Toddlers and STEM Experiences: Adults as Learners

The struggle to find out the material world through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) begins at birth. Lucky are the infants and toddlers who have observant, caring adults who support STEM learning from the start. 

This is the last in a series of four blog posts written by Dr. Jill Uhlenberg who describes four types of effort adults can employ to nurture STEM from the beginning. 

Toddlers and STEM Experiences: Adults as Learners

Dr. Jill Uhlenberg

The fourth kind of effort in supporting STEM with Toddlers is the adult's role as a learner. Most of us do not know all there is to know about STEM areas, so we are forever learning more about science,

technology, engineering and mathematics. Many toddler teachers are very unsure of their ability to offer technology and engineering experiences to their children. If we accept that technology is NOT limited to screen time, this becomes much easier to understand. Technology is the tools we use to complete a task or solve a problem. The paper taped to the classroom table in my first blog entry is technology - the teacher solved the problem of paint dripping down the classroom easels by providing a horizontal surface for the children to paint. The sippy cups I wrote about in the second blog entry about curriculum development also would be considered technology. And engineering is the process we use to address those problems that we find and solve.

Even as we learn more about STEM, toddler teachers must also learn more about the children in their care. Each of the individuals has different interests, families, backgrounds, favorite toys or foods, and experiences. The more we learn about each one, the better we can be at teaching. So we must learn to view toddlers as learners who need freedoms, good curriculum, routine and variety, and a teacher who wants to know them as an individual.

Although there are many more kinds of effort toddler teachers must expend each day, from hugs, supporting toilet learning, supporting parents, documenting, clean-up, and more, engaging in these four kinds of effort produce high quality experiences for children. All four roles—liberator, curriculum developer, chief historian, and learner—interact to support toddlers in their exploration of STEM experiences.  

[For a fuller explanation, see Uhlenberg, J. (2016). The four roles of a master toddler teacher. Early Education and Development, 27(2), 240-258. DOI: 10.1080/10409289.2016.1088313]

Toddlers and STEM Experiences: Adults as Chief Historians

 

The struggle to find out the material world through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) begins at birth. Lucky are the infants and toddlers who have observant, caring adults who support STEM learning from the start. 

This is the third in a series of four blog posts written by Dr. Jill Uhlenberg who will describe four types of effort adults can employ to nurture STEM from the beginning. 

Toddlers and STEM Experiences: Adults as Chief Historians

Dr. Jill Uhlenberg

STEM with toddlers that leads to successful experiences is supported by a teacher who is the chief historian. Toddlers have not lived long enough to have experienced much of history. The teacher becomes the lead in this process, which involves repetition and variety.

Toddlers need routines to provide them stability in their environment. They want to know what to expect in the daily schedule so that the routines of the day give them a framework for their lives. Breakfast is followed by learning center time. Then comes outdoor play, lunch time, stories, and naps.

Within those regular daily events, we can provide variety, such as the ideas I wrote about for curriculum development. Providing water play as a daily offering at a center time builds a history of opportunity for STEM exploration. When the toddlers seem less interested in the water table, adding some new containers will re-strengthen that interest and provide new ways to engage with the water and other materials. In my toddler classroom, the water table was available every day of the year because it was so interesting to the children.

Adults can remind the toddlers of previous actions, also building history. “Remember when we found the caterpillar on the playground? Let’s look at the caterpillar book again.” Building routines and providing variety will support curriculum development as well as supporting children’s ability to make choices and share power in the classroom.

[For a fuller explanation, see Uhlenberg, J. (2016). The four roles of a master toddler teacher. Early Education and Development, 27(2), 240-258. DOI: 10.1080/10409289.2016.1088313]

Toddlers and STEM Experiences: Adults as Curriculum Organizers

 

Eleanor Duckworth once said, “The essence of science is the struggle to find out about the material world.” She went on to say, “This struggle entails both the ability to solve problems which are already articulated and the ability to find problems not yet articulated." 

The struggle to find out the material world through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) begins at birth. Lucky are the infants and toddlers who have observant, caring adults who support STEM learning from the start. 

This is the second in a series of four blog posts written by Dr. Jill Uhlenberg who will describe four types of effort adults can employ to nurture STEM from the beginning. 

Toddlers and STEM Experiences: Adults as Curriculum Organizers

Dr. Jill Uhlenberg

In the previous post, we examined the role of adults as liberators. The second kind of effort needed is for adults to be the curriculum organizers. People who work with toddlers often seek ideas for curriculum in places that are not connected to toddler experiences. That is, curriculum becomes an external device inserted into the day to pass the time. When toddlers are not interested in these kinds of external experiences, or when limits are tight because adults are directing how the experiences progress, that curriculum often fails.  That is when we hear adults bemoan the short attention span of toddlers or that they are experiencing the “terrible twos” or they are making a mess. 

Curriculum that grows out of toddlers’ everyday experiences with different materials provides opportunities for engagement and lasting interest. My example of Lacey and her painting is one example. Lacey’s teacher shared another experience about the toddlers in her group. Oscar was enjoying his crackers and drink at snack time when his sippy cup tipped over. He watched the water drip out of the lid slowly, then he picked up the cup upside down and continued to watch the water drips fall onto the table. Again, this toddler teacher could have told him to stop, taken his cup away, or any of several other limitations. Instead, she gathered up extra sippy cups and the next day placed them in the water table so that Oscar and all the children could explore how the water acted in sippy cups. The toddlers spent the entire week examining the cups, filling and emptying the cups repeatedly until they were satisfied.

Another example is the Contents and Containers experience developed by Regents’ Center staff. These experiences utilize common materials found in a kitchen (containers) and objects to place inside them. Toddlers love to place objects inside any container and carry them around. Allowing them to explore multiple kinds of containers and contents leads to extended play and investigations of what fits or doesn’t, how materials nest or don’t, and many other spatial relationships. 

For toddler teachers who don’t know what to provide for their groups to experience STEM, I suggest beginning with what the toddlers are already doing. Much of what toddlers are engaged in is essentially STEM related. Observe them and explore their perceptions of the world around them rather than providing adult-initiated and -directed experiences that may only demonstrate to toddlers that they need a liberator. Dr. Rheta DeVries noted, “If there is nothing for the children to figure out, then it may not be worthy of their time.”

[For a fuller explanation, see Uhlenberg, J. (2016). The four roles of a master toddler teacher. Early Education and Development, 27(2), 240-258. DOI: 10.1080/10409289.2016.1088313]

[Contents and Containers: Exploring Space with Infants and Toddlers]

[More suggestions for infant toddler STEM curriculum ]

Toddlers and STEM Experiences: Adults as Liberators

Eleanor Duckworth once said, “The essence of science is the struggle to find out about the material world.” She went on to say, “This struggle entails both the ability to solve problems which are already articulated and the ability to find problems not yet articulated." 

The struggle to find out the material world through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) begins at birth. Lucky are the infants and toddlers who have observant, caring adults who support STEM learning from the start. 

This is the first in a series of four blog posts written by Dr. Jill Uhlenberg who will describe four types of effort adults can employ to nurture STEM from the beginning. 

Toddlers and STEM Experiences: Adults as Liberators

Dr. Jill Uhlenberg

STEM with Toddlers takes effort from the adults around them. That effort can be so rewarding for both the children and the adults. For me, there are four different kinds of effort needed for adults to successfully support these young children in their learning. These are being a liberator, a curriculum developer, a chief historian, and a learner.

The first and probably most difficult effort for many adults is to be a liberator. Liberating a toddler means offering to share the power that adults hold just by being bigger, older, and more experienced. Sharing power is a risk that many adults just cannot take. It makes life messier. It makes young children more independent. It makes the toddlers question rules and limits. But in the long run, it makes them excited learners who want to find problems and solve them.

Lacey is two and loves to paint. Her teacher covered an entire tabletop with paper taped down and handed her a cup of paint and a brush. Lacey began to paint. She focused on one corner of the table to the extent that she painted right through the paper, so that she was eventually painting the tabletop. Still she continued to paint only in that one place on the paper. Her teacher could have told her to stop, redirected her to paint other places on the paper, or removed her entirely from the activity.

The teacher knew that the paper would eventually get wet and dissolve. She knew that there would be a mess to clean up. She knew because she had more experience than Lacey. Instead of stopping Lacey’s experiment, her teacher allowed this exploration of the paint and paper to happen until Lacey was satisfied.

 

Think about all the STEM Lacey was experiencing. She was learning about wet and dry materials and how they interact (science). She was exploring how much paint was needed to make the hole in the paper and how big the hole would get (mathematics). She discovered that the paint brush could carry paint (engineering) as a tool (technology) in her painting efforts. She also was learning that paper was not as long-lasting tool as the table was (technology). Lacey was learning concepts that her teacher already knew as an adult. 

The best toddler teachers are those who embrace who toddlers are and what they do. Rather than setting limits and struggling to control toddlers throughout the day, allowing them opportunities to explore and gain experiences will bring joy and excitement to their learning. That can happen by sharing the power and by working at the second kind of effort needed: curriculum organizer.

[For a fuller explanation, see Uhlenberg, J. (2016). The four roles of a master toddler teacher. Early Education and Development, 27(2), 240-258. DOI: 10.1080/10409289.2016.1088313]

[Ideas for infant toddler STEM curriculum can be found at https://regentsctr.uni.edu/regents-center/stem-experiences-classrooms]