This textbook is the first book in the series Pathways in Science. It is planned to meet the needs of young children who are "looking about," touching, manipulating, experimenting, and asking questions. The stories are for the most part actual records of the experiences of real children. The material represents a wide range of interests, many of which are given further consideration in the later books of this series. In each case the aspect of the experience which is most vital and significant at this stage of the child's development is emphasized. The child's learning, as should always be the case, is the result of "thinking through" a problem with the guidance of a teacher. For the most part the experiences recorded in these stories can be duplicated in any school and special care has been taken to keep the text within the reading ability of first-grade children.