We chat every Tuesday night at 8:30-9:30 pm CST. All are welcome, especially EarlyEd teachers, leaders & experts. Co-founded & moderated by @techwnancy @JessicaCabeen & @VealHeidi
Hi #ECEchat friends! Heidi here, #EarlyEd District Program Administrator in North Texas. I'm proud to serve & advocate for our littlest learners! #ECEchat
Q1: STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math. Why are the early years a perfect time to expose & immerse students in STEAM experiences and what are the benefits for young learners? #ECEchat
A1: It is never too early to begin nurturing students creativity and sparking innovation. STEAM in the early years mimics play which is how young children learn best. #ECEchat
Q1: STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math. Why are the early years a perfect time to expose & immerse students in STEAM experiences and what are the benefits for young learners? #ECEchat
A1. Early Learners are naturally curious about their world, how things work, & creating. They learn best when new content is integrated. STEAM naturally capitalizes on how they learn best. #ecechat
A1: Our prek aged students are not afraid to try anything. They excel at experimenting, putting together, taking apart, and creating (and so much more). These traits fit perfectly into STEAM. #ecechat
A1: My @RRISDPK kids are so creative at this age! They are not restricted by any barriers to self-esteem, gender norms, or stereotypes (hopefully). They have shown some out-of-the-box thinking that I hadn't even thought of myself! #ECEchat#RRISDLearns@rrisdpd
Q1: STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math. Why are the early years a perfect time to expose & immerse students in STEAM experiences and what are the benefits for young learners? #ECEchat
A1. Early Learners are naturally curious about their world, how things work, & creating. They learn best when new content is integrated. STEAM naturally capitalizes on how they learn best. #ecechat
A1 Hands on learning! Littles are most engaged through inquiry, exploration, & experimentation. They learn by doing and all STEAM activities can be combined with literature or a Language or social emotional skill. Their excitement's sparked early for continued learning#ECEchat
A2 STEAM in #ECE will take an inquiry format & will take a play based format. It should also align to grade level standards & provoke deep learning. Read more: Spark Early Learning with STEAM https://t.co/YrxQHAdzQl#ECEchat
A2: We have a lot of STEAM integrated in our centers twice a day. Right now we're engineering some gingerbread houses, some sorting math in the sensory center, and there will be melting ice in the science center soon! #ECEchat#RRISDLearns
A1 It’s too late to wait to provide #STEAM learning for students till they are in middle or high school.
STEAM for early learners is a matter of equity in my opinion.
#ECEchat#mywhy#CS4all#ASCDcel#learnfwd18
A3. The project approach!!! Follow the students’ lead and allow their interests to connect lessons together that incorporate all subjects. No more silo teaching. #ecechat
A3 By making materials accessible to kiddos. These students have been learning about their community & during centers, this fella took out the community mat $ started #coding BeeBot. His classmate joined in &
he naturally started teaching him how to code. #ecechat#lisdpk#prek
Q4: Where do you find STEAM inspiration and ideas for your students? What are your favorite resources and go-to places for STEAM learning & ideas? Share links if you can! #ECEchat
A4 Build your PLN & connect with these inspiring educators who teach, lead, and model #STEAM learning for young learners, some on Twitter & some on Instagram too. #ECEchat
A1- I do feel like exposure at a young age for student learning about steam is important because the earlier they build connections about math and science the earlier it will be down the road #ECEchat
RT Q4: Where do you find STEAM inspiration and ideas for your students? What are your favorite resources and go-to places for STEAM learning & ideas? Share links if you can! #ECEchat
A4- I personally would have to know what resources educators use to find STEAm ideas in the classroom because I would love to incorporate it in the classroom especially in a special education classroom #ECEchat
A3- I feel like you should be going outside the classroom and taking field trips to expand on children's learning and create an impact on student's knowledge #ECEchat
Q5: Keep the sharing coming!!! What are your favorite STEAM challenges or lessons for young learners? Share pictures & videos too if you have them! #ECEchat
A2: STEAM is hands-in learning.questioning and discovery! I’ve made a rainbow with water and recently we made butter for our bread unit! Turning a liquid to a solid was AMAZING #ecechat
A5 Don’t forget the adults👩🏫👨🏽🏫 Educators need time to engage in #STEAM experiences too➡️ play, explore, plan, create & design!
Today in our #learndfwd18 sesh participants coded their own retelling of pic books w/ empathy elements infused to helping the main characters. #ecechat
A2- What steam looks like in early years my example would when I did student teaching at Headstart I got to cook salsa with the children and they got to do all the steps and there was adult supervision while doing this! #ECEchat
A5: I love connecting #coding with audio QR codes. Ss scan the QR code, listen for the sight word, find the sight word, & code the @beebot to the sight word on the mat. #ECEchat#codinginece
I agree 100% that adults should be a part of steam so they know what their children are learning in class. I know at a near by school they did a family steam night hosted by my college and having students come in and do stuff with the families! #uwpsoe4020#ECEchat
A4: At UW-Platteville, they offer a summer program called Full STEAM. It is 3 days of students learning about STEAM fields. I was fortunate enough to able to be a part of it. Here's a link to the website https://t.co/HPfstTzuHA#ECEchat
RT Q4: Where do you find STEAM inspiration and ideas for your students? What are your favorite resources and go-to places for STEAM learning & ideas? Share links if you can! #ECEchat
A5- I don't have a favorite steam challenge since I haven't had any experience dong steam in a classroom. But I feel like a challenge for educators and creating stuff with different materials #ECEchat
A5 - I really love our Friday enrichment sessions with all the kiddos on campus! We do #GattisRISE and students pursue their interests. I have the playdough group this session, and we used some #sciart last session with a medical illustrator! Having expert visitors = 👍 #ECEchat
I found a lot of early learners love taking stuff a part and putting it back to together. I feel like it is important because children are making connections to how a thing is build and how to put it back together #ECEchat
A5. Engineering challenges: build a chair for baby bear, strong house for 3 little pigs, tool to regulate your emotions, my favorite this year has been Turkey traps #ECEchat
I agree I have used it a lot for unit plans and lesson plans but I make sure they are DAP and if not finding ways to make them DAP for children #ECEchat
A6 - Wow! After tonight I'm going to try to get my students involved in some robotics in the library this school year! I've done it before and the resources are there, we just have to make it happen! #ECEchat#RRISDLearns#STEM#STEAM
A6- After tonight I'm going to research more about steam and find challenges that I can present in my future classroom one day or I want to know more about different methods of steam #ECEchat
I totally agree with you! I feel like having children being exposed to other places and being about to see what there is to offer in the world, it could help them expand their mindsets. #ECEchat
I feel like centers are great rather in a daycare or in a regular classroom. It helps builds children's understanding in the curriculum areas and this helps them build connections. The best motto I have learned is "Children learn best through play." That is 100% true! #ECEchat
A5. Engineering challenges: build a chair for baby bear, strong house for 3 little pigs, tool to regulate your emotions, my favorite this year has been Turkey traps #ECEchat
Even if it is a nature walk outside and doing a scavenger hunt of what they can find on a walk still builds connections for students. I feel like you can only learn so much in a classroom rather oppose to being beyond the walls of a school #ECEchat
