How do young children acquire science concepts?
Children begin to develop concepts, or ways they think about the world around them, through their experiences with it. For example, when a baby drops a rattle and sees it fall to the ground, and she does that over and over, she develops the very basic idea that if you are not holding something up it will fall down. This is one of the early experiences upon which she will eventually build her understanding of gravity. In her article, “Science in Early Childhood: Developing and Acquiring Fundamental Concepts and Skills,” Karen Lind states that young children have learning experiences that are either naturalistic, informal, or structured. Naturalistic experiences are ones in which children choose their activities and the actions they take during them. They are basically free explorations of things they come across in the normal, daily routines. Informal experiences are ones in which students are engaged in a naturalistic experience, but an adult is nearby and steps in occasionally with en
