Growing up in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, not far from the Franklin Park Zoo and the Arnold Arboretum, Cindy Hoisington dreamt of becoming a zookeeper. She eventually turned her love for animals and nature into themes she weaves throughout her work as an instructor and teacher mentor for EDC early childhood science projects and as a science advisor for PBS/WGBH, on shows such as Curious George and Peep and the Big Wide World.
“I was a Head Start parent myself—trying to work, go back to school, and raise three kids,” she says. “I understand the stresses and challenges that face low-income families.”
What’s the biggest challenge coaching Head Start teachers in early childhood science education?
Head Start kids typically don’t achieve as well as children from higher-income backgrounds. We want to help teachers understand the critical role they have in supporting children’s thinking and cognitive development. Sometimes that means challenging children cognitively more than they are used to doing.
Could you describe what that looks like in the classroom?
TQScience, our new project in Westchester and Long Island, New York, will engage preschool teachers in hands-on, minds-on science exploration of physical science concepts—in topics such as water flow, drops, sink and float, and balls and ramps—at an adult level. Our goal is to support the knowledge and skills teachers need to engage their children in authentic science inquiry.
For example, all preschool classrooms have a water table. A lot of times they aren’t opened, or they’re only used for activities such as washing baby dolls or for the sensory experience they provide. In our course, we show teachers how adding very simple materials such as funnels, basters, squeeze bottles, and clear tubing can stimulate a very different kind of water exploration. We also work with teachers in their own classrooms, helping them to facilitate children’s water explorations and to support children in making meaning of these explorations, so it becomes a real-world, science-focused experience.
Why is it important to let children conduct their own explorations?
This idea of inquiry is fundamental to science learning and to how children learn science. The children are at the center of the action, and they’re the ones doing the investigating while the teachers guide them: helping them generate questions, think through problems, and come up with their own theories. The teachers get excited, because they see kids learning, talking, drawing, and writing about their observations and ideas. At the same time, the teachers are developing professionally. In my coaching and on other projects, I also get to work with teachers and kids outdoors doing nature explorations, which I love.
You’re a science advisor for the PBS animated children’s series Curious George. In fact, one of the episodes you worked on was nominated for a 2009 Daytime Emmy Award. How scientifically accurate does a cartoon need to be?
Television absolutely cannot take the place of real-world experiences and interactions, but a well-made show can be a good stimulus for getting kids excited about exploring the world around them, especially when they really identify with a character the way they do with George. It can also be a way of getting kids and parents talking together about interesting things.
The episode that was nominated for a 2009 Emmy award is “The Color of Monkey.” It’s all about George’s explorations with color-mixing. My job is to make sure the science content of the show is accurate and that the plot stays meaningful to young kids.
What’s most gratifying about your work with EDC?
I look back on my own development as a teacher, and it’s not something that happened overnight. I didn’t really hit my stride until about six or seven years into it. I feel like I have a real opportunity at EDC to make an impact on teachers, to help them realize how powerful they are in making or breaking a kid’s experience—not just in preschool, but over the long haul. I try to get them fired up, but if I generate a spark that will ignite later on, that’s okay, too. Deep learning doesn’t always happen in a blink.
At EDC, I also get to spend my time around a lot of really smart, creative, committed people who challenge me to do my best work, my best writing, and my best thinking. What more could I ask for?