Explore STEAM with Young Children

This resource explains each subject of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) and how children engage in each subject as they grow.

Messy play is beneficial for many areas of child development. This resource discusses the benefits, obstacles, and sources for messy play.

This resource includes videos and games for children relating to science, engineering, and mathematics. There are also activity ideas for teachers and parents to do with your children.

This article encourages families to let kids get messy by incorporating STEM activities into a day at the beach. These suggestions could also be used in a sandboxes, ponds, or other bodies of water available to families.

In this blog, the author describes a classroom project in which children work in groups to build scribbling machines. This project emphasizes science, technology, engineering, arts, math, and other developmental areas.

Many parents wonder what age their children should begin learning STEM. This article stresses that it is never too early to begin teaching STEM to children.

This 45-minute webinar shares tools and resources for incorporating STEM projects into the classroom.

This three-minute video explains that children are naturally “little engineers.” Caregivers can help foster problem-solving by following the steps in the video.

This 4-minute video discusses how adults can help their children learn by joining in on play and asking questions. Infants and toddlers observe, explore, and test the world around them.

This hour-long webinar shows teachers how they can use nature and the outdoors to teach science, technology, engineering, art, and math concepts to young children.

This video series covers math concepts such as subtraction, spatial awareness, patterns, shapes, and measurement. Each three to five-minute video explains what parents can do to support math skills in young children.

This blog entry discusses science, technology, engineering, and math–STEM. Science can be rolling objects down a ramp while recording and thinking about what happened. Technology includes computers, but it can also include using other tools such as flashlights and digital cameras. Engineering can be children planning and designing structures with blocks. Math can be counting and matching shapes and making patterns.

This article discusses how adults can turn playground play into adventures in science. Children can learn about momentum, friction, and balance on the playground.

During this activity, children interact with pendulums and have the opportunity to develop their reasoning about movement and trajectory.

Sliding common objects, such as blocks, boxes, balls, empty containers, and even play foods, down a ramp is a fun way for kids to start exploring some physical science concepts related to the position and motion of objects.  Create a free account on the National Science Teacher Association website to view this resource.

This resource includes information about the importance of learning STEM in the classroom at a young age, guidelines to help with transitioning into what may be a new subject for children, and additional STEM resources to encourage further learning in this field.

Jigsaw puzzles are a fun and relaxing activity for families with young children to do together. But puzzle play offers even more than this. Puzzles are an opportunity for young children to explore key early math concepts, including shapes, sizes, and how and where one puzzle piece fits with another to make pictures or designs.

Picture books can be an opportunity to develop children’s math and reading skills at the same time. These storybook guides help parents and caregivers talk about math with their children while reading together.

This video includes information about early math development in infants and toddlers and strategies caregivers can take to support math learning by integrating early math concepts and skills into everyday teaching practices.