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Scientists And Children Alike: Scientists and children alike draw upon their present understanding to aid them in exploration and drawing conclusions. Existing scientific ideas inform observation, the questions asked and therefore what investigations follow. Children and scientists obviously differ in the sophistication of the use of the process and the knowledge base. It is worthwhile considering these differences in certain ideas and process skills in relation to young children. A glimpse of the world from the child's perspective can be very revealing. The following sections examine examples of children's thinking in science in relation to aspects of the scientific process.
Investigations allow scientists and children to explore their ideas about the world. McMurdo (1989, p. 220) explains that science progresses when one idea is proved false and is replaced by another idea. Scientists and children therefore repeat investigations to try to disprove their theories even if children's explorations may be unsophisticated. To a casual observer a child's exploration might look unstructured; an ad hoc series of actions. However, children invariably have a particular idea which they try out in a deliberate manner' (Harlen 1993b, p. 56).
Close observation of young children at play suggests that they find out about the world in the same way as scientists explore new phenomena and test new ideas. Young children may not be able to verbalise new ideas forming in their heads, but they may still apply similar processes to the scientists'. During this exploration, all the senses are used to observe and draw conclusions about objects and events through simple, if crude, scientific investigations.
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