Dive Brief:
- In the last two years, the pre-K program in Texas' Waco Independent School District has dramatically expanded the time students spend on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) tasks.
- Mary Konrad, the district's early childhood education coordinator, writes for eSchool News that in 2014, teachers reported spending just two minutes per day on STEM instruction, while by the spring of 2015, they reported spending an average of 36 minutes per day — an increase of 6,120 minutes per year.
- Teachers use science to help students explore their environments, they introduce technology early to give students access to learning tools they’ll need to master in school, they adopted the STEMscopes Early Explorer program, which is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards, and they engage parents so they can continue conversations about STEM at home.
Dive Insight:
Children are natural scientists. They are exploring and working to figure out their world every day. High-quality early childhood education opportunities can help them structure their experiments and make them more academic. This type of exploration, however, is not a stretch for their naturally curious minds.
The Next Generation Science Standards emphasize giving students opportunities to think and act like working scientists and engineers. The standards themselves begin in kindergarten, but STEMscopes is an example of a program that helps prepare younger students for the material they will begin seeing in kindergarten. Waco’s focus on this in pre-K serves as an investment that is sure to pay off during the formal elementary years.
