Earth Science

Earth Science

Children need go no farther than outside the classroom door to encounter earth science. As natural collectors, they love to pick up, examine, collect, and sort rocks. They dig and play in the dirt. They are fascinated by weather, seasonal changes and by clouds, the stars, the sun, and the moon. Children who live near or visit the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, or the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans see the effects of tides and waves. Children who live near the great American deserts watch the sand blow and explore dunes and rock formations. They see the effects of earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and tornadoes on television.

Earth science represents all the mysterious and enormous forces that affect the rhythm of life. Children fall in love with the earth and want to take care of it, so recycling and efforts to solve environmental problems make sense to them.

One of the challenges of earth science is that some topics, like astronomy, are very difficult for adults let alone children to grasp. Some earth science tools, such as the satellite imagery that guides our weather forecasting, also require an understanding of a bird’s-eye perspective, which children have not yet acquired. Thus learning about the solar system, for example, outside of the heavenly bodies that are directly observable, is really not developmentally appropriate for young children. What we can do is focus children’s curiosity on observation, hands-on investigation of the elements of earth that are accessible, and work on the development of environmentally responsible attitudes and dispositions.

Basic concepts important to earth science for young children include the following:

• Earth is the place where all living things (that we know about) reside
• The earth is very big
• The earth is constantly changing
• The earth is made of different kinds of materials, including dirt, rocks, minerals, air, and water
• The sun and moon affect the earth in different ways

Experts and researchers are placing increasing emphasis on creating outdoor environments that connect children to the natural world. (Bronson & Merryman, 2009; Wirth & Rosenow, 2012) While some educators assume they don’t have the time or resources to do so, there are many ways to add opportunities for access to nature to an existing playground, such as raised-bed or container planters, a rain barrel, composting bin, weather observation tools, and natural materials (e.g., dirt, logs, etc.). In addition, a growing number of print and online resources are available to teachers who want to promote learning about the natural world (see the reference list at the end of this chapter).