (e.g., Dr. Dreadful freaky food lab) that children play with at home. Participation in SLP seems to be especially beneficial for girls, seemingly eliminating the gender gap in motivation for science. This finding also supports the position that, in the absence of a coherent and sustained program of science instruction, young children learn the typically gendered views of science commonly presented in society (Patrick et al., 2009). These findings bolster the case that children’s early involvement with science in school contributes to their science knowledge and conceptual understanding. In addition, participation in SLP activities promotes young children’s enjoyment of science along with concepts of themselves as competent science learners.

This information should encourage teachers of young children to spend time on science instruction, and should provide a model for the feasibility and effectiveness of integration across content areas in the early grades. Listed below are the studies to date that have stemmed from the Scientific Literacy Project:

Mantzicopoulos, P., Patrick, H., & Samarapungavan, A. (2013). Science literacy in school and home contexts. Cognition and Instruction, 31, 62-119.

Mantzicopoulos,P., & Patrick, H., (2011). Reading picture books and learning science: Engaging young children with informational text. Theory into Practice, 50, 269-276.

Samarapungavan,P., Patrick, H., & Mantzicopoulos, P. (2011). What kindergarten students learn in inquiry-based science classrooms. Cognition and Instruction, 29, 416-470.

Mantzicopoulos, P., & Patrick, H. (2010) “The seesaw is a machine that goes up and down:” Youngchildren’s narrative responses to science-related informational text.” Early Education and Development, 21,412-444.

*** Recipient of The 2010 JRST Award from the National Association for Research in Science Teaching*** Patrick, H., Mantzicopoulos, P., & Samarapungavan, A. (2009). Motivation for learning science in kindergarten: Is there a gender gap and does integrated inquiry and literacy instruction make a difference? Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 46, 166–191.

Mantzicopoulos, P., Samarapungavan, A., & Patrick, H. (2009). “We learn how to predict and be a scientist:”Early science experiences and kindergarten children’s social meanings about science. Cognition and Instruction, 27, 312-369.

Samarapungavan, A., Mantzicopoulos, P., Patrick, H., & French, B. F. (2009). The development and validation of the Science Learning Assessment (SLA): A measure of kindergarten science learning. Journal of Advanced Academics, 20, 502-535.

Patrick, H., Mantzicopoulos, P., & Samarapungavan, A. (2009). Reading, writing, and conducting inquiry about science in kindergarten. Young Children, 64(6), 32-38.

Samarapungavan, A., Mantzicopoulos, P., & Patrick, H. (2008). Learning science through inquiry in kindergarten. Science Education, 92, 868–908.

Patrick, H., Mantzicopoulos, P., Samarapungavan, A., & French, B. F. (2008). Patterns of young children’s motivation for science and teacher-child relationships. Journal of Experimental Education, 76, 121–144.

Mantzicopoulos, P., Patrick, H., & Samarapungavan, A. (2008). Young children’s motivational beliefs about learning science. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23, 378–394.

Researchers

Youli Mantzicopoulos

Professor of Educational Psychology Principal Investigator Department of Educational Studies at Purdue University

Helen Patrick

Associate Professor in Educational Psychology Co-Principal Investigator Department of Educational Studies at Purdue University

Ala Samarapungavan

Professor of Educational Psychology Co-Principal Investigator Department of Educational Studies at Purdue University