Children's books for those under age five often embrace science. Well before they enter their first classroom, children eagerly explore their environment in search of answers to an endless stream of why and how questions.
Roughly 1,100 books begin with "How do...". Of those, approximately one tenth are about engineering and science (e.g. How Do Airplanes Fly? and How Do Animals Move?). In that tenth, the vast majority (well over 90%) are children's books.
Children seem to be more interested in the hows and whys of the world than adults. A burst of research in the last decade confirms the apparent pattern in book titles. From three to six years of age, children ask many how and why questions, but then those questions decrease quickly during the elementary school years and beyond.
Most children's spontaneous (自发的) love of science fades by adulthood. Is it a problem with science itself? Despite some claims to that, the real cause is a decline in wonder. Wonder is the engine that drives exploration and discovery, and when it disappears, a strong feeling of love for the workings of the world melts away.
Every child wants to know how the world works. We are all born with wonder — with curious minds, fascinated by the world around us. Young children and even infants are naturally engaging in intuitive science every day, often with complex methods.
This loss of wonder is not because we suddenly understand everything — we don't — but because distrust, disengagement, and denial can become embedded into many aspects of our lives. Besides, the consequences (影响) of this loss of wonder are profound. Because loss of wonder can lead to especially poor understandings of underlying mechanisms, we become vulnerable to misinformation and manipulation (操纵) by others. Even worse, abandonment of wonder will take away the rewarding joy of discovery from us.
This loss of wonder, however, is not inevitable. We can all take simple action to reawaken that initial spark and live lives lit by wonder.
