Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math (STEAM) for early learners
(773)717-4290
Mission Statement
Little Makers builds on children's natural curiosity through STEAM learning. creating an environment where young children develop a foundation in problem solving and scientific thinking. Building on children's interest is the most natural way to engage them and keep them looking for the why. When children find out they can ask questions and discover answers on their own they will continue to want to investigate. ​
Educational Philosophy
Learning occurs as children build their own understanding through their interactions with the world around them. So much of the learning that occurs in early childhood is experiential: try something, see how it fails, and try something else. This process is essentially the scientific process. Learning happens naturally at every age, but a school needs to provide the setting and support that fosters learning. In this way children construct their own knowledge of the world around them.
STEAM education has enormous potential to help the youngest learners develop. While STEM (or STEAM) education is often relegated to middle and high school students, Piaget described young children as “little scientists” because they naturally explore and test out new ideas as they play and it leads to learning. STEAM “concepts appear in most infant and toddler activities, just waiting for teachers to make them explicit and apparent to both themselves and to the children.” (Baumgart and Kroll, 2018, p.xvi).
​
STEAM learning is an ideal model for a preschool servicing a wide developmental range (0-5 years old) because STEAM competencies are often universal and cut across age groups. Unlike other academic skills where learning might look very different across different age groups, many STEAM activities work equally well with infants as they do with preschoolers. The basic activity remains the same at all ages, but the complexity increases as children get older. Even the same materials can be used in unique ways to achieve a variety of goals for children at different age groupings. Also concepts like curiosity, scientific testing (create hypothesis, test, collect results, adjust hypothesis, retest…), and creativity are naturally present in and should be developed at all ages.
​
By setting up STEAM experiences and using STEAM tools and mediums with children, we allow them to explore, create, and invent while guiding them to think deeper, challenging them with questions, and, most importantly, encouraging them to learn by working with and observing one another.
​
Baumgart, N. A. and Kroll, L. R. (2018). STEAM Concepts for Infants and Toddlers. St. Paul: Red Leaf Press.
