What's in a Name? STEM in Early Education

Before I started teaching, and before my kids started school, I was a stay at home mom. Those days were filled with the chores and duties of raising two children. I loved every minute of it! It was during this time I realized the importance of STEM education for young learners. However, it wasn't called STEM back then! It was called...let's play with Legos; let's build a fort; let's put a puzzle together; lets play with Play-Doh, or let's make paper. This type of play developed hand eye coordination, fine and gross motor skills, as well as math and language skills. And there you have it. I said it. It was PLAY! Children need to play. Children want to play. Children learn from play.

Now, mind you, I didn't have any research at my fingertips (no internet) to back up my conclusions, but it was pretty obvious. Then my children started school. All paper, no play. Doesn't a 5 year old, or a 7 year old still need play? Don't they need to touch, hold, make, build, and put things together? Don't they need to talk about it?

STEM in early education looks a lot like play in the classroom, only with a purpose-an objective. Now we have a name for the play - Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Now we know from research that there is a definite correlation between early experiences with STEM subjects and later success with those subjects, or success in school in general ( McClure, et.al, 2017). Now we can make new paths for learning that incorporate the STEM subjects, not separately, but seamlessly. Now we can let the children play.

Reference:

McClure, E.R, Guernsey, L., Clements, D.H., Bales, S.N., Nichols, J., Kendall-Taylor, N., & Levine, M.H. (2017). STEM starts early: Grounding science, technology, engineering, and math education in early childhood. New York: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.