After a rainfall, puddles disappear; which response best prompts scientific thinking?

• A. asking the children if they can guess where the puddles might have come from in the first place
• B. explaining to the children that the puddles evaporated because they were heated by the sun
• C. showing the children how to use brushes to paint with water on the sidewalk and then observing what happens to their painting over time
• D. talking with the children about the different forms of precipitation that water vapor can take when it falls from the sky

Answer: (C)

Promoting scientific thinking comes from having children observe, describe, and reason about what they see. Using water on the sidewalk and watching how it dries engages them in a concrete, open-ended investigation: they notice how long the water lasts, where it disappears first, and what conditions seem to speed the drying (like sun or breeze). This sets up evidence-based thinking—asking questions, making observations, and comparing what happens under different conditions, then drawing conclusions from those observations. It’s hands-on and child-driven, so they learn by testing ideas rather than just hearing a fact.

Other options ask children to guess or explain without letting them explore or test ideas themselves, or shift focus to a broader topic of precipitation rather than the specific change in the puddle. The chosen approach centers inquiry and evidence, which is why it best prompts scientific thinking.