Constructing Science Through Everyday Interactions

Join us at the Nature Center for a free presentation focusing on how everyday interactions between a child and their parents shapes the child's problem solving skills.

The fundamental goal of childhood is learning. Children discover their world by exploring, interacting, and connecting with the people around them. David Sobel’s research focuses on how preschoolers and children in early elementary school use these processes to learn science. In this talk, he will share evidence showing that even before children start kindergarten, they possess sophisticated capacities to reason scientifically, and during elementary school, parents play a vital role in fueling their curiosity and reasoning.

This past summer, Professor Sobel’s research group had the privilege of conducting research at Southwick’s Zoo. Their latest findings show that the ways parents play with their children when asked to learn something new reveal natural teaching strategies that strengthen children’s scientific reasoning. These benefits stick with the child even when they are later problemsolving on their own.

About the Speaker: David Sobel received his BA in Psychology and Computer Science at Swarthmore College, and a Ph.D. at University of California, Berkeley. He has been a professor in the Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences at Brown University for over 25 years. He has published the books Cognitive Development in Museum Settings: Relating Research to Practice (Psychology Press, 2016) and Constructing Science: Connecting Causal Reasoning to Scientific Thinking in Young Children (MIT Press, 2022) as well as over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles on child development. His work is funded by the National Science Foundation of the United States. His favorite animals at the Zoo are the cheetahs.

F REE for EARTH members and non-members

If you have questions about this program, please email us at [email protected] or call our center at 508-203-6944.

The EARTH Nature Center is located at 67 Vineyard Street in Millville, MA.