Science in the Montessori Classrooms

May 9, 2016

Montessori Science - Greenspring Montessori School

“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing” –Alfred Wainwright

In education today, there’s a forward momentum towards STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). There are robotics clubs, programming camps, and circuitry courses. We want our children to enter the world prepared in math and science. However, if you look to the natural world, there are so many ways for your child to become a natural scientist and mathematician.

The etymology of “science” comes from the Latin scire, “to know”, and etymologists note that it probably originally meant “to separate one thing from another, to distinguish.” Yet, in our natural world, there is so much to know, to distinguish, that has fallen through the cracks in the education of our youth, and perhaps even ourselves. In the Montessori classroom, distinguishing and classifying starts in the Children’s House, in practically every subject area. This practice not only helps the child to fine tune their observation skills and hone in their level of concentration, but the child is organizing and classifying information in their brain.

Montessori Science - Greenspring Montessori School

In the Elementary classroom, children continue to use their observational and analytical skills to study, classify, and understand the distinguishing characteristics of the natural world. Elementary children are provided a high level introduction to this field of study. For instance, in botany and zoology, the child learns how each organism lives and what satisfies that organisms needs. Then the child learns about the function and parts, such as the function of limbs, skin, or leaf to that particular living organism. At this point, the child may explore variety. This exposure to variety is what impels the child to classify. A leaf is not merely a leaf, but a maple leaf – or even distinguished further, a red maple. Nor is a feather just a feather, but that very plain, brown feather is a bald eagle feather. By learning and practicing this skill, the child is practicing scientific observation.

Montessori Science - Greenspring Montessori School

In the Adolescent Community, the child explores science and nature through Occupations Studies. Occupations is essentially a study of the land and offers the student a chance to apply scientific concepts such as soil and water chemistry, botany, and microbiology to agricultural practices. The Adolescent Community is committed to the study of the environment and science studies focus on environmental ethics, conservation, and renewable energy. The child conducts their own science experiments and writes full lab reports to explore cause-and-effect relationships. This serves as a means to be fully connected with wanting to distinguish, to know, more about our world.

In order to fully experience science, and even more, love it, the child needs to be in constant connection with the outdoors. No matter the weather, no matter the season, experiencing nature is the best complementary experience to teaching STEM. Pick up a child friendly field guide at a local used book store. Find an even more detailed one for yourself. Then explore – together. Your children will ask the most amazing, inquisitive questions – and you’ll be there with them, modeling scientific observation and inquiry.

 

To learn more about Montessori education, please visit us.

Kimberly Zerfas

Kimberly Zerfas is the Director of Marketing & Communications at Greenspring Montessori School. A graduate of the Publications Design M.A. program at the University of Baltimore, Kim loves combining words and images to tell our unique story. She loves creative problem-solving, designing and writing materials that convey in-depth information in new and interesting ways. Learn more about Kim.

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