Young Learners

Helping students, parents and educators learn (and teach) science

A line of eager first-graders, all dressed in red, pours into the Jennifer A. Chalsty Center for Science Learning and Teaching. They’re headed for a door in the back marked Young Learner Lab.

Inside, they find a room that looks a bit out of place in a science center. It’s a pleasing classroom, with low tables and chairs and shelves piled with books such as “Sea Creatures Do Amazing Things.”

Well-organized cubbies hold colored pencils, blocks, foam brushes, and all kinds of items that promise fun activities. “Feels like we’re right back in school,” says Ms. Allity Perez of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. No. 6 in the Passaic City Schools. “Those little cubbies are just like we have in class.”

It’s designed to make the young students feel comfortable. At the back of the room is a story-telling area, with a big comfy chair for an adult and a colorful rug, where the first-graders quickly settle in.

“Good morning,” says Jorie Quinn, the Science Center’s associate director of young learner programs. She asks the students if they have any questions about what they’ve seen so far on their field trip. The group just came from Skyscraper! Achievement and Impact, an exhibition focused on the science of tall structures.

“Those buildings,” one student asks, “how do they make them really big?”

Quinn tells the students they’re about to find out. She reads “Roberto the Insect Architect” by Nina Laden by way of introduction. “Today,” she says at the end of the story, “we’re all going to be architects.”

Minutes later, the students are seated at the low tables, working with blocks to create their own bridges and buildings. Quinn shows them how tilting two supporting blocks, so that they face inward at an angle, makes for a sturdier bridge.

In this way, she tries to introduce them to basic concepts of architecture and engineering. Soon, the students are all drawing their own buildings – and even whole cities – with colorful crayons.

The Young Learner Lab at Liberty Science Center is based around a very simple concept: teaching students from preschool to second grade to do science the right way.

“Children observe, they document, they inquire, they ask questions – all the things that a scientist does,” Quinn explains. “They need to have their hands on. They’re not going to learn science by cracking a book.”

Parents and teachers, though, often don’t have the right tools for helping kids develop scientifically. The Young Learner Lab is designed for them, too.

“As parents understand that science is not hard to do, they can go home and do it with their children,” Quinn says.

When class time is over, Quinn asks her first-grade visitors if they like designing houses, bridges and buildings. Every hand goes up. “Maybe someday when you get older,” she tells them, “you can be an architect, too.”

Plan a Visit

Available for: Preschool, kindergarten, first- and second-grade classes of up to 25 students.

Programs: Tailored for each age level, exploring blocks, the natural world and a scientist’s day.

When: Programs taught on Tuesdays and Fridays with start times from 9:15 am to 1:30 pm. Classes last 45 minutes each.

To sign up: Call Jorie Quinn at 201.253.1454. Or, if you bring a class of the right age to Liberty Science Center, inquire at the Welcome Desk about same-day availability.

Cost: Free for now.