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Introducing STEM+C to Early Learners
AIU Connections Winter/Spring 2023
Introducing Early Learners to CS through Storytime STEM-Packs
Educators are encouraged to introduce foundations of computer science in early learning classrooms. But what does that look like in practice?
Developed by the Allegheny Intermediate Unit’s Math & Science Collaborative, Storytime STEM-Packs™ are a line of innovative, standards-aligned teaching materials designed to help teachers facilitate engaging, hands-on STEM+C activities centered around science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computing.
Storytime STEM-Packs promote problem-driven learning in preschool through second grade and they are a result of research conducted through multiple federal, state and private grants for math and science education.
“We interviewed 130 educators and realized that they were all asking for the same thing,” said Gabriela Rose, a science coordinator with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit’s Math & Science Collaborative. “They wanted materials that are fun and engaging for kids, easy to use with minimal prep time, and aligned to STEM and computer science standards.”
“Storytime STEM-Packs always start with the storybook,” said Rose. “It provides the context and the excitement for the children, but more importantly, it levels the playing field to allow all kids to engage.”
Storytime STEM-Packs include everything needed to facilitate an engaging, hands-on STEM activity, including a popular children’s book, learning materials and cards, and a step-by-step facilitator guide. Each STEM+C Adventure puts the child into the shoes of a programmer, using age-appropriate unplugged activities and Bee-Bot robots, which are small programmable floor robots designed for early learners.
“Kids learn more when they’re kind of figuring out things on their own,” said Amanda Loughner, an elementary school STEAM teacher in the Derry Area School District of Westmoreland County. “When they figure things out on their own—and learn and discover on their own— it’s of so much more value to them. And these Storytime STEM-Packs really help kiddos to do that.”
According to the K-12 Computer Science Framework, engagement in a structured computer programming environment aids young children’s number sense, visual memory, and language skills. Storytime STEM-Packs provide that type of structured computer programming environment, while at the same time preserving a highly engaging play-like environment, as children enact scenes from the storybook and solve problems related to the characters in them.
For example, Dragonland Adventures transports children into the world of Girl and Dragon, where they enact scenes from the story on the colorful Dragonland Adventure mat. After reading the stories, children put a costume on Bee-Bot and then program “Dragon-Bot” to find a girl in the castle, return to the cave, and play hide and seek.
“We will use our Bee-Bot robots to practice our computer science skills,” said Loughner. “So we turn Bee-Bot into the dragon and they use a little construction ball of paper, and they toss it for the dragon to hide behind the rock, like the dragon does in the story. Then they have to use sequencing cards to write the algorithm to get “dragon” (Bee-Bot) wherever the rock falls on their Dragonland Adventure mat.”
While facilitating the activity, Loughner watches as Bee-Bot slightly overshoots its target, signaling a problem with the students’ algorithm.
“Oh, what happened?” she asks the children. “There was one too many, huh? We have to take one away,” pointing out that they can apply their knowledge of the outcome to reprogram the Bee-Bot correctly.
In 2015, the National Science Foundation I-CORPS for Learning grant was awarded to Rose as the principal investigator to scale up an educational innovation. Subsequent foundation grants provided STEM-Packs and professional learning opportunities to public libraries, Head Start classrooms and PreK-2 teachers. Most recently, the MSC has been awarded a second PAsmart Advancing CS and STEM grant that will provide Storytime STEM-Packs to participating intermediate units, Head Start programs, and public libraries— with a focus on high needs schools and libraries in urban and rural communities across Pennsylvania. The funding will serve approximately 400 educators and 6,000 children, including those from AIU districts.