Teaching chemistry and physics in preschool: a matter of establishing intersubjectivity

Figures & data

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141.	Teacher	No, don’t know. One can only guess what one thinks. No. If you are to pour dirty water here on the gravel (to Ilsia). What do you think then?
142.	Ilsia	(Inaudible, shrugs)
143.	Teacher	No. What do you think (to Danu) if one pours water on it? (Points to Ilsias bottle.)
144.	Danu	Mmmmm … grey!
145.	Teacher	It will turn grey? What do you think will happen when I pour water in this then? (Takes a bottle with funnel and filter but without any purification material as sand or coal.)
146.	Ilsia	Be that. (Points to the bottle with dirty water.)
147.	Teacher	It will be that dirty? Yes?
148.	Ilsia	Because you didn’t have anything in it.

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79.	Teacher	(Holds the bottle where the dirty water has been filtered through the stones. The water is of the same brown colour as before. The bottle’s upper part with the stones are still left in the bottle’s lower part, containing the water.) Was the water cleaned?
80.	Children	Yes!
81.	Teacher	Is it clean? (Lifts the pitcher with water left in it and holds it next to the bottle with the stones/filtered water.)
82.	Children	Yes.
83.	Arne	But it’s brown.
84.	Teacher	Is it brown? Is the water clean if it’s brown?
85.	Nero	Yes!
86.	Teacher	Is it?
87.	Nero	Yes, look there! (Points to the stones in the bottle.)
88.	Teacher	Yes but look here. (Puts the pitcher down but continue to hold the bottle with the stones/filtered water and points to the lower part with the water.)
89.	Teacher	The water has been pouring through here (shows through the stones), through the stones. (All children follow with interest.)
90.	Arne	Through the stones.
91.	Teacher	What do you think Farah? Is it clean? (Holds up the bottle with the stones/filtered water.)
92.	Farah	Yes.

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73.	Teacher	Now, watch the water that comes out! Can you see that it begins to drop there? How does it look?
74.	Ingrid	It is dripping, dripping, dripping
75.	Teacher	How does it look?
76.	Oscar	It is little clean!!!
77.	Ingrid	It becomes clean water!
78.	Helga	Yes!
79.	Ingrid	It works like it gets clean like that! It becomes clean water like this!
80.	Oscar	This is what we should do! To make it clean.
81.	Teacher	Yes, you should have used all your filters together. Maybe we should have used … (names all the used filters) then it might have been like this!?
82.	Ingrid	And also this (points to the stones and the sand) became – it became black
83.	Teacher	Yes
84.	Oscar	Finally!

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37.	Teacher	And then I thought I’d show (Brings out a miniature windmill/bottle.)
38.	Fatima	And this. (Shows with the hand in the air how it spins.)
39.	Teacher	Yes, yes.
40.	Mario	It’s the wind force.
41.	Teacher	Yes.
42.	Mario	It looks like a airplane.
43.	Teacher	Yes, it looks like a airplane but I call this a windmill.
44.	Mario	That what you built in lego.
45.	Teacher	Yes I built, tried to build one yesterday in lego too. But how do you think this works, what do we need?
46.	Fatima	Blow, airy-ing. (Shows with the hand in the air with a spinning motion.)
47.	Balli	The wind.
48.	Ari	This is like a helicopter.
49.	Teacher	Like a helicopter, you can also compare it to that, or to a propeller.
50.	Teacher	Should we call it propeller?
51.	Ari	Shall we try?
52.	Child	Yes.
53.	Fatima	(Nods)
54.	Teacher	Then let’s start the air Mario.
55.	Mario	(Turns on the fan)