Teaching STEM in the Preschool Classroom: Exploring Big Ideas with 3- to 5-Year-Olds

“Provides preschool teachers with an important foundation of effective practices as they explore teaching through STEM. The inclusion of fully developed lessons, effective differentiation strategies (especially for dual language learners), and resources make this book a valuable tool for any preschool classroom.” ―Teachers College Record

This book is designed to build educators’ confidence and competence so they can bring STEM to life with young children.

The authors encourage pre-K teachers to discover the value of engaging preschoolers in scientific inquiry, technological explorations, engineering challenges, and math experiences based on learning trajectories. They explain the big ideas in STEM, emphasizing teaching strategies that support these activities (such as language-rich STEM interactions), and describe ways to integrate concepts across disciplines. The text features research-based resources, examples of field-tested activities, and highlights from the classroom.

Drawing from a professional development model that was developed with funding from the National Science Foundation, this book is an essential resource for anyone who wants to support preschool children to be STEM thinkers and doers.

Book Features:

• An introduction to current thinking in early STEM teaching and learning.
• Best practice strategies for including STEM in the pre-K classroom.
• An in-depth look at the key concepts in each STEM area, including short activity descriptions, illustrations, and explanations.
• Resources and models co-developed with educators and used in successful professional development.
• Testimonials from educators explaining how the model connects with their curriculum.

Alissa A. Lange is an associate professor of early childhood education at East Tennessee State University. Kimberly Brenneman is program officer for education at the Heising-Simons Foundation. Hagit Mano is an early childhood STEM specialist at East Tennessee State University.