Participation in the ScienceStart! curriculum leads children to make a variety of cognitive and linguistic gains.

Children's general vocabulary level, as measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, increases significantly.

Assessments before and after each module show that children learn the specific content covered in the curriculum -- for example, the result of mixing yellow and red or the source of a shadow. They also learn the specialized vocabulary that goes along with this content, for example, transparent, opaque, translucent, and primary color.

Through participation in ScienceStart!, children also develop and practice a variety of age-appropriate cognitive skills that are associated with scientific inquiry. These include:

• Observing
• Measuring
• Comparing
• Classifying
• Sequencing
• Quantifying
• Interpreting representations
• Representing data