by French. At its center is a science activity; around it, teachers describe in writing how that activity will be integrated into play, language arts, social studies, art, and mathematics throughout the week.

French's approach also includes a strong component of parent involvement. Children take home Science ZipKits with open-ended activities for the evening. Then science celebrations are scheduled at school to promote interaction between parents and children as well as family literacy nights designed for reading and working on activities.

Throughout the 1990s, French attracted financial support from the Frontier Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation, Halcyon Hill Foundation, and Science Linkages in the Community for her work. The new infusion of NSF funds represents one of the largest grants received by the Warner School.

She first began investigatingthe use of science with young children in 1991 when Eastman Kodak Co. offered support for that purpose. Later, she helped to establish Third Church's preschool project as a delegate agency of Action for a Better Community's Head Start Program in 1995. The teachers latched on to her ideas and the partnership continued.

French, who earned her doctoral degree at the University of Illinois in developmental psychology, uses a four-step process through which children can organize their thoughts and solve problems. As they work through the process, they can reflect and ask, plan and predict, act and observe, and report and reflect. "Once children have seen with their own eyes and touched with their own hands, they are ready to do something with the information they have," she says.

M.