A growing body of empirical studies in the field of early childhood science education suggests play as a dynamic means to engage young children with the natural world and create the conditions for children’s learning and development in science. Although our understanding of play in science as an activity deepens, we still do not know much about the dynamics of scientific toys in science teaching and learning in early childhood settings. Scientific toys are defined here as improvised, three-dimensional constructions with specific teaching and learning goals that seek to achieve a balance between play and learning in science. The study focuses on teaching and learning about optics in preschool settings and particularly about the concept of light and the phenomenon of shadow formation. The study aims to capture and understand the processes through which preschoolers develop their ideas about the concept and the phenomenon through the use of scientific toys. Empirical data were collected in one early childhood center in Greece for three weeks. Thirteen children participated in the study. Digital visual methods were used for data collection and analysis. The findings illustrate and substantiate that children managed to develop their thinking about light and shadows while playing with scientific toys within imaginary situations. The study concludes with new insights into conceptually- oriented play-based learning in science through children’s artifacts. Implications that inform practice about dialectically interrelating play and learning are discussed.

幼儿科学教育领域越来越多的实证研究表明，游戏是让幼儿参与自然世界并为儿童在科学方面的学习和发展创造条件的动态手段。尽管我们对科学游戏中的游戏作为一种活动的理解加深了，但我们仍然对幼儿环境中科学教学和学习中科学玩具的动态知之甚少。科学玩具在这里被定义为具有特定教学目标的即兴三维结构，旨在实现科学游戏和学习之间的平衡。该研究的重点是学前教育中的光学教学和学习，特别是光的概念和阴影形成的现象。该研究旨在捕捉和理解学龄前儿童通过使用科学玩具来发展他们对概念和现象的看法的过程。在希腊的一个幼儿中心收集了为期三周的经验数据。13 名儿童参与了这项研究。采用数字视觉方法进行数据收集和分析。研究结果说明并证实，儿童在想象的情况下玩科学玩具时，设法发展了他们对光和影的思考。该研究最后通过儿童文物对科学中以概念为导向的基于游戏的学习有了新的见解。讨论了关于辩证地相互关联的游戏和学习的实践的含义。