Learning at Deeper Levels

It’s always a joy to hear from educators who have participated in our past Scale-Ups! Many have asked whether they can reapply after completing one or more of our previous programs. The answer is YES! Each year we refresh our materials with new technologies that weren’t available before and update our professional learning based on the latest research. In this 3-year award, we are delving deeper into integrative STEM and literacy.

All of us on the STEMwonder team have real classroom experience with young children, so we know that repeating a professional learning experience often leads to deeper understanding. Each time you revisit similar content, your questions shift, your insights grow, and your solutions become more nuanced.

As we move into the next three years of Scale-Ups, we are thrilled to welcome both new and returning awardees. New participants will be learning how to introduce and implement Engineering, Ramps & Pathways, Light & Shadow, and Balance. Returning participants can support them with practical advice while also refining their own questioning strategies, strengthening how they challenge students’ thinking, and exploring literacy connections within STEM.

Choosing between the Science of Reading and Science/STEM is a false choice. Strong reading instruction and STEM learning go hand in hand. Together, they help students become stronger readers, more confident scientists and engineers, and thoughtful mathematicians!

39 DAYS TO APPLY BEFORE THE DEADLINE! 

educate.iowa.gov/STEM/ScaleUp

A Special Opportunity for Iowa's Educators From the Iowa Governor's STEM Advisory Council

Imagine a classroom where children's natural curiosity becomes the spark for joyful discovery - where questions like How does this work? or What will happen if...? leads to hands-on exploration, meaningful collaboration, and joyful learning.

That's the heart of STEM - and the reason we're proud to share that STEMwonder Experiences has been selected as one of only three partners for the Iowa Governor's STEM Scale-Up Program.

This is an exciting chance to bring imagination-driven STEM experiences to the students who benefit most. STEM starts early.

Who Can Apply?

Informal learning educators and PK-Grade 3 teachers working with children ages 4-8 are encouraged to apply. Whether you're familiar with STEMwonder or brand new to the program, you're welcome - and you'll find updated materials, expanded capabilities, and new research supporting your work.

What Awardees Receive

Starting in July and over three years, awardees will gain professional learning and high-quality classroom materials designed to make STEM come alive:

• 
  2026-2027: Engineering Ramps & Pathways
• 2027-2028: Engineering Light & Shadow
• 2028-2029: Engineering Balance

Each kit is intentionally designed for young learners, offering developmentally rich experiences that grow problem-solving, inquiry, collaboration, and foundational early literacy skills. 

Apply now at https://tinyurl.com/2mfjn6pr. Need assistance? Email regents.center@uni.edu

Curiosity-Creativity-Confidence

Curiosity is what sparks learning. When children wonder about something, they naturally want to explore it, and that curiosity helps them understand the world more deeply. As they ask questions and investigate how things work, they develop inquisitive minds and stronger thinking skills. With the rapid growth of AI, it’s more important than ever for schools to nurture this sense of curiosity—encouraging children to think critically, ask meaningful questions, and explore new ideas.

Curious teachers help create curious learners. When teachers pay attention to what excites children and what captures their interest, it opens the door to creative and effective teaching. At the Iowa Regents’ Center for Early Developmental Education, we’re always exploring how children respond to different phenomena. Our goal is to design hands‑on STEM experiences that honor children’s natural curiosity about the world.

In our work, we create materials that meet four key criteria: producible, immediate, observable, and variable. Children should be able to make something happen on their own, see the result right away, and adjust or vary something to discover a new outcome. Through this process, they build confidence in their ability to figure things out and follow their ideas.

The artifacts you see represent the ongoing work of our curious team. Noticing children’s interest in rotational motion, we set out to design materials that fit our four criteria. To explore new possibilities, our team member Yin dug into how 3D printers work and began creating tops and fan blades with interchangeable parts children can experiment with. What you see on display is our continuing journey in developing these engaging, variable materials. 

What ideas do you have? We'd like to learn from you!

Coding in Early Childhood

Coding is the process of creating step-by-step instructions for a computer. These carefully written instructions are necessary for the computer to successfully run its programs. The instructions for the computer are not the same as human verbal or written instructions. A computer uses the language of number. However, a computer counts differently than a human counts. The instructions use a number system that is not in base ten, but instead, a binary number system. 

Chepina Rumsey, Associate Professor in mathematics at UNI has been working with us as we explore experiences that support the kind of thinking that is required for coding, but experiences that are not necessarily electronic and don't have screens. In other words, what early experiences help build the architecture of the brain to more easily develop concepts in computer science and in coding. We happened upon research done by MIT computer scientists who are exploring this idea as well, and worked to design "materials for young children to learn the basics behind how computers work - without using computers" (Learningbeautiful.com). We purchased a set of their materials and examined them from the perspective of the young learner, and from the perspective of early childhood educators. 

One of the Learning Beautiful experiences is the Binary Towers. Although the experience is written for young children, we struggled with how young children would respond to learning a binary number system at the same time they were learning a base ten system. We questioned whether the benefits of dual number system learning would be the same as dual language learning. We have not yet arrived at an answer to this question. What we did settle on is that the Binary Tower experience would be a good introduction to the binary system for early childhood educators unfamiliar with coding. 

We invite early childhood educators and preservice teachers to explore the Binary Towers in our Integrative Classroom Studio (Schindler Education Center 116) at UNI where we are exhibiting explorations in coding in early childhood. Read the book The Binary Towers Playbook and engage with the Binary Towers materials to become familiar with the basics of how computers work. While the Binary Towers Playbook reads like a child's picture book, we feel the contents and concepts are suited for adults who want to know more about computer coding. Come play with us in our Integrative Classroom Studio and think with us on how to engage young learners in concepts of computational thinking in developmentally appropriate ways. 

The Value of Loose Parts

 This past summer and fall, the Iowa Regents' Center for Early Developmental Education had the privilege to spend learn with more than 160 Iowa educators by exploring open-ended STEM experiences involving light and shadow phenomena. Several of these experiences involved loose parts. The idea of providing young children with loose parts was initiated by British architect, Simon Nicholson as a way for children to interact with variable such as gravity, sound, science concepts, words, and people. Engaging with open-ended loose parts offers a sense of wonder to children and nurtures invention, divergent thinking, and problem solving. We encourage teachers to provide opportunities for children to work with loose parts on a light pad, using light as a tool to reveal details in human made and natural objects, discover patterns, and create their own patterns using loose parts. When PK-2 children handle loose parts, they call upon their five senses as well as their senses of weight and balance. They discover properties of the materials, and how those properties determine how these materials can be used. 

A recent article by Carrie Cutler and Diane Skidmore entitled, Creating Outdoor Loose Parts Classroom: One Preschool's Quest for Boundless STEM, illustrates how a preschool capitalized on the open-ended nature of loose parts. The article provides guidance on how to collect loose parts, how to set up an outdoor loose parts classroom, and how loose parts outdoors connects children with STEM in a way that is meaningful to the. Cutler and Skidmore discuss ways to plan and reinforce safe play, and how teachers can learn to let the child lead in loose parts play. Examples of how to observe and assess growth are listed as well as reflecting on how to adjust and improve experiences with loose parts to respect children's initiative and creativity. Click here to access a link to the article. 

How are you using loose parts with your young children?

Attention Iowa Teachers! Apply to Receive a Light & Shadow Classroom Kit and Professional Learning

The Iowa Regents' Center for Early Developmental Education is proud to announce our Light & Shadow program has been selected for the Iowa Governor's STEM Advisory Council's Scale Up Awards.  Teachers across the state of Iowa are invited to submit an application to receive an award of a Light & Shadow classroom kit and professional learning in Light & Shadow that results in a paid UNI graduate credit. Click here to begin the application process. If you need assistance in filling out the application, feel free to contact us at regents.center@uni.edu. Watch the short video below to see more about this opportunity.

  

What Babies Can't Learn from Screens by Dr. Jill Uhlenberg

 

Cultural trends indicate that many adults are not only offering, but encouraging infants to interact with screens. This is despite the research that has shown the need for very young children to experience real people and objects (Francis & Whitely, 2015; Kuhl, 2010) in order to develop spatial reasoning. Spatial reasoning is an important part of mathematics that depends on children’s manipulation of real objects and experiences with real people. Here are some of the reasons for providing these experiences rather than resorting to screen time. Items 3-6 below are ideas from (Piaget and Inhelder (1967).

What babies can’t learn from screens:

1. Sensory development. How things (I am including people here!) taste, smell, feel. While screens can provide sound and colors, they limit the full sensory experiences involved with real objects.

2. Textures. Again these can be depicted visually but screens cannot engage children with differences in textures other than visually. 

3. Depth perception. Very young infants begin their understanding of space with the concepts of near and far. On a screen everything is the same distance from the infant—distant objects are smaller and nearby objects are larger, but this may just be size rather than closeness. 

4. Separation of objects. On a screen, everything is all part of one thing—the screen. Real objects are separate from each other. Infants learn that objects are separate by grasping and handling them.

5. Object permanence. This begins early in life through learning the continuity of objects. By turning objects in their hands, babies learn that the object continues on different sides. 

6. Object constancy. A solid object’s size and shape does not change. On a screen we can easily enlarge or reduce these. This is the beginning of concepts of conservation.

I admit to allowing my grandchildren use of tablets and other screens. However, my goal has been to ensure that more time is spent with real people and objects than screens. Francis and Whitely (2015) report that young children do not readily transfer knowledge about two-dimensional objects to three-dimensional objects. They need practical experiences examining all kinds of objects in order to develop a
strong understanding of spatial reasoning.

For ideas on supporting your infants and toddlers as they interact with objects, click on Contents and Containers, Block Play  Exploring Light and Exploring Sound.  

Francis, K., & Whitely, W. (2015). Interactions between three dimensions and two dimensions. In B. Davis et al., (Eds.), Spatial reasoning in the early years: Principles, assertions, and speculations (pp. 121-136). New York: Routledge.

Kuhl, P. (October, 2010). The linguistic genius of babies. Retrieved from Patricia Kuhl: The linguistic genius of babies | TED Talk

Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (1967). The child’s conception of space. New York, NY: Norton.