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Sesame Street Consults with French, Conezio
 When
Sesame Street needed national experts in the field of
science with preschool-aged children, it turned to the
Warner School's own ScienceStart! for help.
Lucia French, associate professor, and
Kathy Conezio, doctoral student and research associate,
were consulted on the topic of preschool science education,
in preparation for the upcoming season. The children's
show plans to focus on the concepts of science and problem
solving, especially relating to issues of nutrition,
obesity, and physical activity in preschool-aged children.
Using their experience with ScienceStart!,
an inquiry-based program that uses science as a vehicle
to develop language, literacy, and school readiness
skills among preschoolers, French and Conezio developed
a presentation for about 80 of Sesame Street's creative
staff _ script writers, artists, musicians, and songwriters
_ who had varying backgrounds in early childhood development.
"Our presentation included information
on our underlying assumptions about children as learners
_ that they are active learners who are naturally curious
about the world around them," says Conezio. "This
curiosity is the driving force behind ScienceStart!
_ using science as the foundation for a total early
childhood education curriculum involving the whole child."
They also explained that science education
involves concept building, process learning, and application
to real life. "If young people are doing color
mixing activities, they would be learning about color
words, number concepts like `more' and `less', process
skills like observation and data collection, and finally
application to real life when they used their knowledge
to make tie-dyed shirts," explains Conezio.
The presentation was well received and
many of the participants asked questions. "We were
asked many times about how nutrition and physical activity
could be approached through science and we suggested
cooking as a perfect tie-in, as well as topics that
tied movement and machines."
They were also asked about how to avoid
presenting science as magic, and how much young children
can really understand. "The video clips that we
showed clearly illustrated that young children are very
capable of forming theories about how the world works
and participating in activities that inform those theories."
For additional information on the upcoming
season of Sesame Street, visit www.sesamestreet.com.
For information on ScienceStart!, visit www.sciencestart.org.
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