“ No caterpillars,” says Josaih. Sofia adds,“ They are on the ground,” as she stoops to look through the lilac’ s dropped leaves.
After a brief wait and taking a step back from the children’ s search, Sheila comments,“ While you were looking for caterpillars, I was remembering that caterpillars were something else before they became caterpillars. You two have mentioned caterpillars, chrysalis, and butterfly. That is what we observed in our monarch butterfly house, but I remember that butterflies lay eggs. The caterpillars we had in our class emerged from the eggs before we saw them.” She pauses, watches the children finger the leaves of the bush again, then says,“ I am also wondering why the yellow butterfly we just saw likes this lilac bush,” a restatement of her previous question.
Sofia touches a flower.“ I don’ t know.” Without speaking, Sheila leans in to smell the lilac. Sofia follows suit and says,“ Maybe the butterfly likes to smell it.”
Sheila responds,“ Mmm, maybe we could find out more about what the yellow butterfly likes and why this lilac bush is blooming again when we get back to our classroom. Would you like to take a picture of the lilac bush? We can print it out and write down when we saw it blooming in our nature journal.” Sofia and Josaih each take a few photos.
Children’ s memory of hatching monarch butterflies, their existing knowledge about and experiences with butterflies, and their observation of the eastern tiger swallowtail in the lilac bush could serve as a foundation for an E-STEM inquiry project. To get started, Sheila could draw children’ s attention to prominent features of the lilac bush and butterflies, providing space for shared dialogue about weather patterns and eliciting new ideas and insights. Her class regularly documented observations in a nature journal, to which the photos of the bush could be added. As children comment on the butterfly and lilac bush, she might create a concept map to visually display relationships among their ideas. Children may decide to use books and other resources to find out what butterflies or lilac bushes need to thrive or to map where butterflies come from or go after they leave Minnesota. Through this process, they
can begin a cycle of inquiry, continuing until sufficient answers are found or until interest wanes.( See Konerman et al. 2021 and Damjanovic & Branson 2025 for examples of three-phase inquiry projects.)
Importantly, Sheila was attuned to children’ s construction of knowledge about butterflies and lilac bushes and gave feedback about scientific misconceptions in a respectful, nonjudgmental manner( butterflies lay eggs). Understanding environmental concepts like these sets a foundation for caring about the planet and recognizing changing climate patterns.
Conclusion
Climate events significantly impact young children. While there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to high-quality early childhood climate education, an E-STEM approach that integrates dialogic teaching is flexible and responsive to children, providing a solid foundation for learning that enables children to thrive in a changing world. Specifically, it can disrupt misconceptions and instill hope and agency( Torres & Moore 2024).
As the field of early childhood education considers how to integrate climate education in developmentally appropriate ways, it is prudent to acknowledge where children have authentic experiences in and with nature, in which children’ s connections spark curiosity and lead to care for the environment. Employing dialogic methods, teachers can respond to that curiosity, create space for thought and reflection, and offer provocations to explicitly foster learning about climate change, build resilience, and positively impact children’ s sustainable futures.
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