STEM Practice Inspiration
In order to provide ‘practice inspiration’ surrounding STEM, this section will offer insights into the excellent and innovative practice at Sunflower Family Nurture Centre.
This short article contains some useful information and examples about the ethos, strategies, activities and resources that Sunflower staff draw upon to support children’s learning around STEM.
A Culture of STEM
A culture of STEM exists at Sunflower Family Nurture Centre and Annex. Learning through STEM is embedded across the life of both settings.
Children are excited and motivated by their STEM learning, with skills being developed through high-quality play experiences and interactions.
STEM learning takes place across the settings, from babies within Family Learning groups to toddlers in our Early Entrants. Learning continues as the child moves into our 3-5 room to the point when they transition into school.
The magic happens when children are encouraged to be curious about the living world, and are provided with opportunities to explore, investigate, and build.
Planning for Learning
Skilled practitioners carefully plan for children’s STEM learning through a responsive planning system. It is crucial to ensure that experiences and resources are carefully matched to the child’s developmental stage and that interactions subtly move the child’s learning forward. Children’s interests are supported and extended in a timely manner to ensure that sparks of interest are not missed.
Children planning their own learning is at the heart of our STEM culture. Children are encouraged to support daily responsive planning through talking about their learning both individually and in small groups, as well as contributing to the daily responsive plan and learning walls.
Opportunities for children to develop skills such as independence, problem-solving, and creativity are embedded within the life of the setting.
STEM Nation Award
Signing-up for the STEM Nation Award has supported us to reflect on and evaluate our STEM learning. Through a robust audit, we were able to identify our strengths, as well as areas for development. Our STEM Ambassadors supported this work.
Key elements within the STEM Nation Award include:
- Leadership in STEM.
- Family & Community STEM learning.
- STEM partnership working.
- STEM curriculum and learner pathways.
- Equity & Equality in STEM.
Although participants can select individual elements to focus on, we decided to work towards all 5. We felt each area complimented the other and we wanted to take a holistic look at our STEM practice.
We spent a year working towards the award, and after progressing through the validation stage, we were delighted to be recognised and awarded with all 5 elements.
Resources
In order for children to have the very best STEM experiences that support them to continually develop their STEM skills, availability of high-quality resources is imperative.
At Sunflower, this does not mean high-cost. Whilst we ensure that the Core Provision is in place and available at all times, many resources are homemade by the children with support from skilled adults.
Responding to Children’s Interests
“I don’t live in a house like that!”
Children and staff use their STEM skills to design and make resources. In one instance, when a child was playing with the doll’s house, the said to a member of staff that their home didn’t look like that. Following further discussion, the child was asked if they wanted to plan and make a house that looked just like their own home. The result was a block of flats. This has been very well used by the children and has encouraged rich dialogue. It has since been redecorated twice.
“I want to make a unicorn.”
Children explore, design, and make within the setting on a daily basis. Ensuring a range of resources are available is essential to support the child’s natural curiosity and creativity.
Supporting STEM Learning at Home
Family Learning
We run a wide-range of family groups which encourage the development of STEM skills from the earliest stages. For example, Baby sensory classes are planned in a way that supports families and their children to explore some of the earliest STEM concepts together.
We also run groups for older children, such as, STEM & Communicate, which encourage the development of early language through STEM experiences. Children and families learn together and then use these experiences to support learning through play in the home.
Melgund/MacGregor Market
Each week children plan and prepare STEM bags to go home. The Daily Responsive Planning determines the theme for the STEM Bags each week. Children are fully involved in each part of this process. We ask for a nominal donation to support the children to handle cash and experience financial education in a real and relevant way. The children bank their cash with the Credit Union. Children have ownership of this account and make choices together about what their profits should be spent on.
National Hub Case Study
You can find out more about our STEM practice on the Education Scotland National Hub, including videos and practice guidelines. Click here.
