Learning Experience Plan: Science and Early Childhood Education

This assignment presents a comprehensive learning experience plan designed for children aged four to five, focusing on early childhood science education. The plan begins with observations of a group of children, summarizing their interests and current understanding of scientific concepts. It outlines specific learning focuses, aligning with EYLF/VEYLDF outcomes, particularly emphasizing children becoming assured and involved learners. The plan details the required materials, including balloons, colored papers, and various items for experiments involving sinking and floating, oil and water mixtures, magnets, and color mixing. A step-by-step procedure is provided, including a booth setup to simulate day and night, experiments to demonstrate scientific principles, and tasks for the children to complete. The plan also includes strategies for review and evaluation, such as asking questions, observing children's reactions, and assessing their ability to apply concepts. The teaching methodology incorporates the 5E model (Engaging, Exploring, Explaining, Elaborating, and Evaluating) to maintain children's interest and understanding. The assignment concludes with reflections on the learning experience and suggestions for future practices, emphasizing the importance of responsive teaching and children's active exploration of the world.

Running head: LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLAN 1
LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLAN

LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLAN 2
Context
Children from age group of four to five were selected who regularly play together, to be
observed for the learning experience plan. Children from all social setting were chosen to make
the experience culturally diversified. The observation took place in a small room where the
children would be kept safe and experimented properly while they were playing together. This
particular group of children were chosen as they seemed comfortable around each other and if
given a group task, it will be easier for them to complete it. It would also help them to
understand the power of teamwork and might help when they grow up (Australian Association of
Mathematics Teachers & Early Childhood Australia, 2006).
Summary of the children's interests and understandings
Based on my observation the children were very fond of learning new things. They were
attracted to colourful items and loved asking questions. Childhood being a time when children
seek knowledge and meaning of everything around them. The children were very much
interested in asking question about the world’s existence, about the sky, land and different
aspects of nature. They seemed to enjoy every little thing and were curious to know about
everything around them. They wanted to know about the sun and the moon, they were very
curious to know about the melting of ice-cream when left out of the freezer. They knew that it is
dangerous for them to touch anything hot. They had some very interesting question which were
all related to science and they seemed pretty fascinated about the things they saw and wanted to
know more about everything
Learning Experience Plan
Experience Information-
The children who will be used in this experience plan will be around four to five years. They will
be taken as a subject for this experiment because of their continuous thirsts for. The children who
will be taken will be of similar interest for science and who will love to identify new things and
learn new concepts.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLAN 3
Learning Focus-
The children that will be used are filled with different capabilities and if given a proper nudge
will generate great results. The common point between the children are that they have a slight
interest in the field of science but are not able to receive appropriate guidance.
They have knowledge about alphabets, numbers and some nursery rhymes. They also seem to
know about different shapes and how to count on their fingers.
But the children at this age must be given suitable knowledge and they should have a sense of
being into them (Chaille, & Britain, 2003). This is the age when they start to understand the
sense of relationship or family, care, love, language etc. The early childhood years are not
merely about preparing for the future but is a process of getting a grip of the present.
My learning focus is to inculcate basic scientific learning amongst the children so that they can
grow up to be interested in this particular field. Thus, giving scientific knowledge at a young age
might be difficult for the children to grasp but it is at this age the children learn a new sense of
belonging (Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers & Early Childhood Australia 2006).
It will facilitate the learning in children and guide them to right direction. At this age where they
develop a sense of identity and connection to the things they love. This will make them confident
and they will have a strong sense of wellbeing which will help them to be a good and capable
human-being in future. They will be participating in everyday life which will enhance their
interest and built their identity and they will also have some basic knowledge about the world.
3. EYLF/VEYLDF Outcomes
The Early Year Learning Framework (EYLF) is a relationship among the knowledge outcomes,
values and training which revolves on the learning of the child. There are three main these that
control these elements: Being, Belonging and Becoming (Australian Government Department of
Education, Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR], 2009). These have five major
outcomes: Children consume a solid sense of individuality; They are linked with and contribute
to their world; They have a keen understanding of wellbeing; They become assured and involved

LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLAN 4
learners; They have a strong understanding of effective communication (Australian Association
of Mathematics Teachers & Early Childhood Australia 2006).
The EYLF outcome this learning experience plan will focus on is ‘children becoming an assured
and involved learners.
Requirements
Some small basic scientific experiment will be conducted to make the children involved in the
learning experience. These experiments will capture their attention and leave then wanting to
discover more. For this experience I will be needing balloons, colorful papers, flowers, cloths to
create an appropriate environment for the children. Then for the real experiments the things
required are a heavy and light ball, water, beakers, oil, food coloring (different colors), magnet,
keys, small jars with pictures stuck on it, almonds, lemon, clips, erasers, cherries, balls,
sharpener, crayons, papers. The experience will be presented by using small basic experiments
and by giving them some tasks to see if their knowledge has been slightly enhanced.
Procedure
The experience will be set by me making a small booth where I will perform some basic
experiments for the children. The booth will be covered with blue cloth half of which will be
covered with stars and a moon and the other half with clouds and a cut-out sun. this will make
them understand that the stars are present at night with the moon but cannot be seen during the
day. This will be then explained to the kids that due to the light of the sun the stars are not seen
at day time and remain hidden. The scientific experiments and their explanation will be
conducted by me and the children will be watching those experiment and asking questions if
needed. There are several experiments that will be done. The first experiment will be conducted
to make them understand that the heavy things sink in water while the light items tend to float.
The heavy and light balls which were required will be used her by immersing it in the water and
letting the kids watch the heavy ball sink while the light one floats around. The second
experiment conducted, where food coloring will be added to the oil and tiny droplets of it will be
dropped in a beaker filed with water. Thus, explaining that the oil and the water cannot be mixed
together. Thirdly they will be given few jars with the pictures stuck on it, in which they will have

LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLAN 5
to put the given items like eraser, lemons, almonds according to the pictures on the jars. The next
experiment will be of magnets where I will show them how some metals (irons) can stick to
magnet. Small glasses of water will be kept and different food colorings like red, yellow, blue
(mainly) will be mixed in the water. Then those colors will be mixed together to form new color.
For instance, red and blue colored water mixed together will give a purple liquid; yellow and
blue mixed together will generate green and many more. The experience will be ended by giving
the children some beans and telling them to put it on sunlight and then seeing what happens after
a week. Everything then will be cleaned up in order to make the children understand that it’s not
appropriate to leave behind the mess made by an individual (Seefeldt, Galper, & Stevenson-
Garcia 2012).
Plan for review
After the clean-up will be executed the children will be asked some questions like which ball will
float? and what will happen if we mix yellow and blue? And if the children still have any doubts
that will also be answered in a playful manner for the child to remember. The experiment given
to the children will be checked to see how many of them were able to put the things in the correct
jar. The child is said to be an open book as you can see from their expressions if they are able to
understand the things taught to them (Montague-Smith, Cotton, Hansen, & Price, 2017). The
strategies used were effective or not will be understood by, listening to them and interacting with
them individually. This will help me to track the progress of the children individually. They will
be given magnets and two types of things will be kept in front of them; keys and papers. By
seeing what is the first instinct of the child will determine the success of my experiment. To
know if they understand the concept of day and night, they will be given cut-outs of stars,
moons, suns and clouds and will be asked to make a group of night and day. If the children an
able to do it on their own or with a little bit of supervision it will be facilitate that development
has occurred. Few more activities will be conducted to see the improvement in their learning and
if they are confident enough to make decisions-based on their instinct. I will fully be taking part
with the children to boost their confidence and clapping at every little thing they are able to
guess correctly (Sperry Smith, 2009).
Evaluation of the teaching and learning

LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLAN 6
The teaching was done in the manner that it would grasp the attention of the students. Different
colors were used and different things were made, to make them interested of the experience. For
teaching, 5E model was used (Engaging, Exploring, Explaining, Elaborating and Evaluating)
(Primary Connections, 2008). This model has said to be beneficial in teaching the young
children. The children have to be engaged continuously so that they are not distracted with
different things. As the children are easily distracted by little items, hence to keep them focused
their attention needs to be fully seized. The colourful and innovating idea of the booth was
enough to keep them engaged all along. The different coloured experiments were found to be
very appealing which helped their minds to remain static (Perry, & Dockett, 2007). The
exploring of new things made them more interested and active during the experience. Explaining
might be a step where you lose the children’s focus as it seems to be boring. But if the teacher
knows how to make that in an interesting format, it could lead to marvelous results. Thus,
explaining with different expressions and a lot of hand movement seemed to be very effective.
The process of elaborating is a process were the topic is being elaborated by giving the children
some task. These tasks should be interesting yet filled with knowledge. These tasks will help the
teacher and the student both to understand the outcome of the explanation done by the teacher.
The last stage is to evaluate the student by asking them questions based on the teaching done
(Primary Connections 2008). This will also provide the student with an opportunity to review
and reflect on the new learnings and skills they have acquired. The evaluation will help to
understand the change in their thinking patterns, belief and understanding after the learning
experience. Hence, the children showed a positive outcome from the learning experience as they
retained the information after the experience was completed.
Reflections and future practice
From conducting the experiments, I have learned that children learn in the context of what is
going around them. They establish their educational disposition and pattern of engagement with
other people that will have a thoughtful impact on their education, performance, motivation and
capacity for being assured. If the teacher is responsive the children will be more encouraged,
curious and enthusiastic about the learning process (Chaille, & Britain, 2003). Children are said
to be an active learner exploring the things around them through the sense of smell, sight, sound,
taste, touch and movement (Harlen, Macro, Reed & Schilling, 2003). The development of the
brain is rapid when there is physical exploration and they are constantly engaged to the people

LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLAN 7
who response to their interest and answer their queries. The children tend to learn more if they
are given chance to play and discover things on their own but with open-minded materials and
constant supervision. Since a young age child tend to develop explanations for observed
wonders, and contemplate on their learning with experiences (MacDonald, 2015). With proper
and continuous inspiration, guidance, practice and knowledge, children grow the capacity to
understand their own thinking course and styles to learning. Children tend to learn from
watching and hearing, this leads to emergence of new skills and understanding in the child. As
they grow up, their sense of inquiry and want for knowledge increases. Supporting this
knowledge, by creating systems and procedures easy and likable helps children to shape their
capacity and function accordingly (Davis, & Keller, 2009). Their confidence level rises up when
they learn the task processes, exercise their imagination and solve the problem. And after the
completion of the task allotted to them, they need to be praised so that they stay more alert and
involved in the procedures. It is also important to mix play within the learning process as this
will break the monotony of the long procedures and the things taught will be retained.
From this learning experiences there are many things that I have learned and will try to use it in
future. The experiments designed should be at the level at which students can comprehend. More
Playfulness should be incorporated in the teaching process so that the students are no bored.
Children are also said to transfer and adapt the things they have learned in different context; thus,
they need to enjoy the process of learning in order to remember it later (Walker, & Bass, 2015).
The responsiveness of the teacher should be maximised because at this age students need
continuous guidance and care. They see the way the adults around them are acting and try to
copy them. As a new era is arriving were the children will be more attracted to technologies.
Hence, using new technological advancements in the teaching process so that the students will be
keener to learn. Using different gadgets and methods might make the learning process to be more
interesting (Bergen, 2009).

LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLAN 8
Reference List
Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers & Early Childhood Australia. (2006). Position
paper on early childhood mathematics. Adelaide, Australia: AAMT & ECA.
Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
[DEEWR]. (2009). Belonging, being and becoming: The Early Years Learning
Framework for Australia. Barton, Australia: Commonwealth of Australia.
Bergen, D. (2009). Play as the Learning Medium for Future Scientists, Mathematicians, and
Engineers. American Journal of play, 1(4), 413-428.
Bishop, A. J. (1988). Mathematical enculturation: A cultural perspective on
mathematics education. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Chaille, C., & Britain, L. (2003). The child as theory builder. In The young child as scientist: a
constructivist approach to early childhood science education (3rd ed.). Boston, USA:
Allyn and Bacon.
Davis, G.A., & Keller, J.D. (2009). Measurement – A way to capture observations in
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Harlen, W., Macro, C., Reed, K., & Schilling, M. (2003). Making progress in primary science.
London: Routledge Falmer.
MacDonald, A. (2015). Investigating mathematics, science and technology in early childhood.
South Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.

LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLAN 9
Macmillan, A. (2009). Shared contexts for teaching and learning numeracy. In Numeracy in
early childhood: Shared contexts for teaching and learning. South Melbourne, Australia:
Oxford University Press.
Montague-Smith, A., Cotton, T., Hansen, A., & Price, A. J. (2017). Mathematics in early years
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http://www.aamt.edu.au/index.php/content/download/7299/94431/file/play.pdf
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learning model. Retrieved
from https://www.primaryconnections.org.au/about/teaching/an-elaboration-of-the-
primarybconnectionsb-5es-teaching-and-learning-model.pdf
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Sperry Smith, S. (2009). Developing number sense. In Early childhood mathematics (4th ed.).
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Walker, K. & Bass, S. (2015). Early childhood play matters intentional teaching through play:
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