Experience in schools has shown that children can handle more difficult mathematics and science than is often assumed. Goldberg, a particle physicist, worked with TIMS Co-Director Philip Wagreich and other faculty in Education, Biology, and Mathematics, to develop a children's version of the scientific method. Goldberg and his colleagues than applied that method in a series of laboratory experiments for Grades K-9. Each of these four phases may take one or more class periods. Thus, an experiment is an extended activity that may last several days.
Lessons are grounded in everyday situations, so abstractions build on experience.
Students can solve problems in ways they understand while being encouraged to connect those ways to more abstract and powerful methods. When children or scientists approach the world quantitatively, they generally count or measure things. Underlying most measurements, no matter how complex, is a small set of basic variables. Understanding these basic variables is an essential prerequisite to scientific understanding of more complex concepts. The most important of these variables are length, area, volume, mass, and time are also basic in mathematics.