4.2 3H principle in education of young children

As stated by Fleer, in order for teachers to achieve effective teaching, they should not only enrich their content/skills knowledge in science; they should also have a strong educational philosophy and pedagogical applications to be able to teach science [9]. Reggio Emilia approach provides a contemporary and an alterna-

Reggio Emilia approach is examined and defined here from the perspectives of

4. Reggio Emilia philosophy of teaching and learning science

There are many models to integrate curriculum, namely, fragmented, connected, nested, sequenced, shared, webbed, traded, integrated, immersed, and networked model. Each model displays a different type of curriculum, being content oriented and/or single disciplined through process oriented and/or student focused. The integrated curriculum model aims competence in the mean of overall integrated learning competence in math, science, literacy, art/music, and all other discipline domains. Moreover, curriculum integration encourages teachers to take into account children's whole development including cognitive and social develop-

ment, while integration happens in the program and experiences [10, 11].

classrooms and develops through new research experiences (explorations) and theories (children's ideas and hypothesis on how the world works). Children are encouraged to ask questions and addressed to search on their own interests. There is

freedom for inquiry, questioning, diverse ideas, and differences. Unlike the separate-subject approach, in integrated curriculum model, there is collaborative planning and conceptual integrity. In the integrated curriculum model, child is in the center (child-centered and child is the one who is questioning), but in Reggio Emilia approach, the child, teacher, and parents are all in the center as being pro-

In curriculum integration, planning begins with a central topic in Reggio Emilia

Reggio Emilia approach resembles more immersed model because as stated by Fogarty, integration takes place within learners, and immersed learners constantly make connections to the topic of the research. Children control their own learning by choosing the topic which they inquire about and which they are interested in. Teachers constantly observe and collect data about interests of children and then decide what to do next in the planning of the curriculum, just like in Reggio Emilia

Charbonneau states that competency is one of the factors that is needed to be "successful." All other factors are understanding the relevancy of what they are learning in the classroom to life in the "real world," applying what they learn to that real world, making their own decisions comfortably and trusting in their own ability to do so, questioning and inquiring thoughtfully and creatively, using problem solving skills, and having realistic and high expectations for their own performance [14]. According to those factors, Reggio Emilia children appear to be competent. Moreover, Charbonneau indicates that formal measurement and evaluation models do not provide enough information about how children think and process concepts and how they assess their own learning. However, Reggio Emilia teachers accomplish that successfully through pedagogical documentation of all protagonists of

tive perspective to early childhood science education.

integrated teaching and learning and 3H principle.

4.1 Integrated teaching and learning

Early Childhood Education

tagonists, and all are questioning [10–13].

education including children and the program.

preschools [3, 10–13].

86

The term 3Hs used by Inan [5] is new to science literacy, but the idea behind 3Hs is not new to science educators. The acronym 3H principle stands for "handsheads-hearts-on education." "Hands-on" science education stands for children's active engagement with science, "heads-on" science education stands for inquirybased education, and "hearts-on" science education stands for interest-based science education. These three qualities of science education, namely, hands-on, heads-on, and hearts-on, refer to education and development of the whole child. Such whole-child perspective considers cognitive aspects of learning (e.g., inquiring, categorizing, reasoning, predicting, interpreting, and theorizing), social aspects of learning (e.g., discussing, being a part of the learning community, cooperating, sharing, communicating, playing, learning from each other), language aspects of learning (e.g., communicating ideas using hundred languages, using technical terms), physical aspects of learning (e.g., engaging with both small motor skills and large motor skills like writing, drawing, jumping, running), and affective skills (e.g., satisfying their own interests, inquiries, and needs, working on love of subject matter in a playful context, caring about others, and having fun) [5, 15].

Reggio Emilia approach proposes an ideal early childhood science education by making use of a wide variety of theories, such as constructivism, social constructivism, play, and inquiry-based education. All those theories emphasize various strategies for education of young children. Taking those theories into consideration, Reggio Emilia teachers create a context for hands-on, heads-on, and hearts-on science education and get all three to work together. Projects, when maintained by appropriate teacher support, enriched environment, and documentation, create a playful context in which children can be actively and happily engaged in their science-related inquiry [5, 15].

This chapter presents the extended example of a negotiated science project, the 80 Project. The 80 Project is a co-constructed project that emerged at Altın Çağ preschools which are Turkish preschools inspired by Reggio Emilia approach. The 80 Project emerged out of a group of children's interest in ambulances and the teacher's initial planning with emergency services and took its direction from children's interests and the teacher's support, enrichment, and deepening of this interest. I describe how this emergent, integrated, science-rich project started and developed with some photos so the teachers can easily comprehend how to get children work on science projects from the first stage of development of a project to the last and how elements of this particular preschool accomplish curriculum integration and 3H principle of early childhood education and satisfy children's hands, minds, and hearts.

### 5. The 80 project

It was a regular school day in Reggio Emilia-inspired Altın Çağ preschools, and a group of 5- to 6-year-old preschoolers was playing in the classroom. Nobody knew that a long, productive, and joyful science project was started. The 80 Project was started with examining body organs by making a child-sized doll with craft paper named by the preschoolers "80" at the beginning of the school year (September), and then the project was evolved into ambulance, hospital, and drug production through January, and the story of curing the doll at the hospital lasted until the end of the school year.


Three children looked so excited about a wounded patient pretending to be in the ambulance. They were trying to help the patient who hurt his leg. The children were using some cloths to carry him from the ambulance to the emergency room. However, the cloths were not really helpful to carry him. Some more children started going into that pretend play. Some of them were pretending to be doctors, some of them were nurses, one was the ambulance driver, and one was the wounded person.

room. With the help of enriched physical environment and materials, the preschoolers started working on more in-depth inquiry questions (Figure 3).

Child A: Doctor, how do you know what drug will cure me?

Weaving the table with tiny ropes to create a quarantine room at the hospital.

Science Education in Reggio Emilia-Inspired Altın Çağ Preschools

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81760

Child B: I will give you a pink pill.

Figure 3.

• How can drugs cure people?

Table 1.

89

• Why are colors of drugs all different from each other?

• Why does taste of drugs vary from each other?

• What hypothesis do they have?—What do they want to know?

• What do children know?—What do they inquire?

The teacher frequently asks herself those questions.

Child A: I think that antibiotics are sour. Child C: No, I think that they are delicious.

Child D: You might have cancer and I will write you Calpol and antibiotics.

Child C: I will give you cream and antibiotics. My mom has a blackberry cream.

The teacher was systematically asking herself questions (see Table 1), listening to the dialogs among children, observing and documenting what preschoolers were playing and discussing, and asking questions at circle or project time, because teachers inspired by Reggio Emilia at Altın Çağ preschools observe the interest and grab onto that if there is a lot of potential and then build on it by reinventing the classroom environment and asking provocative questions. The teacher said that the preschoolers were interested in ingredients of drugs and inquired about how to make drugs and cream. As stated by Strozzi and Vecchi, "In considering a significant experience such as that which is lived in a preschool, nothing should be neglected, not even the most apparently insignificant or marginal details" [16]. The teacher started asking the preschoolers provocative questions such as:

• Some drugs are cream; some are capsules. Are there drugs in various forms?

The preschoolers were laying their cloths on the floor, and one was pretending to be a patient and putting himself down on the cloth as if it was a wheeled bed or a surgery table. The teacher of the classroom, Didem, decided to add a fitted bed sheet, because it was stronger and bigger than child cloths to carry someone. Then, the preschoolers started using it. Pretend doctors were covering the wounded knees and legs with napkins and wipes, and the patient was recovering suddenly.

Since the preschoolers were getting more excited during the process of this pretend play, the teacher decided to enrich the play and add some more materials, such as bonnet, bib, scissors, gloves, cotton, body/organs, stethoscope, bandage, blood pressure device/sphygmomanometer, and so on. Moreover, since Reggio Emilia approach aims to create an environment which displays and supports cultural integrity, the teacher allowed the preschoolers to bring their toys or materials from home. For example, in order to make herbal drugs, some preschoolers brought plants or beans from home (Figure 2).

The preschoolers continued to work in the classroom by using newly added materials and make visits to the playground and outside the school. They started investigating medical materials and making a special place for patients. They used tiny ropes to weave and cover a table. They said that nobody except patients and doctors can enter this place and then patients are not allowed to exit this place and even touch the ropes. The teacher said that it is like a quarantine room at hospitals, and patients, who might have an infectious disease, are not allowed to leave the

Figure 2. Preschoolers are experiencing medical materials.

Science Education in Reggio Emilia-Inspired Altın Çağ Preschools DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81760

Child A: If the doctor does not give us a prescription, we cannot take a drug, and

Child C: Doctors examine the patient first, and then we go to the pharmacist,

Three children looked so excited about a wounded patient pretending to be in the ambulance. They were trying to help the patient who hurt his leg. The children were using some cloths to carry him from the ambulance to the emergency room. However, the cloths were not really helpful to carry him. Some more children started going into that pretend play. Some of them were pretending to be doctors, some of them were nurses, one was the ambulance driver, and one was the

The preschoolers were laying their cloths on the floor, and one was pretending to be a patient and putting himself down on the cloth as if it was a wheeled bed or a surgery table. The teacher of the classroom, Didem, decided to add a fitted bed sheet, because it was stronger and bigger than child cloths to carry someone. Then, the preschoolers started using it. Pretend doctors were covering the wounded knees and legs with napkins and wipes, and the patient was recovering

Since the preschoolers were getting more excited during the process of this pretend play, the teacher decided to enrich the play and add some more materials, such as bonnet, bib, scissors, gloves, cotton, body/organs, stethoscope, bandage, blood pressure device/sphygmomanometer, and so on. Moreover, since Reggio Emilia approach aims to create an environment which displays and supports cultural integrity, the teacher allowed the preschoolers to bring their toys or materials from home. For example, in order to make herbal drugs, some preschoolers brought

The preschoolers continued to work in the classroom by using newly added materials and make visits to the playground and outside the school. They started investigating medical materials and making a special place for patients. They used tiny ropes to weave and cover a table. They said that nobody except patients and doctors can enter this place and then patients are not allowed to exit this place and even touch the ropes. The teacher said that it is like a quarantine room at hospitals, and patients, who might have an infectious disease, are not allowed to leave the

Child B: Why are all of the drugs being sold in the pharmacy?

Child A: Doctor, how do you know what drug will cure me?

who stays somewhere different.

we cannot recover.

Early Childhood Education

plants or beans from home (Figure 2).

Preschoolers are experiencing medical materials.

wounded person.

suddenly.

Figure 2.

88

Figure 3. Weaving the table with tiny ropes to create a quarantine room at the hospital.

room. With the help of enriched physical environment and materials, the preschoolers started working on more in-depth inquiry questions (Figure 3).

Child D: You might have cancer and I will write you Calpol and antibiotics.

Child A: Doctor, how do you know what drug will cure me?

Child B: I will give you a pink pill.

Child C: I will give you cream and antibiotics. My mom has a blackberry cream.

Child A: I think that antibiotics are sour.

Child C: No, I think that they are delicious.

The teacher was systematically asking herself questions (see Table 1), listening to the dialogs among children, observing and documenting what preschoolers were playing and discussing, and asking questions at circle or project time, because teachers inspired by Reggio Emilia at Altın Çağ preschools observe the interest and grab onto that if there is a lot of potential and then build on it by reinventing the classroom environment and asking provocative questions. The teacher said that the preschoolers were interested in ingredients of drugs and inquired about how to make drugs and cream. As stated by Strozzi and Vecchi, "In considering a significant experience such as that which is lived in a preschool, nothing should be neglected, not even the most apparently insignificant or marginal details" [16]. The teacher started asking the preschoolers provocative questions such as:


• What hypothesis do they have?—What do they want to know?

<sup>•</sup> What do children know?—What do they inquire?

The teacher enriched the environment by putting different versions of drugs and encouraged them to draw and paint those. The preschoolers realized that drugs are in different forms, like pills, capsules, syrup, and tablets. Since Reggio Emilia teachers believe that classroom is a reflection of life, Didem was not only setting up materials and hands-on experiments depending on what the preschoolers were interested in but also taking them to field trips. She decided to take the preschoolers to an herbalist to explore how to make plant-based drugs. The teacher said, "We participate in professional development studies in the related content and child education, cooperatively work with atelieristas and pedagogistas, check resources and read books on various topics in which we feel insufficient and frequently take preschoolers to field trips to provoke their inquiries and enrich our knowledge."

The preschoolers started making drugs by mixing stuff, asking deeper questions, making more statements, and producing deeper hypothesis on drugs after visiting an herbalist.

> She caught what the preschoolers were really interested in, namely, curing people by mixing stuff to make drugs, and set up the physical environment accordingly. At first, the preschoolers used macaroni to make fake drugs and painted them with watercolor. The teacher was looking for opportunities for "teaching on the fly" and thought that it might be a good time to introduce informative sources, such as books, because choosing appropriate children books is one of the right teaching methods in science. After reading books, watching informative videos, and

> conducting research on the Internet about how to make real drugs, the preschoolers

squashing leaves, garlic, daisy, flaxseed, linden, flowers, Aloe vera plants, and some

Child H: How can we get liquid from roots of the plants that we grow in pots?

The preschoolers wanted to get the liquid out of the plant to make organic drugs, and they were surprised that some of the plants have more liquid than others and some are oilier than others, such as hazelnuts. They also realized that liquid taken from different plants has varied colors and smells different. The teacher asked the preschoolers if they can create new colors by using that liquid and then color paper

The teacher created places where they could investigate the plants on the light table, create colored paper, and make drugs by using beans and roots of plants that they planted in pots before and plants that they collected outside the school. They drew pictures of daisy, flaxseed, and linden to compare them with each other and compared dried ones with nondried ones and whole ones with sliced ones.

Since the preschoolers were confused and inquired on Aloe vera, the teacher opened Expert TV for children to get information on what they wanted to know. She also asked them to draw aloe vera while watching Expert TV at the same time and checked if they could make association, for example, Expert TV says that aloe vera could make hands softer, and the preschoolers draw hands with aloe vera. Then a preschooler came up with the idea of squeezing liquid from aloe vera by using an injection syringe and said that the liquid is sticky. Then all other children became interested in and put the liquid on their hands to make them soft. However, since their hands became sticky, they cleaned their hands

immediately with a tissue, and then they realized that their hands became softer.

wanted to use real plants and herbs. They started making organic drugs by

other plants that they collected outside the school (Figure 4 and Table 2).

Child Z: What part of the root should we use?

to make an exhibition of those papers.

Examining, drawing, and experimenting with herbs.

Science Education in Reggio Emilia-Inspired Altın Çağ Preschools

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81760

Figure 4.

Table 2.

91

Experiences with Aloe vera.

Child A: How can we make chemical and organic drugs?

Child B: Can we make drugs with milk of fig leaves?


Child N: I agree with Arya.

The backbone of curriculum integration is to develop a theme according to interests and needs of children. The teacher said that especially the dialog on drug production between preschoolers just above made the teacher think that this might be a good start of a fruitful project, because the preschoolers were so eager to mix stuff to make drug dough since the previous week. The teacher was right on this foresight about making herbal drugs, but she did not include some of the other project ideas that emerged at school since some other ideas were given priority to investigate. On the other hand, sometimes the teacher wanted to include some ideas but had difficulty in finding out what preschoolers were really interested in. For example, two preschoolers were talking on animals and drugs as follows:

Child B: Animals also need drug.

Child E: Injection is done to muscles, but there is no muscle in animals.

Child B: Animals run fast; that's why they get sick quickly.

The teacher wanted to enrich the classroom by putting a frog body toy, and two children tried to explore inside the frog and cure the frog, but their interest did not last long. The teacher realized that they were not really interested in animals.

Science Education in Reggio Emilia-Inspired Altın Çağ Preschools DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81760

Figure 4. Examining, drawing, and experimenting with herbs.

The teacher enriched the environment by putting different versions of drugs and encouraged them to draw and paint those. The preschoolers realized that drugs are in different forms, like pills, capsules, syrup, and tablets. Since Reggio Emilia teachers believe that classroom is a reflection of life, Didem was not only setting up materials and hands-on experiments depending on what the preschoolers were interested in but also taking them to field trips. She decided to take the preschoolers to an herbalist to explore how to make plant-based drugs. The teacher said, "We participate in professional development studies in the related

content and child education, cooperatively work with atelieristas and

Child A: How can we make chemical and organic drugs? Child B: Can we make drugs with milk of fig leaves?

Child B: Immunization has also drugs inside.

water, water became jello.)

seeds inside).

Child N: I agree with Arya.

Child B: Animals also need drug.

90

ries and enrich our knowledge."

Early Childhood Education

an herbalist.

pedagogistas, check resources and read books on various topics in which we feel insufficient and frequently take preschoolers to field trips to provoke their inqui-

Child C: Can we make colorful drugs by smashing scallions and tree leaves? Child A: Plants also need drugs, because otherwise bugs eat leaves of plants.

Child C: Cia beans become jello, how come? (When he mixed Cia beans with

Child D: What seeds come from what plants? (examining a cucumber to see the

Child A: They should take the drug dough to the factory so that they can make

The backbone of curriculum integration is to develop a theme according to interests and needs of children. The teacher said that especially the dialog on drug production between preschoolers just above made the teacher think that this might be a good start of a fruitful project, because the preschoolers were so eager to mix stuff to make drug dough since the previous week. The teacher was right on this foresight about making herbal drugs, but she did not include some of the other project ideas that emerged at school since some other ideas were given priority to investigate. On the other hand, sometimes the teacher wanted to include some ideas but had difficulty in finding out what preschoolers were really interested in. For

need a truck to take the dough to the factory.

example, two preschoolers were talking on animals and drugs as follows:

Child B: Animals run fast; that's why they get sick quickly.

Child E: Injection is done to muscles, but there is no muscle in animals.

The teacher wanted to enrich the classroom by putting a frog body toy, and two children tried to explore inside the frog and cure the frog, but their interest did not last long. The teacher realized that they were not really interested in animals.

drugs. Otherwise, they cannot make drugs at school. She said that they

The preschoolers started making drugs by mixing stuff, asking deeper questions, making more statements, and producing deeper hypothesis on drugs after visiting

> She caught what the preschoolers were really interested in, namely, curing people by mixing stuff to make drugs, and set up the physical environment accordingly.

At first, the preschoolers used macaroni to make fake drugs and painted them with watercolor. The teacher was looking for opportunities for "teaching on the fly" and thought that it might be a good time to introduce informative sources, such as books, because choosing appropriate children books is one of the right teaching methods in science. After reading books, watching informative videos, and conducting research on the Internet about how to make real drugs, the preschoolers wanted to use real plants and herbs. They started making organic drugs by squashing leaves, garlic, daisy, flaxseed, linden, flowers, Aloe vera plants, and some other plants that they collected outside the school (Figure 4 and Table 2).

Child H: How can we get liquid from roots of the plants that we grow in pots?

Child Z: What part of the root should we use?

The preschoolers wanted to get the liquid out of the plant to make organic drugs, and they were surprised that some of the plants have more liquid than others and some are oilier than others, such as hazelnuts. They also realized that liquid taken from different plants has varied colors and smells different. The teacher asked the preschoolers if they can create new colors by using that liquid and then color paper to make an exhibition of those papers.

The teacher created places where they could investigate the plants on the light table, create colored paper, and make drugs by using beans and roots of plants that they planted in pots before and plants that they collected outside the school. They drew pictures of daisy, flaxseed, and linden to compare them with each other and compared dried ones with nondried ones and whole ones with sliced ones.

Since the preschoolers were confused and inquired on Aloe vera, the teacher opened Expert TV for children to get information on what they wanted to know. She also asked them to draw aloe vera while watching Expert TV at the same time and checked if they could make association, for example, Expert TV says that aloe vera could make hands softer, and the preschoolers draw hands with aloe vera. Then a preschooler came up with the idea of squeezing liquid from aloe vera by using an injection syringe and said that the liquid is sticky. Then all other children became interested in and put the liquid on their hands to make them soft. However, since their hands became sticky, they cleaned their hands immediately with a tissue, and then they realized that their hands became softer.

The preschoolers also drew germs on the computer, made X-ray films on the computer, drew pictures on the light table, created body of 80 with craft paper, and used treads to make blood circulation. All kinds of art activities in that Reggio Emilia-inspired preschool aim to create a platform where preschoolers' ideas and hypothesis related to the world can develop, be enriched, be actualized, and be visualized.

Child D: Recipes says that tea water should be hot, but I drink cold tea.

Child Y: No, we should not drink cold tea; it might make us sick.

One day, they had herbal tea for breakfast and started asking questions about the vitamins inside herbal tea, such as daisy, linden, and rose hip. They were interested in understanding ingredients of liquid, such as vitamins and minerals inside liquid. During group time, the teacher asked children what vitamins are good for health and what fruits/vegetables provide what vitamins. Discussions started, and the preschoolers said, for example, orange has vitamin C, and it is good for cold. However, they were more excited about the rose hip tea (rose hip means a nose of a bird in their native language, Turkish). They said that rose hip cannot be something to drink, because it is a nose of a bird and a running nose will not be something nice to drink.

because they could not color the drug dough as they wished. Then, they decided to

Spontaneous events and teacher's purposeful planning deepened and extended children's interests. The teacher added more plants/herbs to the investigation table for children to observe, draw, examine, compare and contrast, and mix them with water, namely, mint, sweet basil, black tea, beans, pepper, lavender, linden, flaxseed, chia seed, garlic, and green/dried tea leaves. The preschoolers discovered that the dried tea leaves give more texture and leave more color into the water than the green ones. They painted and colored the paper by using the plants. After that, they created posters by adding statements of what to cure under the name of the plants. The children were practicing reading and writing during the project whenever it was needed. They hanged those posters to the walls so that everyone could see what

When the 80 Project was going on in the class, some other long-term and short-

The preschoolers used different things like cabbage to make colored water and eventually to make drugs. They made three experiments (one with soap, one with bleach, and one with lemon juice) to make different tones of a color from light to

term projects were happening at the same time, too, such as snails, city, map, plants, planets, clay masks, graduation ceremony and party organization, molds, robots and producing energy with windmill and potatoes, and light break in water. Sometimes different projects united, for example, the preschoolers made paint by soaking blue paper into water, and they used that blue-colored water as eye drops to

dark, because drugs also have different tones of colors (Figure 7).

The preschoolers used bottles and pipes to fill the basins. They were experimenting with the pipe system and trying to figure out which basin will be

add acrylic color to the drug dough (Figure 5).

Science Education in Reggio Emilia-Inspired Altın Çağ Preschools

Examining, drawing, and experimenting with plants.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81760

Figure 5.

Figure 6.

93

plant can cure what illness (Figure 6).

cure eyes of their doll (Figure 7).

Writing "daisy is good for stomachache and insomnia."

The teacher brought some provocations, such as experiments, videos from Expert TV, and field trips to some of the trees on the school way. After watching videos about herbal tea, vitamins, colors, and sequences of how to make tea, the preschoolers made some experiments to make herbal tea. The teacher provoked them to use science process skills all the time. The preschoolers started measuring ingredients of tea and making guess on heat of the water (hot, warm, or cold). They used many recipes and used various scales to measure water and herbs to make herbal tea. By mixing cold and hot water, they experienced how to make warm tea. They also compared bagged daisy teas with whole daisies. They opened bagged daisy teas to observe how they are different from whole dried daisies Table 3.

The preschoolers watched a drug factory video and said that people are making dough by pouring something like flour into the liquid mixture. They also started making their own drugs by using the liquid they squeezed from plants and mixing it with flour. Then, they checked a real drug to see if their drug was hard enough. They had a problem with the liquid they squeezed from plants by smashing them,

Weight versus volume

The teacher asked the children to use the recipe they got from Expert TV, but the preschoolers got confused about how to measure 1 l hot water and 250 g rose hip. They tried to measure a bottle with a ruler. Then, the teacher brought various sizes of bottles to the classroom, and a discussion started on how to measure 1 l hot water. They realized that two half liter bottles make 1 l, but when they put two bottles on top of each other, it becomes longer than 1 l bottle. After working on various kinds and sizes of bottles, they realized that liter works only for liquids, not hard ones. They stopped measuring it with a ruler and started making their own liter by using bottles. At first, they put numbers on the bottle randomly. The teacher provoked them by bringing measurement cups and bottles with numbers on it, and the children compared them with their own bottles. It is important to note that the teacher already showed them measurement cups before the project, but none of the preschoolers were interested in, and none of them questioned how those numbers work on it. However, when they needed to measure water, they were more interested in such provocations that the teacher created, such as various sizes of bottles and photos of bottles presented on the table by the teacher. As seen in this exemplary project, the projects help children use their intellectual acts, and their wonderful ideas come true eventually through many trials and errors, and teachers accomplish the goal of raising questions and leading reflection, research, and adaptation.

Science Education in Reggio Emilia-Inspired Altın Çağ Preschools DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81760

#### Figure 5. Examining, drawing, and experimenting with plants.

The preschoolers also drew germs on the computer, made X-ray films on the computer, drew pictures on the light table, created body of 80 with craft paper, and used treads to make blood circulation. All kinds of art activities in that Reggio Emilia-inspired preschool aim to create a platform where preschoolers' ideas and hypothesis related to the world can develop, be enriched, be actualized, and be

Child D: Recipes says that tea water should be hot, but I drink cold tea.

One day, they had herbal tea for breakfast and started asking questions about the vitamins inside herbal tea, such as daisy, linden, and rose hip. They were interested in understanding ingredients of liquid, such as vitamins and minerals inside liquid. During group time, the teacher asked children what vitamins are good for health and what fruits/vegetables provide what vitamins. Discussions started, and the preschoolers said, for example, orange has vitamin C, and it is good for cold. However, they were more excited about the rose hip tea (rose hip means a nose of a bird in their native language, Turkish). They said that rose hip cannot be something to drink, because it is a nose of a bird and a running nose will not be something nice to drink. The teacher brought some provocations, such as experiments, videos from Expert TV, and field trips to some of the trees on the school way. After watching videos about herbal tea, vitamins, colors, and sequences of how to make tea, the preschoolers made some experiments to make herbal tea. The teacher provoked them to use science process skills all the time. The preschoolers started measuring ingredients of tea and making guess on heat of the water (hot, warm, or cold). They used many recipes and used various scales to measure water and herbs to make herbal tea. By mixing cold and hot water, they experienced how to make warm tea. They also compared bagged daisy teas with whole daisies. They opened bagged daisy teas to observe how they are different from whole dried daisies Table 3.

The preschoolers watched a drug factory video and said that people are making dough by pouring something like flour into the liquid mixture. They also started making their own drugs by using the liquid they squeezed from plants and mixing it with flour. Then, they checked a real drug to see if their drug was hard enough. They had a problem with the liquid they squeezed from plants by smashing them,

The teacher asked the children to use the recipe they got from Expert TV, but the preschoolers got confused about how to measure 1 l hot water and 250 g rose hip. They tried to measure a bottle with a ruler. Then, the teacher brought various sizes of bottles to the classroom, and a discussion started on how to measure 1 l hot water. They realized that two half liter bottles make 1 l, but when they put two bottles on top of each other, it becomes longer than 1 l bottle. After working on various kinds and sizes of bottles, they realized that liter works only for liquids, not hard ones. They stopped measuring it with a ruler and started making their own liter by using bottles. At first, they put numbers on the bottle randomly. The teacher provoked them by bringing measurement cups and bottles with numbers on it, and the children compared them with their own bottles. It is important to note that the teacher already showed them measurement cups before the project, but none of the preschoolers were interested in, and none of them questioned how those numbers work on it. However, when they needed to measure water, they were more interested in such provocations that the teacher created, such as various sizes of bottles and photos of bottles presented on the table by the teacher. As seen in this exemplary project, the projects help children use their intellectual acts, and their wonderful ideas come true eventually through many trials and errors, and teachers accomplish the goal of raising questions and leading

Child Y: No, we should not drink cold tea; it might make us sick.

visualized.

Early Childhood Education

Weight versus volume

reflection, research, and adaptation.

Tea making and measurement.

Table 3.

92

because they could not color the drug dough as they wished. Then, they decided to add acrylic color to the drug dough (Figure 5).

Spontaneous events and teacher's purposeful planning deepened and extended children's interests. The teacher added more plants/herbs to the investigation table for children to observe, draw, examine, compare and contrast, and mix them with water, namely, mint, sweet basil, black tea, beans, pepper, lavender, linden, flaxseed, chia seed, garlic, and green/dried tea leaves. The preschoolers discovered that the dried tea leaves give more texture and leave more color into the water than the green ones. They painted and colored the paper by using the plants. After that, they created posters by adding statements of what to cure under the name of the plants. The children were practicing reading and writing during the project whenever it was needed. They hanged those posters to the walls so that everyone could see what plant can cure what illness (Figure 6).

When the 80 Project was going on in the class, some other long-term and shortterm projects were happening at the same time, too, such as snails, city, map, plants, planets, clay masks, graduation ceremony and party organization, molds, robots and producing energy with windmill and potatoes, and light break in water. Sometimes different projects united, for example, the preschoolers made paint by soaking blue paper into water, and they used that blue-colored water as eye drops to cure eyes of their doll (Figure 7).

The preschoolers used different things like cabbage to make colored water and eventually to make drugs. They made three experiments (one with soap, one with bleach, and one with lemon juice) to make different tones of a color from light to dark, because drugs also have different tones of colors (Figure 7).

The preschoolers used bottles and pipes to fill the basins. They were experimenting with the pipe system and trying to figure out which basin will be

Figure 6. Writing "daisy is good for stomachache and insomnia."

The preschoolers were still so interested in curing each other, covered each other's injured parts with bandage, put each other to the surgery table, invited the teacher into their play, and asked her if she could be a patient (they played such pretend play of going to hospital and taking the teacher to the hospital). The teacher entered a doll into the play, because the preschoolers were so eager to experiment some creams on someone's body. For their security, the teacher entered the doll as a patient, and then the project developed into production of drugs and curing the doll named "80." The preschoolers made a series of surgeries on 80, but 80 died at the end. And then they built a hospital and a pharmacy. Each doctor had his/her own room, and they put their names on doors at the hospital. During the process of the 80 Project, they learned "emergency room," "ambulance materials," "drug produc-

Science Education in Reggio Emilia-Inspired Altın Çağ Preschools

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81760

tion," "hospital," "ambulance," "important phone numbers," "body parts," "organs' functions," "germs," "good and bad bacteria," "measurement: liter," "skeleton/X-ray films," "blood circulation," "first aid/heart massage and rescue breathing," and so on. The preschoolers also made drug boxes and cash and brought them to the pharmacy to sell the drugs in boxes. They used the drama language a lot. End of preschool was coming, those preschoolers were ready to go to the elementary school, and the project ended because they said that 80 died. However, the project did not really end, because the preschoolers excitedly said that they put 80 into the recycle bin and 80 will recover there. On the last days of the school, the preschoolers said that three babies were born out that recycle bin. It might be the

beginning of new journeys and new Reggio Emilia-inspired projects!

doing the 80 Project.

Pre-kindergarten (3–5 years)

Use imagination and creativity to interact with objects and materials

Use creative and flexible thinking to solve problems

Engage in inventive social

Topic: innovation and invention.

play

Table 4.

95

6. Ohio's new learning standards: kindergarten through grade 3

Standards, which are aimed to provide a comprehensive approach for supporting children's development and learning, represent essential skills that support children's learning of an academic content. Table 4 presents the three standard statements that are accomplished during the process of the 80 Project. There are some more standards that are accomplished by children during such project, but the ones on the table were chosen on purpose, because they refer to the topic "innovation and invention" in which children exceeded standards in most cases and accomplished even third-grade standards. This table shows how related national science standards were met and even exceeded quite naturally in the course of

Standard statements: Standard statements: Standard statements:

Identify differences between problem types, and adapt strategies based on the type of problem

Engage in elaborate, inventive, and

product or outcome

social play

Reference: Retrieved from http://education.ohio.gov [August 27, 2018].

Interact with a wide variety of objects and materials without concern of

End of grade 1 End of grade 3

Interact with a wide variety of objects and materials with the end

Work backward from a proposed solution in order to solve a

Negotiate and integrate the ideas of others in the elaboration of inventive social play

product as the focus

problem

Figure 7. Drug making with cabbage and colored water.

Figure 8. Drug factory: pipe system and solving math problems.

filled first with the mixture they made from a cabbage. They were so excited to solve that problem (Figure 8).

The preschoolers made syrup by using red paper and water. They also used coffee, vinegar, water, and oil to make syrup and realized that density makes some stay up and some stay down. Moreover, they said, "the mixture with vinegar makes bubbles, but the mixture with coffee does not make bubbles when I put my finger into the mixture."

When the preschoolers used cloths and paper to make a surgery table, they were able to put their dolls onto that surgery table. However, they also wanted to lie down, and the surgery table they made was not hard enough to carry them. They decided to use their own school bed as a surgery table and asked the teacher to carry a real bed into the classroom and use it as a surgery table then.

The Body Project contributed to children's science knowledge and shaped the emergence and the course of the 80 Project. During the process of the 80 Project, the preschoolers examined the topic more deeply. They read books and magazines related to body parts and hospitals, science, and ambulances, made an X-ray machine, and examined photos, X-ray films, brain tomography, cardio, cardiac graphs, heart massage, first aid, rescue breathing, bandage, plant names, organs like gall bile, allergic reaction, eye drops, pediatric thermometer, various forms of drugs, and so on. The preschoolers experienced and gained a lot of new technical terms, but sometimes they would not be able to pronounce it correctly, for example, Child N calls stethoscope as "steloscope." They also wanted to visit an x-ray center in the city. However, the center did not accept to host children in the x-ray center since it is not good for children's health.

#### Science Education in Reggio Emilia-Inspired Altın Çağ Preschools DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81760

The preschoolers were still so interested in curing each other, covered each other's injured parts with bandage, put each other to the surgery table, invited the teacher into their play, and asked her if she could be a patient (they played such pretend play of going to hospital and taking the teacher to the hospital). The teacher entered a doll into the play, because the preschoolers were so eager to experiment some creams on someone's body. For their security, the teacher entered the doll as a patient, and then the project developed into production of drugs and curing the doll named "80." The preschoolers made a series of surgeries on 80, but 80 died at the end. And then they built a hospital and a pharmacy. Each doctor had his/her own room, and they put their names on doors at the hospital. During the process of the 80 Project, they learned "emergency room," "ambulance materials," "drug production," "hospital," "ambulance," "important phone numbers," "body parts," "organs' functions," "germs," "good and bad bacteria," "measurement: liter," "skeleton/X-ray films," "blood circulation," "first aid/heart massage and rescue breathing," and so on. The preschoolers also made drug boxes and cash and brought them to the pharmacy to sell the drugs in boxes. They used the drama language a lot. End of preschool was coming, those preschoolers were ready to go to the elementary school, and the project ended because they said that 80 died. However, the project did not really end, because the preschoolers excitedly said that they put 80 into the recycle bin and 80 will recover there. On the last days of the school, the preschoolers said that three babies were born out that recycle bin. It might be the beginning of new journeys and new Reggio Emilia-inspired projects!
