Science and STEM

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Science and STEM

HomeEarly childhood education resourcesScience and STEM

Topic summary

Research shows that children are capable of and interested in engaging with a range of scientific and STEM concepts from a young age.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and encompasses a wide range of concepts, skills, and processes. In early childhood education, science learning can include lifecycles, gardening, seasons, biodiversity, water, ecosystems, indigenous knowledge, properties of substances, and chemical changes through cooking. Engineering might involve experimenting, construction play, sand play, water play, building treehouses, using pulleys, and designing and making boats. Technology might include use of tools, art materials, pulleys, levers, magnifying glasses, and digital technologies. Mathematics might include counting, estimation, measuring, sorting, spatial awareness, and noticing patterns. STEM learning also involves engaging deeply with cultural and indigenous knowledge and beliefs about the world.

STEM learning encompasses both content knowledge and process skills that are fundamental to later school and tertiary education. Introducing STEM learning in developmentally appropriate ways in early childhood settings can provide foundational knowledge, support the development of valuable process skills such as experimentation and problem solving, and encourage dispositions such as curiosity and perseverance through failure. Providing learning opportunities that recognise and build on children’s natural interest in exploring and understanding the world around them can support their readiness for school in a number of ways, while continuing to foster and enhance their curiosity and enthusiasm. 

Many studies have demonstrated that young children are motivated and proactive when it comes to exploring and engaging with all kinds of STEM learning. A play-based curriculum provides endless opportunities for children to explore scientific concepts, engineering skills, high- and low-tech technologies, and mathematical concepts. Children are highly capable of instigating and leading the exploration of STEM concepts and the use of scientific approaches to learning and discovery. Research has also found that it is important for teachers to take the role of co-investigator alongside children, while enriching children’s STEM learning through the intentional provision of learning opportunities. 

While children are naturally inclined to demonstrate many of the habits of scientific thinking, such as asking questions and engaging in sensory exploration of the world around them, the process skills involved in STEM learning require support and scaffolding to develop into the more sophisticated skills that children need as they process through school and beyond. A child-led approach to STEM involves noticing what the children notice and facilitating their interest, and teachers should try to be responsive to children’s play without stepping in unnecessarily to share their own knowledge or provide immediate answers to children’s questions. But teachers can also provide provocations, structured learning opportunities, and repeated exposure to places or experiences to allow for observation and learning over time. Deep and engaging STEM learning happens when teachers employ processes of discovery, observation, classification, hypothesising, experimentation, problem-solving, and analysis alongside children. 

  • Where do we notice children’s emerging interest in STEM concepts and processes?
  • How can we build on and extend their natural curiosity?
  • How can we provide intentional, structured opportunities to extend children’s thinking and exploration in STEM learning?
  • How can we engage in STEM learning alongside children as co-investigators and co-scientists?
  • How can we acknowledge and incorporate cultural and indigenous knowledge in STEM learning?

Research reviews

Webinars

STEM learning through nature play in early childhood settings

Professor Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles and Dr Maia Osborn from Southern Cross University, Australia share findings from their research into teaching and learning science and STEM concepts through play-based pedagogies and nature play

Infographics

Snapshots

STEM learning and local curriculum in the construction corner

Blocks and construction materials provide rich opportunities for cross-curricular learning.

Science and kaitiakitanga: a relationship in harmony 

Using science for children to learn how to protect and nurture their environment.

Gardening: a journey inspired by culture, values, dispositions, and engagement

Gardening opens up a wide range of opportunities for science, sustainability, and social emotional learning.

Valuing traditional Māori medicine: Rongoā

Engaging in Rongoā Māori in early childhood settings.

STEM learning through nature play

The key ideas from our webinar with Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles and Maia Osborn on exploring scientific concepts and STEM learning through nature play.
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