The enlightenment of scientific interest begins with the reading of popular science picture books
——Take the original children's picture book "I Can Tell the Difference" as an example
The development of today's world is deeply affected by science and technology, and cultivating scientifically literate talents has become the key for countries to improve their international competitiveness. Preschool education is the cornerstone of lifelong education, and scientific enlightenment in the preschool stage can stimulate children's interest in scientific inquiry, cultivate children's scientific inquiry ability, and also enable children to know the wonders of the world and learn to care for life.
On June 3, 2021, the State Council promulgated the Outline of the State Council's Action Plan for Printing and Distributing the Scientific Quality of the Whole People (2021-2035), proposing to "strengthen the scientific enlightenment education of preschool children". So, how? According to the "Guide to the Learning and Development of 3-6-year-old Children", the scientific learning of 3-6-year-old children is the process of perceptual experience and development of image thinking in exploring specific things and solving practical problems. They can learn scientific knowledge through daily activities, picture book reading, concentrated activities, etc., of which popular science picture books take pictures as the main carrier, and present rigorous scientific knowledge in the form of art, which is a good tool for scientific knowledge enlightenment. We recommend that parents and teachers choose picture books that preschoolers like, with picture book themes that they can understand and stimulate their interest in science.
1. Choose popular science picture books with themes suitable for young children
When choosing popular science picture books, we must choose scientific topics that are of interest to preschoolers and be close to their lives. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) lists scientific topics such as pushing and pulling, animals, plants and their environments, weather and climate, based on the developmental characteristics of preschoolers. We can see that they are all topics related to life experience. After a long time of contact with children of this age, we will find that they really like to see animals, zoos, safari parks, aquariums are their preferred places to play, and many cartoons also use animal images as protagonists to tell stories. Animal encyclopedia books, with a large knowledge density, are not suitable for children of this age to read; science fairy tale books rely on interesting stories to convey scientific knowledge, but children at this age often fail to read the knowledge contained in the story.
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Figure 1 "I Can Tell the Difference" 3rd Series (18 volumes in total)
Author: Leng Linwei
Painted by Sun Xibo
Publisher: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
Publication date: May 2021
"I can tell the difference" this set of popular science books with pictures and texts, intuitive images, is suitable for preschool children's scientific enlightenment education books. In terms of topic selection, this set of books is in line with children's interests. As mentioned earlier, children are naturally interested in nature, in the flora and fauna of nature. Each book in this set introduces two animals through a comparative approach, many of which are common in children's lives, such as "Sea Lions and Seals", "Pike Crabs and Hairy Crabs", and "Octopus and Squid", which can stimulate children's interest in reading.
From the content point of view, this set of books is both scientific and interesting. The author does not abandon the scientific nature of the content because of the reader's young age, cognitive development level and limited life experience; at the same time, the content selected in the book is difficult, and the author and the illustrator allow children to obtain some empirical scientific knowledge through witty and humorous language and vivid images. For example, when comparing the baby of the emperor penguin with the baby of the king penguin, the book uses the very interesting metaphor of "kiwifruit", which is easy for children to quickly understand and remember, so as to avoid children from mechanically memorizing knowledge and losing interest in knowledge.
Figure 2 "I Can Tell the Difference Between The Second Series: Emperor Penguin and King Penguin"
Author: Leng Linwei
Publisher: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
In addition to conveying natural knowledge, popular science picture books must also pay attention to cultivating children's thinking ability and scientific skills, enlightening children's scientific thinking, and opening up children's imagination space. The book "I Can Tell the Difference" pays special attention to cultivating children's observation skills. Observation is the primary way for children to gain scientific knowledge and experience, and it is also an important scientific inquiry skill. In the process of reading, children can observe the details of a certain animal, but also compare and observe the similarities and differences of the two animals, and also have the opportunity to go to the zoo to observe real animals, it can be said that the whole set of books has consistently taken the cultivation of children's observation ability as the top priority of scientific enlightenment education. This set of books also uses the form of mind maps to compare and summarize the appearance of the two animals, hoping that children can also use this thinking tool to present their own scientific knowledge.
Figure 3 "I Can Tell the Difference Between The First Series: Sea Lions and Seals"
Author: Leng Linwei
In addition to scientific knowledge and observation ability, this set of books is also permeated with care for life, and the protection of endangered animals, such as baby raccoons, green peacocks, African elephants, etc., is mentioned many times, guiding children to think about the relationship between man and nature, and establishing a sense of love for life and protection of the environment.
2. How to use popular science picture books
Some parents and teachers may feel that their scientific knowledge is not enough, and their children's problems are strange, how to solve their problems? Popular science picture book reading is actually a process of exploration and discovery by teachers, parents and children. In this process, adults will also have different discoveries and gradually enjoy it.
I Can Tell the Difference is a book that can be used in both the home and in childcare facilities and kindergartens. "I can tell the difference" this set of books provides parents with "four-step" reading guidance and some knowledge points, which can help parents better guide their children's observation, respond to children's questions, and inspire children's thinking in the process of parent-child co-reading.
Different reading methods are recommended for children of different ages. For younger children, it is recommended that parents adopt the method of parent-child co-reading and choose some animals that are familiar to the child and are interested in. It is not necessary to read in order, nor is it mandatory to read a set of books, the focus is on guiding children to observe. You can start from a certain animal that the child likes to observe, mainly to read the picture, guide the child to observe the details of the animal, which is what the child already knows in life, and which may not be noticed when usually observing. Parents can also create opportunities for children to observe real animals, observe in the way the book is observed - from top to bottom, from the whole to the part - to record in their own way (such as taking pictures, paintings, etc.) and compare whether the real animals are exactly the same as the animals in the book, making this zoo trip full of fun and challenging.
I Can Tell the Difference this set of books uses anthropomorphism, using the first person. Parents can perform with their children at home, such as parents playing sea lions, babies playing seals, this kind of interactive reading is what children like, rather than letting children read at home once and put aside, more flipping, more interaction, more questions, and exploring the mysteries of the scientific world with children.
For teachers in childcare institutions, the book "I Can Tell the Difference" can be used as an auxiliary material for science education or life education, and can also be placed in the library area or science area for young children to read independently. In addition to reading as the main form of activity in the process of using this set of books, teachers can also combine with different forms of activities such as painting, performance, music, language, and outdoor experience, so that children can get a richer experience and a more complete experience.
3. Summary
Children's hearts are the most innocent, they are full of curiosity, they naturally like nature and like to explore. If he can satisfy his curiosity at a very young age and protect his desire to explore, it will be very helpful for future learning. Popular science picture books not only give children scientific knowledge, but also give children the ability to understand the world. Use popular science picture books to satisfy children's curiosity, use popular science picture books to take children to see the world, see nature, and enlighten children's scientific interests.