An open-ended assignment to "make something" out of cardboard was a good fit for a half-day camp class of children in kindergarten, first, and second grades where the first goal was to have fun while learning. Given the opportunity to make something of their own design for their own purposes out of cardboard, the children persisted while…

Discusses attitudes seemingly engendered by practices in science teaching. Comments on explanations of scientific phenomena which appear in recent science texts as over-simplified and thus impede the child's imagination. (Author/EB)