clifford Swartz is a noted science educator, and the following is a section of his article, "Assumptions & Guidelines for a Program of Science Teaching in the Grades."
#5. THE GRADE SCHOOL SCIENCE PROGRAM SHOULD NOT DEAL WITH ANY GENERALIZING MODEL THAT CANNOT BE EXAMINED DIRECTLY BY THE STUDENTS.
insistence on this point is probably the most drastic departure of the proposed program from traditional one. It rules our all mention of atomic theory; solar systems; magnetic domains; invisible genes; and conservation laws.
For the grades at least, it de-emphasizes or ignores the great generalizations ... called conceptual schemes ... as the basis for science study.
we want to avoid these magnificent models and organizing schemes, not because we think they are unessential but because they are far too important to suffer the ignominy of false understanding.
A 6th grader in our house knows that energy is conserve ... she does not, however, know what energy is.
Our 4th grader has memorize the names of the planets, and their distance from the sun, but she does not know how far a mile is nor did she learn in school to find the planets or how they progress thru the heavens at nite.
our attitude toward the essentials and priorities may best be exemplified by our proposals for the study of astronomy.
It is, of course, maliciously anti-scientific to teach a child with diagrams and models that the earth and planets go around the sun, and that it is therefore false that the sun goes around the earth.
For most of the exeriences of humankind, the sun does indeed go around the earth. Such a model is the only useful one for navigators. For certain other purposes, becoming less rare now in the age of rockets, the Copernican Model is more useful. The crucial point here is the subtle relatinship between truth and usefulness in the models of science. The nature of theory and its relation to observations is not easily understood by adults. There is no need to profane hard-won philosophy by simplifying it to the point of falsehood, and then wishing it upon children . . .
* At the 4th / 5th grade level the students can take turns timing sunrise and sunset (and describing in detail to the class the phonomena they observe at these times on earth and in the sky). The duration of daylight could then be graphed thruout the school year.
* In the 5th / 6th grade, the class delegate could measure with a compass and protractor the angles of the rising and setting sun makes with the east-west line. { How many adults know where the sun really rises? } Another reading taken each noon could produce data for making a three dimensional model of the ecliptic.
quantitative observations such as these are within the competence of grade school children. Would they not surely learn more about our universe this way than by memorizing the names of the solar systems models hanging from the classroom ceiling in defiance of all rules of scale?
As for the conservation laws, we have many of these by now ... each of which are as sweeping in its imporance as the conservation of energy- mass. Why do we pick on this last one in the grades? Even if the laws were something to be proved, the techniques are not available to children ...