Student as a Researcher

How can preschool-aged students do their own research?

Knowledge
Being a teacher in a preschool classroom, it is usually up to you to do the research for specific topics you want to teach or have the students learn about. But, when your young students (whose minds are like sponges) think of out-of-the-box questions, what do you do? Typically I would say that I'll look up the answer later. Then you have students shout out, "ask google," or, "ask siri." And, although these can be helpful, the students aren't really getting anything out of it. How can our young preschool students do their own research?


BOOKS!!!!!!!


Yes! The answer is that simple. Preschoolers can use non-fiction books to do research...on their own! Non-fiction books, ones that use photography for pictures, are a great way for children ages 3-5 to investigate, observe, understand, hypothesize, and conclude! Students can use non-fiction books to obtain accurate information on topics they wish to learn more about.






Application

Children non-fiction books are a fantastic way for a preschooler to do research. This part will focus on the book, Awesome Autumn by Bruce Goldstone. This book features photographs of different leaves found in nature. It describes how trees are different and different leaves grow on different trees.













For a classroom project, I would take the students into the school yard on a nature walk. I would have them collect LEAVES! After the collection is done, we would head back into our classroom and use the non-fiction book(s) to classify the leaves and research what trees they came from.

You could do this with a number of different topics: hatching butterflies, growing plants, learning about bugs in the school yard. Student researchers are a great foundation for building a student's vocabulary, curiosity, literacy, exploration, and creativity.


Reflection on Practice
Having your students be the researcher in your classroom can be difficult because it takes a longer time than you just googling the answer. The teacher must be patient with the students in order for them to fully immerse themselves in being a researcher. It is also very rewarding for the students to research a question or topic and share their findings with their peers. I observed that the students were very vested in their research. It motivated them to do a good job. They were proud of their hard work and what they uncovered. We even had some debates in class as to why one student thought one way, and one thought another! Having your students be researchers early on will set them up to be researchers in technology in the future!