The following article has been excerpted from Science Education for Gifted Students, one of six exciting books in the Gifted Child Today Reader Series. This series brings together the best articles published in Gifted Child Today, the nation's most popular gifted education journal. Each book in the series is filled with exciting and practical classroom ideas, useful summaries of research findings, and discussions of identification and classroom management, and informed opionion about educating gifted children.

At the beginning of life (after their physical needs are satisfied), infants learn through the explorations of their world. They use all of their senses to investigate and enter discovery without any preconceived notions regarding what they will find. Their world is open to chance, and adults improve infants’ opportunities for learning by providing appropriate stimulation in a nurturing environment.

Children learn about scientific principles through discovery and investigation, the same way infants learn about their world. This chapter discusses the process skills students need in order to develop basic scientific understanding, emphasizing the need for creative thinking within these endeavors. It also provides examples of differentiated activities that are appropriate for students in kindergarten, first, and second grade.

The world needs creative scientists who produce useful, innovative solutions to our problems.

Weisberg (1986) asserted that creative scientists differ from noncreative scientists in at least two distinct ways. First, creative scientists need to be free of rules in order to exercise flexible thinking. This flexibility makes them more likely than others to know when to abandon nonproductive efforts and change approaches to problem solving. Second, creative scientists are also more open to experience, making them more sensitive to problems than their noncreative colleagues. They know when to expend effort on a problem and recognize the potential for significant breakthroughs. They waste little time on simple solutions or on problems for which the solutions would have little impact. The creative scientist may also recognize a problem that others miss, which means they have great potential for producing original research.

Even though our students will not all become scientists, it is important to initiate creative thinking within academic content, maximizing the potential of those who do choose this profession. Additionally, all students who learn to think creatively while engaging in scientific endeavors hone skills applicable to other contents.

Adults want students to think flexibly in order to entertain a variety of approaches to solving problems. In science, flexible students think of different types of variables that may impact a phenomenon. Flexible thinkers also have the ability to look at things from multiple perspectives. Flexibility is inherent in remaining open to experiences, which is, as mentioned above, a key difference between creative and noncreative scientists. Youngsters who are open to experiences will be observant during investigations and notice things others may miss.

Resistance to premature closure is an attitude teachers should encourage students to adopt. Teachers do not want students to accept the first explanation or answer that comes to them; rather, they should resist closing on an idea until others have been explored. According to Torrance (1979), when

[f]aced with any incompleteness or unsolved problem, almost everyone tends to jump to some conclusion immediately. Frequently, this jump is made prematurely—before the person has taken the time to understand the problem, considered important factors involved in the problem, and thought of alternative solutions. (p. 74)

It is necessary to defer judgment in order to resist premature closure and remain open.

Elaboration, another component of creative thinking, enables students to pay careful attention to detail. Teachers want students to be able to provide detailed explanations of their discoveries and plan their own pursuits to answer questions of interest. For further information on components of creative thinking, see Creative Thinking and Problem Solving for Young Learners (Meador, 1997).

Primary educators set the stage for discovery and investigation by preparing an environment in which youngsters may encounter appropriate stimulation, igniting their sense of wonder and inviting questions. For example, there may be a container in the classroom in which students and teachers place interesting articles from nature (such as rocks, insects, leaves, and plants). A plastic bucket or box may house interesting gadgets for students to explore and guess their use. In another part of the room, students may find a mechanical object that is being dismantled. For example, the inside of a toaster may prove interesting.

In addition to being physically safe, this environment must also be risk-free for creative thinking and discussion of observed phenomena. Teachers do not want students to squelch their own questions, fearing that others might consider them silly or dumb. At the primary level, questioning and experiential learning lay the basis for later scientific concepts and essential understandings. Charlesworth and Lind (1995) suggested that an added benefit of such experiential learning is that students learn many attitudes and skills that will help them solve authentic problems encountered throughout life.

Science process skills are “the most powerful tools we have for producing and arranging information about our world” (Ostlund, 1992, p. v). They are, of course, essential as students learn to think like scientists. Charlesworth and Lind (1995) provided a hierarchy of science process skills and categorized them into basic, intermediate, and advanced levels (see Table 2.1).

Educators may wish to use the hierarchy in the development of typical and differentiated lessons and centers, moving up the process ladder for more able learners. It is vital, however, that students master skills at the basic level since intermediate and advanced process skills depend on mastery of lower level skills. A student cannot successfully infer without first honing key observation techniques. Table 2.2 indicates the correspondence between science process skills and creative thinking.

The following lessons provide opportunities for students to practice basic scientific process skills and creative thinking.

Students practice observation using touch, smell, and sound as they determine the attributes of objects placed inside socks. The socks are tied at the top so students cannot see what’s inside. Some students have a difficult time resisting the urge to look inside the socks, so it is important to tie them quite tightly. Dark socks prevent students from seeing the color of the objects if they hold them in the air toward a light.

Objects (such as an empty contact lens container, a softball, a paperweight, and an emery board) are appropriate for attribute socks. Include objects that make a noise such as a sealed box of paper clips or a small baby rattle. Students instinctively want to guess the identity of the object; however, teachers should encourage them to think like a scientist and resist premature closure. Scientists would miss key information if they concluded an experiment the moment the first hypothesis arose. Students should elaborate and tell about the object by discussing how it feels, its shape, size, weight, and so on. What are its characteristics or attributes?

A move up the hierarchy of processes to classification provides differentiation for this activity. Students can sort or classify attribute socks into groups based on the characteristics of the objects they contain. A very young child may need to be prodded into sorting by weight or another specific attribute; however, the challenge of the activity arises as students determine their own discriminating factors. Obviously, when students sort into groups based on multiple attributes, (e.g., the four groups of big and hard, big and soft, small and hard, and small and soft), they have added extra complexity to the process. Students practice elaborating and communicating when they articulate the attributes of each of their groups and defend the placement of each attribute sock.

Kids like to play in water; however, this adventure does not have to be messy. Teachers can build upon students’ natural interest in water to capture their attention for a prediction exercise. Students are open to new experiences when they explore liquid movement on waxed paper. Students use infant eye droppers (found in the pharmaceutical department of discount stores) to place red, yellow, and blue drops of water on waxed paper. These liquids are mixtures of food coloring and water. By gently blowing and dabbing a straw into the liquid, they discover how surface tension affects the shape and movement of the water. It is not, however, necessary to explain the phenomenon to the students. The waxed paper allows the liquid to retain its rounded shape even when students blow the drops across the paper. The shape and movement are analogous to that of liquid mercury. The children also delight in the blending of colors when one colored drop collides with another. This activity could easily be used simply for determining how colors mix to create new ones.

After students have enjoyed the initial water play on waxed paper, they are prepared to predict how the drops will hold their shape and move on foil. These predictions are based on whether the water will react in the same manner on the new surface as it did on the waxed paper. Students must think flexibly as they consider how the new surface may affect the experiment. Communicating by writing their predictions on chart paper prepares them for recording formal hypotheses later in more sophisticated experiments. Students analyze their hypotheses following experimentation on the new surface and then communicate their findings by stating how their results confirm or disprove the prediction. They compare similarities and differences in the water shape and movement on the waxed paper and the foil. The form of communication—from a simple tape recording of the students’ comments, to a more formal writing of the prediction and the results—depends upon the students’ age and ability. Similarly, their age, ability, and interests help determine the advisability of continuing this format with other surfaces. Experimentation with cooking paper, freezer paper, glass, and construction paper also provide interesting opportunities for prediction and discovery.

Rather than continuing the above activity with multiple surfaces, educators may differentiate it by varying the liquid used in the experiment and asking students to make predictions regarding the type of liquid, rather than type of surface. This calls for even greater flexibility in thinking. Dishwashing liquid and cooking oil are good choices for alternate liquids.

Mixing dishwashing liquid with water (gently to prevent suds) provides students with useful information as they discover that the surface tension of the water lowers since the dishwashing liquid is a surfactant. Manufacturers of detergent use this surface-active agent to improve saturation. Adults can add dishwashing agents to other liquids, such as weed killer, to facilitate efforts to saturate the leaves of unwanted vegetation.

Some educators may feel that, when gifted children encounter opportunities for free exploration and discovery, they differentiate their own learning. It is certainly true that their curiosity can manifest in the form of questions, and the answers to these questions facilitate deeper understanding. Yet, this is not enough.

Student questions should guide teachers to plan differentiated lessons and exploratory activities; however, planned differentiation should also be based on the educator’s clear understanding of how to add depth and complexity to the core curriculum. Teachers must not leave differentiation to chance and expect that the gifted child will always find challenge. Rather, it is important to hold clear expectations for the differentiated learning. Unplanned differentiation can be compared to going to the grocery store without a list: The refrigerator and pantry may be filled afterward, but the food purchased may not be what is needed to prepare the planned recipe.

Teachers should plan for gifted students to exercise more advanced science process skills. As previously mentioned in the attribute socks activity, while typical students observe, high-ability students classify and communicate. Teachers may likewise consider planning for gifted students to utilize more advanced levels of thinking in Bloom’s taxonomy (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl, 1956). For example, while young children gain knowledge regarding the effect of mixing baking soda and vinegar, students with high abilities in science may quickly jump into analyzing the difference between this mixture and other white compounds mixed with vinegar. The latter may be followed by a synthesis of information about mixtures and an examination of recipes to hypothesize why certain ingredients are used.

Differentiation also results when teachers plan for students to use combined, rather than isolated, creative thinking skills. Students exercise fluent and flexible thinking when they generate multiple suggestions as to why the incline of a ramp affects the distance a toy travels after going down it. Students may create a chart explaining the relationship between incline and distance traveled, and in the process they are combining fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration.

Teachers can also plan for gifted students to encounter more perplexing phenomena during explorations. For example, some young students are ready to see that size does not necessarily indicate weight, a phenomenon they can explore by using a balance scale to compare objects in which weight and size do or do not correspond. Differentiation for students with high abilities in the sciences may occur as they weigh objects that contradict their original assumptions regarding size and weight relationships—a large object weighs less than a small one (e.g., a small rock may weigh more than a larger softball).

Unfortunately, just as a deprived infant may not develop appropriately, the young student denied opportunities for science investigation may not form the needed foundation for future scientific understandings. Even older students who make outstanding grades in science due to their ability to memorize and retain information may lack the depth of understanding necessary to make contributions to the field. Many students who enjoy experimentation do not exercise creative thinking during their investigations.

Teachers need to facilitate learning experiences through which students have sufficient opportunities to develop true scientific understanding, science process skills, and corresponding creative thinking skills. As primary teachers provide ample opportunities for experimentation and discovery at a young age, they encourage scientific genius and enable problem solvers.

Bloom, B. S., Engelhart, M. D., Furst, E. J., Hill, W. H., & Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York: Longmans Green.

Charlesworth, R., & Lind, K. K. (1995). Math and science for young children (2nd ed.). Albany, NY: Delmar.

Meador, K. S. (1997). Creative thinking and problem solving for young learners. Englewood, CO: Teacher Ideas Press.

Ostlund, K. L. (1992). Science process skills: Assessing hands-on student performance. New York: Addison-Wesley.

Torrance, E. P. (1979). The search for satori & creativity. Buffalo, NY: Creative Education Foundation.

Weisberg, R. W. (1986). Creativity: Genius and other myths. New York: Freeman.