A Plea to Administration for STEM in Pre Schools!
STEM
Letter to Administration
This is an ardent plea to the
school administration to rethink the way preschool education is thought of in
the school and focus on building a curriculum around STEM for preschool. Teaching STEM in the early years enables
children to make connections between everyday life and the STEM disciplines. It
also lays down the foundations for future success as the skills learned are
transferable to other subjects (Liftoff-Staff, 2019).
Early exposure to STEM helps build critical thinking skills that are so needed
for an adult life.
Why Should We Do This?
The question is not why we should
do this. For, we are already doing this in our programs. Early childhood is
based on STEM already. When a Science activity explores soil or a Maths
activity explores shapes of numbers, students are in the exploratory mode
leading to a new discovery that STEM has at its core (Boston Children’s Museum,
n.d.). What we need to do is to turn it into a legitimate curriculum for the
school and run it in an iterative manner, year after year, in order to gain
finesse and success in it.
However, if a rationale is
required, then research in neuroscience shows us
that the basic architecture of a child’s brain is constructed through an
ongoing process. This process begins before birth and continues through
adulthood (Boston Children’s Museum, n.d.). Hence this age
group cannot be ignored as a developmental age. Hence we
need to build in our eco-system an environment that is brain-building for
children.
STEM activities are open-ended
and hence generate curiosity. When students are exploring the types of soil
available in the field without any controlling mechanism, their freedom to
explore nature gets space to express itself. This inculcates the habit that
once settled, would direct their life as an explorer, not afraid of making
mistakes.
Challenges
Is there anything without a
challenge? We need to learn to build an environment
that has brain-building experiences for children. For this, we also need educators
who are facilitators. That is, available to children when they need guidance
and assistance with new ideas. It requires educators who think and work
differently and therefore a lot of de-conditioning of the minds that
automatically are prone to helping or nurturing.
It also requires
a curriculum that allows space for such an exploration that is possible in the
classes where the pressure of career or examinations has not started. Hence the
stage is set to build some great mental habits in the learners that will stand
them in good stead for their lives.
Professional Development
From teacher to
facilitator, this is where steps in the need for professional development. For
an educator to learn to step back, and allow the student to be an explorer. It
requires personal development as a person, to become an explorer with the
students. Professional development to learn to be a mentor. Training to be a
curriculum designer with originality in order to create task formats that lead
to an independent work by the students. And, finally, assessment that is in
three dimensions (Bell, Van Horne,
Penuel, & Stromholt, 2016).
Strategies for Classroom
Some think that giving young
children rich STEM experiences will require schools to buy new equipment and
materials or that preschool is too young to engage in such activities (McClure,
Guernsey, & Ashbrook, 2017).
Preschool, on the contrary, has some powerful platforms for having the students
engage in STEM programs.
The one that I found most wow is the use the power
of storytelling in the classroom (McClure,
Guernsey, & Ashbrook, 2017). Preschool classrooms already are filled with storytelling
sessions, chiefly in language classes. STEM, as in story, unfolds with suspense
and drama and can set the foundation for the mindset that is needed for
learning through STEM. These are design thinking, collaboration, executive
functions such as short term memory, impulse control and cognitive flexibility.
As stories hook us emotionally, this is
the way of STEM where emotions are harnessed.
The other way, one that focuses on development of
the mind, is through questions that are open ended and probing (Boston
Children’s Museum, n.d.). These can be ‘tell me what you are doing’, ‘what did
you notice about the ant?’ or ‘talk to me about your method in adding’.
Assessing may be hard. One can
keep it task based (Brualdi, 2000). Assessing continuously can also be
cognitively draining. One can keep it formal and informal. Finally, use
rubrics, and involve the students in development of the same (Brualdi, 2000).
Conclusion
For the sake of raising a
generation of students that come equipped with skills to live, and with an
understanding that this can be done through STEM based curriculum in
pre-schools, let us work towards building such a curriculum.
- Becker, K., & Park, K. (2011). Effects of integrative approaches among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects on students’ learning: A preliminary meta-analysis. Journal of STEM Education, 12(5), 23-37. https://www.jstem.org/jstem/index.php/JSTEM/article/download/1509/1394
- Boston Children’s Museum (n.d.) STEM sprouts: Science, technology, engineering, and math teaching guide. http://www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/STEMGuide.pdf
- Brualdi, A. (2000). Implementing performance assessment in the classroom. http://www.ascd.org/publications/classroom-leadership/feb2000/Implementing-Performance-Assessment-in-the-Classroom.aspx
- Liftoff-Staff, L. (2019, March 11). Why STEM Education Is Essential for Younger Kids. https://www.learningliftoff.com/why-stem-education-is-essential-for-younger-kids/.
- McClure, E., Guernsey, L., & Ashbrook, P. (2017). Where’s Spot? Finding STEM opportunities for young children in moments of dramatic tension. American Educator, 41(3), 12-15. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1156381.pdf
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