Children's Literacy and Science Project (CLASP)

An Investigation of Magnetism Using Science Journals

One aim of CLASP is to help teachers create science experiences in which children use science journals to help them learn and to reflect what they understand about science phenomena.  Teachers can also learn a great deal about children's science and literacy learning from examining their journals.  One aspect of CLASP is learning how to look at the writing and drawing in children's journals as well as the talk that takes place around the journals.  The following scenario is an example of one of the activities that teachers will engage in as CLASP participants.

What Do You Think?

As you read the following observation of Nicholas’s science journal activity, look for ways to answer the following kinds of questions.

!Why does Nicholas think magnets attract?

!How did Nicholas use writing to show what he understands about magnetic attraction?  What forms did he use?  What different functions did his writing accomplish?

 

!What did Nicholas’s drawing add to his written language? Which carried more of his meaning—drawing or writing?

 

!How did Melanie’s journal entry contrast with Nicholas’s?

 

!How did Nicholas’s talk convey his science understandings about magnetism?

 

 

A typical list of activities for a magnet unit might include the children's use of magnets to explore a provided set of objects (e.g., a penny, a ball of aluminum foil, a paper clip, iron filings) to test for attraction versus non-attraction. In his kindergarten, Nicholas did this and recorded his findings in his science journal using both drawing and writing. His magnet page is shown at the left. Nicholas explained that air pressure made the magnets attract. When his teacher placed a magnet on the underside of the chalk tray (non-attracting) and the magnet fell off, she asked him why the magnet didn't stick. He replied, "Because the wind isn't blowing that way."

A number of the other children repeated the "air pressure" explanation, adopting its scientific-sounding language.  Although the explanation was not accurate, Nicholas might next watch a fan pushing air or "wind" against the magnet on the underside of the chalk tray and see the magnet fall again. This would contradict his previous understanding, but it may not help him to understand the reasons behind what he observed.  Kindergartners may be taught to repeat the explanation that "there is iron inside," but they have to take this explanation on faith.  Nicholas’s teacher did not bring the fan; her aim was to provide the children with opportunities to observe that some objects attract a magnet and not why they do so.

Nicholas’s science journal and his talk about his entry helped his teacher to understand what he understood. Without this opportunity to graphically and orally express what he found important in the situation, his teacher might not have understood that Nicholas was trying to go beyond the idea that some objects attract; he was trying to build an explanation.

 Melanie, on the other hand, drew the iron filings that the teacher had sprinkled on a piece of paper and moved with a magnet underneath the page (shown to the left).  Melanie drew the magnet with an arrow showing how its force was directed upward toward the filings.  Did she understand that magnetic attraction is caused by the presence of iron inside the object?

These children’s science journals might lead us to reassess the use a magnet unit.  The explanation that goes with these magnet activities is not a developmentally appropriate one for kindergartners. On the other hand, merely touching the magnet to various objects around the room aims at a level too low for many children and can simply result in a list based on the wrong attributes.  Perhaps magnets are more productively explored in the upper grades when the invisible presence of iron can be better understood by children.

 

 

What We Think

!Nicholas understood that "air pressure" makes magnets attract.  This understanding is consistent with the research summarized by Driver, Squires, Rushworth, and Wood-Robinson (1994).  They reported that most young children think magnets attract because of air or gravity, an unseen force that "pulls" things together; young children also tend to link events. (Driver, R., Squires, A., Rushworth, P., & Wood-Robinson, V. 1994.  Making sense of secondary science: Research into children's ideas.  New York, Routledge.)

 

!Nicholas used one written form: word-initial consonants.  He used this written form for two functions.  First, he wrote "M" to label the two magnets he drew. He surrounded each magnet with wispy lines and he labeled the lines with "P" to signify, as he explained, "air pressure."  This "P" designated his explanation for magnetic attraction.  This was the second function of his writing.

 

!His drawings depicted the objects he used: magnets.  The wispy lines he drew made the "air pressure" visible.  Thus, both drawing and written language were necessary to demonstrate his understanding.

 

!Melanie’s journal entry recorded through drawing the materials used by the teacher. The arrow indicated where the magnet should be placed so its force will move the iron filings—the procedure. Her entry describes an activity, but not necessarily an understanding about magnets or the fact that they attract through other substances.

 

!Nicholas orally explained that air pressure made the magnets attract. The magnet didn’t stick to the underside of the chalk tray, he said, "Because the wind isn't blowing that way." This conveyed a misconception mirrored by his entry on the page.  His teacher can now design further experiences to help dislodge this misconception.

 

To read more about children's science journals go to CLASP Home page or click below:
What the Research Says

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