Considering the Needs & Interests of the Youngest Biologists

Children are born science learners and often possess a particular interest in the part of the natural world that is the focus of biology. They learn much about biology long before they encounter formal educators or the requirements of the curriculum and the knowledge assessed by school tests. Children are surrounded by the life sciences, so biology might be considered the most accessible of the science disciplines (Lindemann-Mathies, 2005, 2006; Patrick et al., 2013). Interviews with 4-year-old children who had just begun formal schooling revealed that these young “scientists” already possessed an understanding that there were organs, bones, heart, and a brain inside a body (Reiss & Tunnicliffe, 2001). Somehow these children learned these things just by paying attention to their environments and listening to everyday comments. Schreck Reis et al. (2014) point out that young children (5–10 years of age) are both sensitive to and interested in living organisms and possess inquiring minds. Often the first word that a young child gives …