Muddy Bookworm Science Class

 Rec­om­mend­ed by this issue: Car­rot Detec­tive Ajia

   
Cul­ti­vat­ing chil­dren’s sci­en­tif­ic lit­er­a­cy involves guid­ing them to build essen­tial knowl­edge and stim­u­lat­ing their inter­est and enthu­si­asm for inde­pen­dent exploration—a top­ic of par­tic­u­lar con­cern to every par­ent and teacher. In this issue, we’ve com­piled some typ­i­cal chil­dren’s sci­ence books as exam­ples for your ref­er­ence.
   
First of all, we rec­om­mend a very sim­ple lit­tle book to all our friends.Madame Curie’s Sci­ence Class: Madame Curie teach­es chil­dren physics”. It is actu­al­ly the class notes of a thir­teen or four­teen-year-old French girl a hun­dred years ago. It is a record of the lessons that Marie Curie, who was a moth­er at the time, taught her group of chil­dren in a “coop­er­a­tive class” (sim­i­lar to today’s Home­school). The sci­en­tif­ic giant who won the Nobel Prize twice per­son­al­ly taught them the most basic physics lessons. This is a touch­ing lit­tle book. It rep­re­sents one of the most sim­ple ideals of sci­en­tif­ic edu­ca­tion — “chil­dren per­son­al­ly set foot on the fer­tile soil of knowl­edge under the guid­ance of their elders.” It also shows the mod­ern teach­ing meth­ods led by sci­en­tists such as Marie Curie, “the most impor­tant part is to achieve it through behav­ior and exper­i­ments”, mak­ing sci­ence clos­er to chil­dren and dai­ly life.
http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bookclub/images/books/book_20004922_s.jpg  
 

How to use read­ing to cul­ti­vate chil­dren’s sci­en­tif­ic think­ing?(Detec­tive Car­rot)

   
Cul­ti­vat­ing a per­son­’s sci­en­tif­ic think­ing begins with cog­ni­tion. A per­son­’s under­stand­ing of the world is usu­al­ly divid­ed into mul­ti­ple stages: per­cep­tu­al cog­ni­tion, ratio­nal cog­ni­tion, spec­u­la­tive explo­ration, and so on.
   
Dif­fer­ent cog­ni­tive process­es rough­ly cor­re­spond to dif­fer­ent age groups. For exam­ple, per­cep­tu­al cog­ni­tion is asso­ci­at­ed with ear­ly child­hood, preschool, and the low­er grades of ele­men­tary school; ratio­nal cog­ni­tion is asso­ci­at­ed with the low­er and mid­dle grades of ele­men­tary school; and crit­i­cal think­ing is asso­ci­at­ed with the upper and mid­dle grades of ele­men­tary school. This divi­sion can­not be con­sid­ered a strict and accu­rate one.

   
We can lead chil­dren into this won­der­ful world step by step through read­ing, obser­va­tion and rea­son­ing prac­tice. More knowl­edge will bring more con­fi­dence and con­tent­ment. More con­fi­dence will enable us to under­stand our­selves objec­tive­ly and accu­rate­ly under­stand the rela­tion­ship between peo­ple and the envi­ron­ment, and between peo­ple and nature.Full text link)
   
The fol­low­ing are selec­tive rec­om­men­da­tions based on the dif­fer­ent rep­re­sen­ta­tive char­ac­ter­is­tics of books at dif­fer­ent cog­ni­tive stages:

【Kinder­garten-low­er grades of ele­men­tary school】
Char­ac­ter­is­tics: Per­cep­tu­al and observ­able, it is con­cise, intu­itive, direct, and inter­est­ing. It also tells you what to look at and how to look at it, demon­strat­ing that the same thing can be observed in dif­fer­ent ways.

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bookclub/images/books/book_20004472_s.gif   
http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bookclub/images/books/book_20004938_s.jpg   
http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bookclub/images/books/book_20003363_s.gif

   
First Dis­cov­ery of X‑ray Eyes Series·Conceptual Series (6 vol­umes):Shapes, num­bers, time, con­trast, sea­sons, col­ors, these con­cep­tu­al cog­ni­tions are not dry and abstract, but vivid, and are expe­ri­enced from dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives.

   
Kaguriko Chil­dren’s Sci­ence Pic­ture Books (10 vol­umes):An artist with a doc­tor­ate in engi­neer­ing presents the var­i­ous mech­a­nisms of the body in a cat­e­go­rized, intu­itive, and engag­ing way for chil­dren. Low­er ele­men­tary school stu­dents may be able to absorb more com­pre­hen­sive­ly.

    How Machines Work (Le Le Qu·Mysteries of Machines Series):This three-dimen­sion­al illus­tra­tion presents the oper­at­ing prin­ci­ples of mechan­i­cal trans­mis­sion. More like a toy, it allows young read­ers to direct­ly expe­ri­ence the prin­ci­ples through intu­itive demon­stra­tion and hands-on exper­i­men­ta­tion.

[Pri­ma­ry school low­er grades]
Char­ac­ter­is­tics: Dif­fer­ent descrip­tions and per­spec­tives of the same sub­ject are con­nect­ed mechan­i­cal­ly and log­i­cal­ly to cre­ate a com­plete sys­tem. The overview of a sys­tem is often beyond the abil­i­ty of any one per­son to cre­ate, but rather is pre­sent­ed through the com­bined per­spec­tives of oth­ers.

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bookclub/images/books/book_20004628_s.gif

   
Col­or­ful World——Children’s Map Pic­ture Book:A non-text­book, child-friend­ly world map. A child’s per­spec­tive on the world.

   
Dr. Mole’s Earth­quake Adven­ture:Through the lens of moles liv­ing under­ground, this book explains the caus­es and man­i­fes­ta­tions of earth­quakes, and explores how we, as mem­bers of our plan­et, should view them. This pop­u­lar sci­ence book, with its fairy-tale appeal, is rich in philo­soph­i­cal insights.
   
DK Sci­ence Col­lec­tion (3 vol­umes) (Star­ry Sky, Robot, Human Body):The book is a mod­el of pop­u­lar sci­ence atlas with extreme­ly pro­fes­sion­al data com­pi­la­tion, vivid and detailed nar­ra­tion, and large high-def­i­n­i­tion pic­tures. It is so intu­itive and exquis­ite that it evokes end­less imag­i­na­tion.

[Pri­ma­ry school mid­dle and upper grades and above]
Char­ac­ter­is­tics: The for­ma­tion of each sci­ence is close­ly and inex­tri­ca­bly linked to oth­er branch­es of sci­ence. There­fore, under­stand­ing the for­ma­tion of sci­ence from all per­spec­tives and across var­i­ous branch­es is the short­cut to build­ing sys­tem­at­ic cog­ni­tion.

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bookclub/images/books/book_20004949_s.jpg    
http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bookclub/images/books/book_10003590_s.jpg

   
DK Inter­est­ing Series 6‑volume set (Human Body/Mathematics/Mechanics/Chemistry/Finance/Evolution): Start­ing from the periph­ery of life, explore the sci­ence hap­pen­ing around you. It turns out that sci­ence is so real­is­tic and prac­ti­cal.

   
Hor­ri­ble Sci­ence (Illus­trat­ed Edi­tion) · Extra­or­di­nary Exper­i­ment Series 4 Vol­umes:Explore sci­ence from a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive. This sto­ry uses exag­ger­at­ed, seem­ing­ly hor­ror-nov­el tech­niques to inter­pret the his­to­ry of sci­ence, uti­liz­ing all sorts of mate­ri­als around us to pro­pose a vari­ety of bizarre exper­i­men­tal meth­ods.

    
Nobel Prize win­ners talk with chil­dren:Using a child’s per­spec­tive and con­text to dis­cuss the ori­gin, exis­tence, and descrip­tion of sci­ence presents no chal­lenge to these great sci­en­tists. It’s often said that chil­dren are very close to phi­los­o­phy. Great sci­en­tists use this kind of spec­u­la­tive method to invent and dis­cov­er.

【Spe­cial Recommendation——For Par­ents and Teach­ers】

http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bookclub/images/books/book_20004987_s.gif 
    http://www.hongniba.com.cn/bookclub/images/books/book_10006002_s.gif

   
What aspects of sci­en­tif­ic lit­er­a­cy are encom­passed? What qual­i­ties do chil­dren need or can devel­op at dif­fer­ent stages of their devel­op­ment? How are sci­en­tists actu­al­ly cre­at­ed? … The two books rec­om­mend­ed below may pro­vide some clues to these ques­tions.

   
21st Cen­tu­ry Sci­ence Edu­ca­tion Series: Bench­marks for Sci­en­tif­ic Lit­er­a­cy + Nav­i­ga­tion Map for Sci­en­tif­ic Lit­er­a­cy:The most suit­able read­ers for these two books are those who work in sci­ence edu­ca­tion, such as prin­ci­pals and sci­ence teach­ers who offer sci­ence cours­es. They are the lat­est sci­ence edu­ca­tion reform tools of the U.S. “Project 2061”. “Bench­marks for Sci­en­tif­ic Lit­er­a­cy” out­lines a grand frame­work for future sci­ence edu­ca­tion with a set of clear and coher­ent basic con­cepts and skills, while “Nav­i­ga­tion Map for Sci­en­tif­ic Lit­er­a­cy” depicts the rela­tion­ship between the learn­ing goals estab­lished by the for­mer in the form of a chart, and shows the devel­op­ment of stu­dents’ under­stand­ing from kinder­garten to high school grad­u­a­tion through a series of con­cept pro­gres­sion charts. Read­ers with spe­cial inter­est in this can also read the sis­ter book of these two books, “Sci­ence for All Amer­i­cans”, which is a descrip­tion of sci­en­tif­ic lit­er­a­cy among adults.

    
Enter­ing the World of Female Sci­en­tists (10-vol­ume set):This series of books tells the sto­ries of ten con­tem­po­rary Amer­i­can women sci­en­tists, their upbring­ing, work, sci­en­tif­ic achieve­ments, and dai­ly lives. These women have achieved remark­able suc­cess and remain active at the fore­front of research, with the youngest being in her ear­ly 40s. The sto­ries gen­er­al­ly begin with their child­hoods, their fam­i­lies, their stud­ies, and their ascent to sci­en­tif­ic heights, while also touch­ing on their love lives, mar­riages, and cur­rent lives. Notably, these sto­ries are writ­ten by sea­soned experts in pop­u­lar sci­ence writ­ing, sev­er­al of whom are sci­en­tists them­selves. This makes these sto­ries vivid and inspir­ing.

Mud School

☆ Talk­ing about Chil­dren’s Read­ing — Moti­va­tion
☆ What books should I start read­ing to my baby under 1 year old?
☆ Is it appro­pri­ate for some teach­ers to use their own lan­guage to read pic­ture books?
☆ Chat­ting with a young stu­dent about the theme of pic­ture books
☆ Hel­lo, I’m a first-grade teacher and I fol­low your method for help­ing my stu­dents read. How­ev­er, nei­ther my own demon­stra­tions nor music accom­pa­ni­ment or sto­ry­telling can keep my chil­dren qui­et. Is there any oth­er solu­tion?
…

Mud Net Chain

☆ To be a frog or to be a toad: chat­ting about par­ent­ing and grow­ing up with a fad­ing romance(Argenti­na)
☆ Reflec­tions after the Par­ents’ Meet­ing — Some Under­stand­ing and Thoughts on “Chil­dren’s Read­ing”(Dad nods)
☆ “Works” writ­ten after read­ing “Jun Wei Goes to Pri­ma­ry School”(Text and pho­tos by Lin Ziqi)
☆ [Abstract] Cul­tur­al Ecol­o­gy: Let’s Read Children’s Books Togeth­er(San­lian Life Week­ly, Chen Sai)
☆ What kind of obe­di­ent chil­dren do we need?(Meng Qian)
☆ Unveil­ing the Love World of Psy­cho­log­i­cal Coun­selors – An Inter­view with Urban House­wives Mag­a­zine
…