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STEM – Engineering
Interactions
- Practitioners must use open-ended enquiry based questioning with the children. “I wonder what would happen if…?”; “How would this change if we added/took away….?”; “How might this change this afternoon/tomorrow/next week?”; “Why?”. This will encourage children to think more deeply and encourage them to use this language themselves.
- Help children to understand that there is more than one way to solve a problem and that it is okay to fail and then try again.
- Children need to manage some of their own risk and be encouraged to move beyond their comfort zone with adult support.
- Practitioners should use language which encourages the children to reflect on what they are doing or about to do e.g. “How can we make this safe/safer?”, “What needs to happen before you can continue to build….?”, “ Do you know how you are going to stay safe/or get down from the tree?”, “ Do you need more equipment to carry on with….?”
Experiences
- Open-ended materials used in the outdoors to facilitate messier, bigger more risky play. This can be facilitated through the use of large loose parts, e.g. huge blocks, guttering, pipes, tyres, sectioned tree trunk, mud kitchen area, puddle/water play, climbing opportunities.
Spaces
- With use of a STEM Audit extend opportunities for the children to develop research, enquiry and problem solving skills.
- Ensure a good supply of open ended materials for constructing, designing, building opportunities. This can be facilitated through block play, creation area, malleable and construction areas within the indoor and outdoor areas of the setting.
- Have a range of puzzles and games for the children to access independently. There should be some basic puzzles as well as more complex ones available. Games should be properly resourced with dice/counters/items to move around a board. Materials should be available for children to develop their own puzzles and games.
