Why implement STEM in the early years?
Funding for STEM
As young children are natural investigators of the world, STEM happens every day within Early Learning education; whether it is building castles and working out the engineering behind the structures built, cooking cakes and observing the chemical changes that occur during the baking process or a group of children filming a short series of videos to create a story. The focus in Early Childhood Education is on the whole child. STEM is about the integration of a number of disciplines promoting a range of learning dispositions. Educators in the Early Childhood and Primary sectors understand that learning does not occur in isolation; it is a far more integrated and collaborative way of learning that teaches students to be team-oriented and critical thinkers. Hands-on learning in STEM is vital in order to develop a practical sense of problem-solving skills. For example, a student in a traditional classroom may be tasked with providing a theoretical solution to an environmental issue by creating a poster, yet in a STEM-based classroom, the student would be tasked to design, build, test and redesign if necessary to ensure the student grasps the foundations of engineering. Opportunities to construct knowledge through hands-on STEM experiences are what supports children to further cement positive learning dispositions such as questioning, problemsolving, hypothesising, metacognition and persistence.
STEM has only started to rise to the surface in the last five years. The Australian Government allocated $64 million to fund Early Learning and school STEM initiatives under the ‘Inspiring all Australians in Digital Literacy and STEM’ measure. This includes two measures: ‘Embracing the Digital Age’ (school initiatives – $51 million) and ‘Inspiring STEM Literacy’ (Early Learning initiatives – $14 million). It is critical that we have experienced and highly-skilled teachers who will confidently encourage and implement a rich STEM program both in a spontaneous, emerging approach and also through an explicit approach. Teachers need to pose deep questions to extend children's inquiry and critical thinking. Many teachers are now becoming skilled in technology by becoming Google Certified Innovators or by undergoing regular professional development. By having skilled STEM teachers at the epicentre of a child’s academic journey, the doors can truly open in any direction for our next generations to come. STEM exists in our everyday life whether we notice it or not. By having our future generations deeply engage with science and technology, our worldly advancements will continue to grow at a steady pace and females will more likely to be empowered to pursue these areas if they have a sense of familiarity with STEM.
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Peninsula Kids – Winter 2019
Miss Melissa Schoorman is the Head of Wardle House, Deputy Principal of Toorak College