ABSTRACT
I once went to a bookstore in search of science books for young children. I had just one request. I wanted books that encouraged young people to engage in questioning and experimentation without telling them how the investigations would turn out. When the clerk asked if he could help, I explained my problem, showing an example of a book that made fi ne suggestions about planting seeds and placing the containers in diff erent places-then on the very next page told the children exactly what they should expect to happen to each plant. “What is the point of doing the experiment,” I asked, “If the book tells you the ‘answer’? I want them to do experiments like real scientists.” I was dumbfounded by the young man’s reply. “But scientists do know the answers,” he said, “Th ey just do the experiments to show it. Even when I took college physics (evidently the ultimate in science, from his perspective), we always knew the answers before we started. Th en we did the labs.”
