Discussion: STEM in Early Childhood 1/2

7/21/2015

Page 14

The Discussion Board is a tool for sharing thoughts and ideas about class materials.

1) Discuss the benefits as well as the challenges that come with implementing STEM curriculum or activities in an early childhood education program.

53 Comments

Jannah Fitch

8/8/2018 11:37:28 am

STEM has many benefits; it teaches critical thinking skills, cooperative problem solving and can prepare students for future career opportunities in STEM fields. STEM can be difficult to incorporate into existing curriculum that focuses on pre-literacy skills and social and emotional development, but it can be incorporated in a way that promotes and compliments these areas.

Shahnaz Bahadori

8/24/2018 10:18:40 pm

Benefits of STEM curriculum include the fact that children learn the importance of STEM early on. Children may become curious about STEM topics and gain an interest for it and pursue it as they get older. This is of significance as it is highly demanding in our world today!
The curriculum itself encourages a child's problem solving and critical thinking skills.

A challenge could be that a provider may have difficulty finding activities that are suitable for what the children need.

mahnaz motamed

8/24/2018 10:40:49 pm

STEM helps children problem solve and helps their brains think. I like the idea of groups. It will help them with team work and social skills. Watching how their brains work is so enjoyable for a teacher.

Gabriella

8/26/2018 11:32:21 pm

The benefits of STEM is that it encourages critical thinking, problem solving skills, and has real world application. The downfall of STEM is the activities take a lot of materials and a lot of time.

Aranzazu

8/26/2018 11:51:04 pm

STEM instruction help students of all ages this instruction is the emphasis on real world applications. STEM lessons will involve groups pairs or community members giving children a platform for learning

Kristina

8/28/2018 11:30:22 am

Some benefits are that it encourages teamwork, critical thinking and an awareness of the world around them. It's real world applicable and the goal is for children to gain interest in STEM so they might one day want jobs in these areas. Some challenges might be finding the time to add STEM to a program that's activities are already set. For me with a birth to five daycare, being able to work in small groups and assist with STEM activities is hard with babies that "mess up" what the older children or doing. I also have to be careful with small objects babies can place in their mouths.

Gene Dowers

9/4/2018 06:31:39 pm

Using STEM concepts can be so fun and challenging because it is the actual use of the subject material that too often is just visual. The problem solving, logical, cooperative nature of learning by doing teaches more than just reading about it or watching a video. The kids get much more confidence in their ability to try and, if mistakes are not humiliating, become very curious about the possibilities of the world. Just don't call it STEM with the kids! They don't care, it's just the world around them and how it works.

Nazarena Deschiave link

9/5/2018 10:19:57 pm

The advantages of STEM is that kids work together or individually on problem solving and critical thinking. The not so good part about is that lessons sometimes are complex and a little hard for your children on preschool.

Melissa S.

9/6/2018 04:45:01 pm

STEM encourages critical thinking skills and cognitive benefits. The challenges seem to be with coming up with ample curriculum ideas for STEM every week.

Terri

9/12/2018 07:02:25 pm

The benefits of incorporating STEM into a program will let children learn through the process of critical thinking, exploration, solving a problem working as a team or a group, and having an end result from the hands on experiment. What I like is that there is not always just one "right answer" which can lead to doing the lesson again and having a different outcome. The challenge at the beginning of planning a STEM lesson would be finding the time to gather the tools or materials and providing the space needed for a science or technological curriculum.

Taylor

9/15/2018 09:32:48 pm

Implementing STEM into the program has several benefits. It encourages students to work together and solve problems. It teaches them that mistakes and failure aren't bad after all. They actually help us grow and come up with new solutions. Critical thinking is something that will stick with you for the rest of your life. Science, technology, engineering, and math activities can easily become "boring" if they aren't explored with hands on / real life experiences. Creating those opportunities at a young age will get them excited about the subjects and hopefully instill a love for learning about them. This could be challenging if your program doesn't already incorporate STEM. Teachers might have adjust their daily schedule or find ways to add it in. Some teachers may not know how to teach STEM or have the resources at hand.

Emma Plomell

9/16/2018 08:58:47 pm

Some great things about STEM are this way of teaching encourages critical thinking and problem solving. It allows children to work together to find the answer, and to me, the best part is there is no wrong answer. Children are learning in a way that will benefit their adult life.

the only negative thing is that learning like this is less encouraged because schools are on such a busy schedule.

Wanda Norris

9/25/2018 04:03:17 pm

Some of the benefits of STEM is that it motivates critical thinking and normally involves working with a partner or in a group. The challenge could be the changing of traditional curriculum mindsets.

Bonana

9/29/2018 04:48:58 pm

STEM education benefit students in all ages. It introduces the children to every aspect and part of their lives and gives them awareness of the world around them.

Shantha Pathak link

9/29/2018 11:09:03 pm

Implementing STEM curriculum is crucial in an early childhood setting.Children are naturally curious and often a STEM curriculum answers to lot of their questions. STEM curriculum teaches children about the world around us. I have a masters in Science and Implementing STEM curriculum is easy and comes naturally to me.Every day we have Science time when conduct simple experiments with children. We explore and discuss different STEM topics all throughout the day. We also buy different materials which help them explore STEM topics. But it could challenging if the provider does not have a science education. It also involves buying stem related educational toys.
The other challenge is time prep time and the time during the day to implement these STEM related topics.

Tanya Portwine

10/5/2018 06:04:14 pm

I think the biggest benefit of STEM is that the children learn through the process. It encourages critical thinking. This helps the teachers to know where the children are in their development.

Misty

10/6/2018 03:21:23 pm

Introducing STEM in the classroom helps build critical thinking skills and social skills with kids. Some challenges could be that children could get easily frustrated when figuring things out.

Brogan

10/10/2018 01:14:04 pm

There are many advantages to providing STEM curriculum activities in an early learning setting. STEM activities promote critical thinking skills, working as a team, individual thinking and strategizing, and give the opportunity for children to bring science concepts to life. There are some challenges that go along with STEM curriculum. One of those challenges is the theories and ideas that surround science- we have to make sure that as teachers, we are only teaching facts and not ideas or unsupported or personal theory. Another challenge is the materials needed and expense of some of the higher level STEM projects/activities. Sometimes it is not always feasible for early learning classrooms to have high tech or high end activities that can’t be made from scratch on a budget.

Lee Anna Jackson

10/13/2018 08:02:06 pm

By implementing STEM in the early childhood classroom you are giving children the tools to understand and explore many real things in the world. You can still hit the marks with your social, emotional skills but develop them even further using STEM. I am excited to be able use these concepts at the preschool level.

Ashley

10/14/2018 01:12:10 pm

STEM activities help create well-rounded education and real life and critical thinking skills. It allows them to building those strategy and thinking skills that are so important to develop. One downfall is that some schools lack the ability to have technology or the critical things needed for STEM activities.

Lupita Montes

10/16/2018 12:53:42 pm

Stem curriculum helps the children become more comfortable and have more knowledge with science, engineering , technology and math .

Kelly Cochran

10/17/2018 03:39:16 pm

Stem can benefit all ages and is widely popular in schools. The best plus is stem puts an emphasis on real-world applications. Children learn critical thinking and problem solving. Sometimes due to budget restrictions, Stem isn't always as present in the classroom. Also, it can be a challenge bringing in technology to a preschool classroom.

Linda Thelin

10/25/2018 08:20:22 am

As with any newer way of teaching it can be difficult to think how to transition from straight forward math and science lessons to STEM lessons. However the benefits are obvious - students are more involved with the exploration and application of the concepts as well as experience working as a team and problem solving on their own with only some suggestions from the teacher. It encourages self reliance and confidence as their creative solutions work.

Eileen

10/30/2018 11:11:08 am

Some of the benefits of STEM education is that it offers real life applications for problems, so that there is a connection between what a child is learning and what they know about the world. It also helps with identifying skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and hypothesizing. Lastly, STEM education can help build community among the classroom. Many times, STEM involves children working in pairs or groups in order to solve a problem.

Some of the challenges of incorporating STEM into the classroom might be that there is already a set curriculum that a teacher needs to follow for their classroom that does not have STEM in it. It might also be difficult for some schools to get the technology needed for some projects.

Carol

10/30/2018 10:17:06 pm

STEM can benefit all ages. It teaches children through exploration. It allows the student to work together to solve problems. They can explore the topic and get motivation from the group. Implementing STEM can be difficult. It can be hard because we have to think a different way. The benefits are seeing more involved children working together and problem solving on their own.

Aya

11/12/2018 02:11:04 pm

STEM is good for solving problems. Children also develop their skill to think and discuss

Samantha Casper

11/18/2018 12:01:10 pm

STEM is amazing for getting kids to do critical thinking and problem solving in meaningful, real world applications making them invested in and excited about their own learning processes. I always think back to my own educational experiences and having to take math or science classes and thinking "when will I ever use this" or being told to memorize facts with the assurance of "you'lll need this in the real world." Instead, incorporating STEM early allows math and science processes to be experienced as useful (not just seen or told). These skills become tools that can be utilized throughout your life, rather that chores needed to be completed for an assignment.

I find incorporating STEM difficult sometimes because it can take a lot of prep work to provide and as well as some basic skill knowledge from the children that they don't always have. Sometimes I feel limited by my own inexperience or lack of knowledge of STEM skill, but then again that is exactly why it is so important to teach it to children!

Maryfil Mananquil

11/25/2018 09:58:33 pm

The benefits of Stem to the children, it helps them explore and have more ideas and use critical thinking, problem-solving and it allows them to work with each other.
Incorporating STEM has its own challenges especially in terms of technology which is not allowed in our program.

Ray Anderson link

11/27/2018 03:42:15 pm

I think the creativity of STEM allows children to be problem solvers and gives them an extra boost in "thinking outside the box". Just memorizing words is not enough, they need to learn different ways to solve problems, without this creative thought process we will never make true advancements.

Caitlin

11/28/2018 09:26:32 am

Stem is a more hand on approach to learning. It teaches children about the world around them and encourages them to think deeply and to collaberate with peers to come up with answers. It also encourages Children to participate because usually there are no right or wrong answers more like trial and error. It strengthens Self esteem and social skills, while preparing them for a potential career in the science field when they grow up.

Cheryl

11/29/2018 10:55:04 am

STEM is flexible enough to allow the preschool teacher to implement real world applications into a preschool setting. The young child can learn how to problem solve, think critically , and hypothesize all in the context of learning on a level that will allow them to gain valuable information for their growing brains!

The only "downside" is that it does take time for the teacher to research ideas in order to present to their students.

Sonya Kimble

12/5/2018 02:03:42 pm

The benefits of science experiments help children observe, make predictions, ask questions, and decide how things work. Technology encourages children to use different learning tools, to become inventive, identify problems, and make things work. Children can solve problems in engineering with a variety of materials – they design and create, and build things that work. Preschoolers explore math skills when learning about shapes, size, volume, and learn about patterns and sequencing.
One challenge teaching STEM in a preschool is adjusting lesson plans to be appropriate for a multi-age group, as skill levels and understanding can vary greatly.

Ming Deng

12/16/2018 09:02:05 pm

The benefits of STEM is that it encourages critical thinking, problem solving skills, and has real world application.
A challenge could be that a provider may have difficulty finding activities that are suitable for what the children need.

Ekaterina Ostrovskaia

12/18/2018 08:35:28 pm

Incorporating STEM in an early childhood education program can give children an advantage in school-aged STEM progams, as well as later on in adulthood.
A challenge to STEM in early childhood education is finding room in the existing curriculum.

Shayesteh

12/22/2018 07:24:20 am

Science Math Technology and Engering can benefit to all children in different ages.This benefits giving them understand about of the around the world help them to solve the problem the help to practice their social skills and help them how they can work as a team to explore environment

Jason Kunkel

12/29/2018 09:15:57 am

Incorporating STEM activities has two great benefits, creative problem solving and working cooperatively in a group to solve those problems. The main downside of the teaching STEM is that it requires a lot of materials and a lot of time that the teacher may not have to fully reach the children in a meaningful way

Jenell Martinez

12/30/2018 12:30:20 pm

STEM in Early Childhood Classrooms is a great way to expand on curriculum already set in motion. STEM helps children gain awareness to the world around them and how it works. Their natural curiosity provides them the foundation to use STEM to problem solve and use critical thinking skills in the real world. One challenge that might be seen when trying to implement STEM in the classroom might be the lack of resources such as technology or closed minded peers who do not want to change their curriculum.

Hannah

12/30/2018 03:45:17 pm

STEM is helpful because it encourages critical thinking. It cultivates teamwork. It gets the kids to look at the areas of stem in a non threatening way. There is no right or wrong in stem. You just explore.
The only downsides I see are fitting stem into an already made curriculum and finding the time to use it. and also the mess..

Belen Felix Haros

12/30/2018 05:56:41 pm

STEM helps children problem solve and helps their brains think. I like the idea of groups. help them with team work and social skills. Watching how their brains work is so enjoyable for a teacher

Cassandra Gonzalez

12/30/2018 09:18:16 pm

one of the benefits of STEM is its emphasis on real-world applications.
STEM also helps children to learn to work in groups or pairs.

Some challenges to using STEM in the classroom is that it seems to be mainly based on mathematics, science and engineering. which in some cases can be quite challenging for some children.

Chong Park

12/31/2018 12:18:13 am

Some good things about adding STEM in early learning education is that it encourages children problem solving and critical thinking skills.

Stephanie

12/31/2018 09:05:53 pm

STEM activities provide critical thinking and problem solving skills-that’s great!
A problem is that it may be difficult to find time and materials

Valerie Martin

1/1/2019 11:31:03 am

Benefits: It encourages problem solving and critical thinking, and also it helps get them ready for some of the things they'll see once they're in school, which is what preschool is about.

The problems might be finding ways to add it in to an already existing curriculum

Maeghan

1/23/2019 01:36:30 pm

There are many benefits to using STEM, including children learning how to communicate, problem solve, and working with their peers. It can be challenging to those teachers that don't know how to introduce it into their classrooms and will need support and resources.

Maryam

2/11/2019 01:13:32 pm

STEM activities in lesson plan make students discover new things and learn more about their environment.
STEM activities develop students' cognitive skill.
STEM activities bring the students together to experiment together.
STEM introduce the real world to students.

deanna jennings

2/21/2019 03:21:39 pm

problem solving group participation and real world censorious help teach the kids how to problem solve and makes things that kids might not like to do a differnt spin on it and makes it fun

Alissa

2/28/2019 09:55:20 am

Some benefits of STEM is that it allows children to expand their learning, especially for those who do not favor reading or writing. It is usually hands on and requires critical thinking.
Some challenges of STEM is that these topics may not appeal to everyone, and those conducting the sessions may have mixed views about science-based learning.

JESSIE JONES

3/17/2019 12:58:42 am

some challenges are finding a stem page the will be best for the class....you may have to have small groups with different projects

Sandy Davis

4/2/2019 09:27:12 am

STEM is great for developing critical thinkers and allowing children to explore new things. It will help them to learn how to work in groups as well as teaching them main subjects that they may find themselves working with on a daily basis as they are older since these areas effect our daily life. I could see a challenge being to keep kids focused in the group and finding ways to incorporate it with our existing curriculum.

lindsay fraser

4/24/2019 10:22:19 pm

A great benefit of STEM is it creates real-world learning situations and helps children to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills.Perhaps the biggest challenge for many is presenting the information in a factual and unbiased way.

Manisha prasad

4/27/2019 11:59:02 pm

STEM Programs outside of school can help children to see that STEM is more than a class to finish. Having activities that show real-life implication of STEM can pull together the ideas presented in school and help to show how they benefit our society and even our world as a whole. Children can see that what they are learning now is pertinent to their future and the future of the whole world, creating an interest often lacking when learning new concepts that do not seem to carry real-world application. Engineering For Kids, for example, offers a suite of STEM enrichment programs for children ages 4 to 14

Dharitri Desai

9/26/2019 10:59:05 am

STEM helps children develop critical thinking, problem solving abilities, working with other kids. It helps children understand very complex problems practically. It helps build a child's interest in subjects such as chemistry, physics, biology and technology and math.
The biggest challenge according to me is incorporating it in the present curriculum, investing in materials and time required for research for a lesson.

Bethany Shoop

9/27/2019 04:13:37 pm

STEM is important for children to help develop critical thinking skills and also encourages kids to problem solve. The only down side may be that some schools already have a set curriculum that might not lend itself to STEM and it could be a challenge to get this type of thinking incorporated into your curriculum if the resources are not available.

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