Working with Nature of Science in Early Childhood Education: Inspiring Children’s Curiosity, Inquiry and Play

This chapter draws on a research project that explores possibilities for teaching nature of science (NOS) in Early Childhood Education (ECE). NOS deals with issues about what science is, how scientific knowledge is developed and in what ways humans are involved in these processes. The teaching of such issues to older students has been extensively investigated, but research on NOS in ECE is extremely limited. The idea of the project was to explore how illustrated science trade books and book talks connected to these could be used to introduce NOS in ECE. The project was conducted in collaboration with five preschool teachers who worked with children aged two to six. The chapter shares two events from a preschool context that illustrate how the book talks about NOS teaching stimulated children’s curiosity, inquiry and play. We present two narratives where children and teachers are engaged in investigations. These narratives illustrate that NOS has the potential to contribute to empowerment and agency for young children, and therefore ought to have a place in an ECE science that view values of democracy and social justice as central.