Download

Download Full Text (916 KB)

Description

Do insects have minds? Are they creative? Can they tell time? Can they learn from experience? As a young boy, Charles Henry Turner couldn’t stop asking such questions and his curiosity-fueled intellect led him to become the first African American admitted to the St. Louis Academy of Science and one of the first entomologist to study insect behavior. By designing ingenious experiments, Turner proved that bees see color, that spiders can spin webs around artificial obstacles, that cockroaches can learn to navigate a maze, and that moths can be trained to beat their wings when a whistle blows. This insightful picture-book biography helps young readers trace the knowledge we find in science textbooks backwards through a process of experimental inquiry, to its source in human questioning. It also provokes important questions about the ethics of animal experiments.

Publication Date

2025

Publisher

Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children

City

Montclair

Keywords

education, experimentation, insects, philosophy for children, science, Charles Henry Turner

Disciplines

Early Childhood Education | Education | Philosophy

Buzzing with Questions: The Inquisitive Mind of Charles Henry Turner (2019) by Janice N. Harrington

Please consider a small donation to the IAPC.

Share

COinS