The document discusses the importance of integrating STEM into early childhood education, highlighting the need for supportive roles from parents and teachers to foster children's natural inclinations towards STEM. It emphasizes the significance of well-designed STEM experiences in predicting academic achievement and improving executive function. Recommendations include enhancing parental involvement, providing robust teacher training, and aligning research with policy to create supportive educational environments for children from birth to age 8.

1. How and Why to Integrate
STEM into Early Childhood Education

2. Click here for the report Click here for the report

3. What We’ll Talk About Today
What is Early STEM, and why is it
important?
The Roles of:
Parents & Teachers
Connecting Learning
Research & Policy
The Culture
Discussion

4. What is early STEM?
Learning to Learn
Fostering
Curiosity
Encouraging
Exploration
Tinkering
Trial & Error
Figuring out how things work
Pretending
Weaving holistic
understanding

5. Well-designed STEM Experiences
Representation and communication
are central to STEM learning.
Children need adults to develop their
natural STEM inclinations.

6. • Preschool math skills predict
later academic achievement
more consistently than early
reading or attention skills.
• Income-related inequalities in
STEM understanding start
before kindergarten and, for
many, this gap is never
bridged.
• Well-designed STEM
experiences translate to gains
in executive function and
language skills.

7. Parents & Teachers

8. Parents & Teachers
Many parents and teachers experience
anxiety, low self-confidence, and
gendered assumptions about STEM
topics, which can transfer to their
children and students.
Recommendation: Engage Parents.
Support parent confidence as their children’s first and most important
STEM guides.
Develop high-quality programs and resources that promote family
engagement in STEM.

9. Parents & Teachers
Teachers in early childhood
environments need more robust training,
professional development, and
resources to effectively engage young
children in developmentally appropriate
STEM learning.
Recommendation: Support teachers.
Revamp pre-service and in-service STEM-related training and
supports for early childhood teachers.
Make high-quality early STEM resources and implementation
guidance available to practitioners.

10. Parents & Teachers
Resources
Professional Development Info:
• Foundations of Science Literacy
• ECSTEM Conference (annual)
• PBS STEM Alive
Curriculum Info & STEM Activities:
• Ramps & Pathways
• STEM from the Start
• Young Scientist Series curriculum guides
• PEEP and the Big Wide World
• Boston Children’s Museum: STEM
Sprouts
• Science is Simple: 250 Activities for
Preschoolers, by Peggy Ashbrook
Peggy Ashbrook’s NSTA blog The Early Years

11. Interactive: Open-Ended Question
Think about your experiences with professional
development around STEM:
In what areas have you received enough information
and support to use in your classroom and develop as a
STEM teacher?
In what areas are you not receiving enough information
or training?
Please use the chat box to share.

12. Connecting Learning

13. Connecting Learning
Parents and technology help connect school, home,
and other learning environments like libraries and
museums to support early STEM learning.
Immersion in this web of STEM learning leads to
STEM fluency.
School
Parents
Technology
Museums
Libraries
Recommendation: Connect learning.
Support and expand the web of STEM learning
Charging Stations available to children.

14. Connecting Learning
School
Parents
Technology
Museums
Libraries
Resources
• Bedtime Math app (and website)
• PBS Parents Guide to Early Math and Science
• PBS Elementary STEM Resource roundup
• The Afterschool Alliance
• First LEGO League
• Science museums near you
• Community of STEM Librarians
• Boston Children’s Museum: STEM Sprouts

15. Interactive: Chat Questions
Do you know of any “charging stations” in your community
that help children gain access to STEM experiences?
How do parents and teachers find out about these places?
Does technology play a role – or could it?
Please use the chat box to share.

16. Research & Policy

17. Research & Policy
Research plays a critical role in influencing classroom policies, but
research is not always aligned with practitioner needs and realities.
Recommendations:
Develop more Researcher-Practitioner Partnerships that engage
practitioners as partners throughout the process.
Develop and support a research agenda that informs developmental
trajectories, effective resources, and best practices.

18. Research & Policy
STEM education policies will benefit from greater:
• Alignment (the coherence of policy expectations and the tools used to
implement those policies, such as assessments, curriculum, and
teacher training )
• Continuity (connections across grade levels), starting with preschool.
Recommendation: Build a sustainable and aligned system of high quality
early learning from birth to age 8, with standards that explicitly address
STEM and align with K-12 standards.

19. The Culture

20. The Culture
People have preexisting assumptions about STEM learning:
• o it is for older students
• o children should learn other topics first
• o it is only important for those who excel in these areas
STEM Education is not culturally neutral.
Recommendation:
Use insights from communications
science to build public will for and
understanding of early STEM learning.

21. Interactive: What will you do next?
Given what you’ve heard about culture and communicating, do
you want to do anything differently?
What would you like to bring back to your school or teacher
colleagues that you may have learned from this webinar?
Please use the chat box to share.
Resources
STEM Starts Early (see Appendix B)
FrameWorks Institute: Making the Case for STEM Learning

22. Discussion
Some of this material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1417878. Any opinions, findings, and
conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National
Science Foundation.