Scientix Topics Networking Event:

Early stem

The STNS “Early STEM: What are the needs for teacher training to explore STEM with the younger students?” was held online on 29th of June 2022.

Young children are curious little creatures that want to explore and understand the world around them. They use their STEM skills daily by building towers with blocks, collecting items, and organizing them, or observing nature and interacting with their environments through play. However, although science fascinates many children, the subject often seems to be lacking in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC).

Seventeen participants with experience in the topic joined this Science Topics Networking Seminar (STNS), including the Ministries of Education from Italy, Poland and Spain, representatives from STAEDTLER, Person Italy and Skriware, as well as CESIE, Eurochild, ICDI and researchers from Dublin City University and University of Ljubljana, together with teachers with experience in the topic. In this seminar, participants explored the key success factors in existing programmes and interventions in teacher training to explore STEM with the ECEC students.

The main aims of this STNS co-organized by Scientix and GFOSS were:

• Exploring how teacher training can meet the need for science background information and skills of future ECEC educators.
• Reflecting on the lessons learned from the experiences of teachers, researchers, industry partners, ministries of education and other key stakeholders.
• Provide a platform for exchanging knowledge and build a community around the topic of STEM teaching in ECEC.
• Agree on additional actions that could be taken to address Early STEM in the classroom and in teacher training programmes.

The organisers collected ideas, comments and general conclusions agreed between participants during the workshop. The results of the discussion are published in a Scientix Observatory paper co-authored by all participants.

Presentations:

Presentations by the co-organisers

• GFOSS

Guest presentations

• Setting the scene
• Challenges and opportunities
• Solutions and best practices

Disclaimer:

The work presented in this document has received funding from the European Union’s H2020 research and innovation programme – project Scientix 4 (Grant agreement N. 101000063), coordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN). The content of the document is the sole responsibility of the organizer and it does not represent the opinion of the European Commission (EC), and the EC is not responsible for any use that might be made of information contained.