Focus aspects of STEM; many felt that the subjects had been neglected and that they relied on the same old activities. Within the EYFS statutory framework, Knowledge and understanding of the world aims to enable children to make sense of the world. As such, practitioners are required to help the children to use a range of tools safely; encounter creatures, people, plants and objects in their natural environments and in real-life situations; undertake practical ‘experiments’; and work with a range of materials.
How
did we act on our findings?
Many of the activities were planned to be used both in the setting and at home • Coaching in a way that will help staff generate versatile and creative responses through active listening and effective questioning.
How
to introduce STEM activities to children in the early years
We started with a number of questions: • Are we offering children a broad and balanced science, technology, engineering, maths (STEM) framework? • Are we missing opportunities to support or extend a child’s thinking, or were the children bored? • Are the adults sufficiently knowledgeable or interested in order to ensure the best learning opportunities?
What did we discover?
We discovered quite quickly that our femaledominated staff groups were anxious about some 42
We started to build relationships with related local organisations, such as museums. At the Benjamin Franklin Museum, for example, we spoke to their primary link teacher, and although the museum did not usually work with nursery children, the teacher was motivated by our aims and arranged to visit us and help with ideas and activity plans. We sent staff to Edinburgh for the Children in Europe Annual Conference 2009 – Exploring the world and beyond: young children as scientists. Most STEM subjects are aimed at older children, but we were delighted by the range of ideas we could use with simple adaptations. We read as much as we could about science for young children in nurseries and our pilot went live in three nurseries. We began to plan routine activities based on firsthand experiences that would encourage exploration, experimentation, observation, problem solving, prediction, critical thinking, decision making and discussion. We built a weekly STEM experiment with a ‘cause and effect’ activity into the weekly plan to encourage reluctant staff to give it a go. Experimenting is a powerful way to unlock enthusiasm in small children so we framed everything within the concept of an experiment, whether we were mixing cornflour or completing a cookery activity. We set up planned activities for the children to complete with adult support. Following this structured exercise, the children were able to explore the activities themselves through free play. We organised a fortnight of science focused activities with daily opportunities for parents to join us. Science evenings were also a good way to involve parents. Mums and Dads were invited to set up the top five STEM activities with their children and were provided with a take-home activity forms to enable the learning and enthusiasm for STEM subjects to be extended beyond the children’s centre.
How
do young children benefit from STEM activities?
Following the pilot schemes, more children actively asked to take part in STEM activities. Initially, we
eye Volume 12 No 8 December 2010