Although we are aware that this is an important standard, we believe this must be done very carefully. Remember that a child’s interest is essential to their learning. Too much insistence on their making their own representations, if they are not interested, could cause them to lose interest in the ramps activity, especially for the younger children. However, it sound like you have accomplished this successfully.

We keep our digital cameras handy and take many photographs every day. We download the photographs, print them, show them to the children, and ask them what they were doing in the photograph. We then write their dictation under the photograph. Eventually, we share the pen, even with the three-year-old children. You could do the same thing with their drawings. Children bring these to class meetings to share with other children and as a impetus for beginning a discussion about ramps & pathways. We hang them around the classroom, put them in their portfolios, send them home to share with their families, and put them on documentation boards. Eventually, we take a series of photographs of a structure and make them into books. We make a copy to send home with the child and a copy to put in our library.

Some teachers have children leave up their structures, then take a tour all together at group time so children can demonstrate how the structures work and observe how others have solved certain problems.

We have not tried asking children to draw their designs and compare them. We think that may be difficult for young children but you could try it, see what happens, and let us know.

Christina has tried setting up ramps side by side for children to compare the distance marbles of different sizes travel but children with whom she has worked seldom show much interest in engaging in this activity.

Our observations of children indicate that the best comparisons come when they are building ramps & pathways, testing their structures to see if they work the way they want, changing them, observing the results, comparing what happened the first time, what happened this time, etc. to get the effect they are trying to create. We often ask questions like, “What made you decide to change (whatever it was the child changed)?" If the child is verbal, his or her answer will give you information about the comparisons the child is making.

Absolutely! We want children to engage in this type of thinking from the very beginning.
In fact, we think it is best if children have the ideas about what to vary. We used to ask children, “What can you do the fix your ramp so that (you can make the marble . . . etc)? After much thought, we now try to ask, “What can you change so that . . . ? Using the word change sometimes gives children the idea that it is important to vary something.

Yes, you are correct. It means that children construct their own knowledge. By constructing knowledge, Piaget meant making mental relationships, that is, the linking of new information with a network of mental relationships they have already constructed. In the book, we explain what this looks like in the classroom using Ramps & Pathways.

Children construct knowledge not just from the materials with which they work, but by making mental relationships about all their experiences—social, emotional, intellectual, etc.

What it looks like in the classroom depends on the age and experiences of the children. For young children one of the best ways for them to learn (make mental relationships) is to provide them with activities in which they have something to figure out how to do. Figuring something out means they are struggling with a problem of some type and trying to find a solution. How to do means that they are constructing a solution to a problem while using materials to create a particular effect. It is important that the problem is interesting to them because if they do not find it so, they will not invest the mental energy necessary to construct new mental relationships.

Creating successful ramps and pathways using cove molding requires young children to think about slope (angle). Although it is very important to talk with children about what they are doing, before making comments or asking questions, adults should observe children’s actions closely. We sometimes think about this as “crawling into a child’s mind” by trying to figure out what they are thinking. If they are highly engaged trying to solve a problem sometimes it is not necessary to say anything. We believe the best questions and comments come from trying to help them think in more complex ways about what they are already doing.

It is always good to have in mind vocabulary (for example, slope, steep, further, etc.) you can introduce to children so they can better explain what they are trying to do. For example, if children are adding blocks to their supports to make their marbles go further, the adult might comment, “I see you are making your slope steeper.” A question might be, “What do you want to happen when you make your slope steeper?” Sometimes comments are more effective than questions.

Although what we encourage a child to think about depends on his or her developmental level and experiences, in general, we avoid using the terms “speed and angle” with the younger children because they cannot quantify them. With young children we talk about distance, using words such as how far the marble rolls because distance is more observable and exciting.

Teachers begin to use words such as speed as children get older, have more experience with the ramps (at the Freeburg School we had the ramps in the classrooms from 3-years-old through second grade), and make more complex structures. We have observed children in first and second grade carefully adjusting the angle of the ramp section to regulate the speed of the marble. This would be an appropriate time to introduce the term speed.

We do not make a special point of telling children they are learning physics. We say to parents that young children are constructing knowledge of physics at practical level (knowing how) rather than a conceptual level (knowing why). What we mean is that young children are experimenting with and observing physics phenomena (what happens as a result of their actions). We go into more detail about this in the book.

We do not use terms like inertia, acceleration, momentum, or velocity because these scientific terms are complex and we do not want to instill misconceptions about their meanings. Instead, we use words like steep, steeper and steepest, and far, farther and farthest that we are fairly sure young children are capable of understanding.

Most science standards these days emphasize the importance of some degree of action on the part of students. Piaget emphasized that young children understand/think at the practical level (knowing how) before they can do so at the conceptual level (knowing why). Our book shows how teachers can think about how children are thinking in the course of working with ramps and pathways and explain children’s construction of knowledge to parents and administrators. Documentation boards are great to show what children are learning. We believe Ramps & Pathways activities meet the criteria in the excellent book on Inquiry published by NSTA. We cannot undertake here a complete answer to your question that would require addressing national standards in detail. NAEYC’s website has a helpful short joint position statement on “Early Learning Standards.” It may be useful to indicate that when we worked at Freeburg School, Christina Sales took the leadership in developing constructivist standards. Included in our science standards were:

Inquiry Standard 1:
The child exhibits curiosity about characteristics of objects and object phenomena.
Inquiry Standard 2:
The child investigates objects (living and non-living) and object phenomena.
• The child generates problems to solve.
• The child acts (makes simple experiments) on familiar and unfamiliar objects to determine what will
happen.
• The child makes a hypothesis.
• The child acts on objects (makes simple experiments) to create a particular effect and/or to test own
hypotheses.
• The child observes the results of own actions.
• The child invents ideas about solving problems encountered during experimentation, that is, makes
new hypothesis.
• The child communicates observations and conclusions concerning movement or changes in objects.
• The child represents observations and conclusions.

Note: Although children’s logic guides their inquiry, no step-by-step sequence is required.

Standards can be useful, in our view, when they reflect how children learn—when they consider not only knowledge content but also the organizing intelligence. In our book, we talk about this in terms of mental relationships children can make in the course of working with Ramps & Pathways. Standards can also be limiting. We want children to know much more than we can write in standards.

To address another part of your question, one of the teaching principles that we discuss in the book is to “Integrate all curriculum areas into Ramps & Pathways activities.” We sketch out how teachers can address literacy, social studies, art, and mathematics goals, using Ramps & Pathways.

Your idea of sharing the materials among classrooms will work if you do not have the funds to supply all classrooms. We know of several teachers who have applied for and received small grants to pay for these materials. Be aware that children not only need the cove molding and marbles (being careful which size of marble or ball to use depending on whether or not children put objects in their mouths) they also need blocks or other materials to support their ramps. We happen to feel strongly that children in early primary grades need at least one complete set of unit blocks for all sorts of uses. However, start where you can, and good luck!

An outcome of sharing materials might be a “Ramps” study/discussion group that shares ideas and experiences as well.

We buy the cove molding (1 ½ inches wide) at our local builders supply stores (Menards, Home Depot, local lumber yards, etc.). If you cannot find them in your state, a fairly new company, Kodo Kids is now selling Ramps and Pathways kits. You can see their website at

Yes, of course, you can make ramps and pathways out of many different materials. We began many years ago with just rolling objects down boards (and an old table with two legs removed from one end). (See the book by Kamii & DeVries, Physical-Knowledge in Preschool Education: Implications of Piaget’s Theory.) Children do spontaneously create and experiment with inclines in block play/work, and these are good opportunities for encouraging the construction of mental relationships. The fact that children are fascinated with inclines is why we wanted to extend these opportunities further.

We particularly like the cove molding because the marble stays in the groove that gives it direction. When children use boards with no boundaries, the phenomena they encounter are different, as you suggest. Such experimentation can provide excellent opportunities for children to make mental relationships. (We could talk more specifically about these if you want to give us a detailed description of what you have in mind.)

Kamii and DeVries (1978/1990) suggested that in good physical-knowledge activities, children can produce a result by their action on objects, the result is observable and immediate, and children can vary what they do to perfect what they want to happen or to get a different result. These criteria help teachers select and evaluate materials and activities.