An early understanding of science can be seen when children experiment with:

• Making observations and noticing similarities and differences;
• Asking questions;
• Describing objects, animals, and plants, and natural processes like rainstorms;
• Predicting what will happen next in a process;
• Providing explanations for processes they observe—such as why there is thunder;
• Using tools to further exploration, such as binoculars, a shovel, or a pulley.

Children also build science skills through an understanding of concepts and ideas that cut across many areas of learning—these include:

• Patterns;
• Cause and effect;
• Scale, proportion, and quantity;
• Energy and matter;
• Structure and function; and
• Stability and change.

Download a parent handout with activities designed to support young children’s growing science skills and knowledge from birth to 5.

^{Source: National Academies, Board on Science Education, 2011}

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