Didactic Design: light and optics for preschool level

Since 2003, we have been developing a pedagogic proposal and didactic material for teaching Light and Optics to kindergarden children that enhances the construction of the first scientific thinking schemes. The design (industrial and graphic) applied to this project has generated an educational product composed of 44 objects. These materials allow teaching concepts such as: combination of colors, light indispensable to see, formation of shadows and images are not objects. These have been developed as inciters of curiosity, capable to awake the innate restlessness of children, achieving to stimulate their creativity. The purpose is to explore knowledge and construct their own ideas; enrich their experiences and inquire a reality that was drawn grey and tedious, generating a process of manipulation-action and then representation-conceptualization. This product has been successfully used as a pilot test in a kindergarden, reflecting significant gains in students’ science learning. [Full paper in Spanish