Teaching STEM Literacy: A Constructivist Approach for Ages 3 to 8

227 Pages·2017·16.79 MB·English

by  Juliana Texley

Published by Redleaf Press
10 Yorkton Court
St. Paul, MN 55117
www.redleafpress.org
© 2018 by Juliana Texley and Ruth M. Ruud All rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted on a specific page,
no portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or capturing on any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief
passages in a critical article or review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper, or electronically
transmitted on radio, television, or the Internet.
First edition 2018
Cover design by Erin Kirk New
Cover image by arrow-stock.adobe.com
Interior design by Ryan Scheife, Mayfly Design Typeset in the Whitman and Gotham typefaces Interior
illustrations by Lauren Cooper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Texley, Juliana, author. | Ruud, Ruth M.,
author.
Title: Teaching STEM literacy: a constructivist approach for ages 3 to 8 / Juliana Texley, Ruth M. Ruud.
Description: First edition. | St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017011980 (print) | LCCN 2017023060 (ebook) | ISBN 9781605545639 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Science—Study and teaching (Early childhood)—United States. | Science—Study and
teaching (Early childhood)—Methodology—United States. | BISAC: EDUCATION / Teaching Methods
& Materials Science & Technology. | EDUCATION Preschool & Kindergarten. | EDUCATION
Curricula. | EDUCATION Teaching Methods & Materials / Mathematics.
Classification: LCC LB1585.3 (ebook) | LCC LB1585.3 .T483 2017 (print) | DDC 372.35/044—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017011980
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the thousands of teachers who have inspired and
encouraged our work—who work with creativity, energy, and empathy to bring
all children to their personal best. In the past few years, we have had the pleasure
of collaborating with many talented educators, who have generously shared their
insights and practical tips with us.
Thanks also to our husbands, who have helped us as we’ve worked with
these educators. We have traveled the United States and the world, and they’ve
always been alongside us, supporting science education in their own ways.
And, of course, we dedicate this book to children everywhere who are
empowered by their STEM adventures. These explorers are our future. May their
endless questions keep us young!
Contents Introduction
UNIT 1: Pushes and Pulls
UNIT 2: Falling Down
UNIT 3: Heavy and Light
UNIT 4: Rolling, Rolling, Rolling
UNIT 5: Slipping, Sliding
UNIT 6: What’s the Matter?
UNIT 7: Drop by Drop
UNIT 8: It’s in the Air
UNIT 9: Sun and Shadow
UNIT 10: Hot Stuff, Cool Science
UNIT 11: Wind and Water
UNIT 12: Growing Engineers
The Last Word . . . but Not the End
APPENDIX A: Science Books for Children
APPENDIX B: Web Resources for Children
APPENDIX C: Best STEM Books of 2016 for Young Readers
APPENDIX D: Resources for Teachers
APPENDIX E: Selected Standards
References
Acknowledgments We would like to thank the
following people for their contributions to this
book:
Peggy Ashbrook, whose The Early Years column and liaison work with
the National Association for the Education of Young Children assists
National Science Teachers Association members.
Vicki Cobb and all the other authors who share their muses with us.
Alicia Conerly and Kristin Poindexter for reviews, photos, and
inspiration.
Suzanne Flynn, coordinator of NSTA Recommends, for great trade book
suggestions.
Linda Froschauer, who has guided NSTA’s Science and Children to
include rich resources for early childhood teachers.
Carrie Launius, who helped NSTA redefine STEM literature.
Page Keeley, whose expertise on formative assessment is known across
the United States.
Christine Royce, who is a true guide in the choosing and using of trade
books.
Introduction
Starting with STEM
Children are born curious. They are scientists and engineers from the first time
they reach out to explore their world. As they grow, they ask many questions
each day about the world around them. This is how children build confidence,
capacity, and mental habits that will enable them to conquer the challenges of
their futures and ours.
As early childhood educators and caregivers discuss education today, they
often use the acronym STEM to refer to an integrated approach to science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM is more than a list of content,
concepts, and skills. It’s a holistic approach to educational experiences. STEM
practices provide pathways to discovery from babyhood through adulthood. But
as you will see from the discussions that follow, even the acronym STEM can be
limiting. It may lead teachers and caregivers to create artificial lines between
ways of knowing. We need to remember that discovery also involves reading,
communicating, social skills and studies, music, and the arts. Discovery seldom
falls into any single category.
Early investigations begin in very personal ways. In the language of
educators, learners observe phenomena. That’s a term that simply means
anything that catches their interest! Phenomena spark questions, and questions
lead to investigations. At the early childhood level, STEM practices like
observing, questioning, modeling, and communicating are purposeful play. As
children build confidence, they use these practices to find personally meaningful
solutions to the problems they encounter. They design experiments, collect
information, test and retest, and communicate what they’ve found. We adults can
analyze these activities all we want. But to young children, they are simply
natural behaviors with significant benefits to their habits of mind and their sense
of competence.
A Basis in Research Much of what we do in STEM
education is built on the seminal work of twentieth-
century researchers. In the 1930s, American
psychologist and educational reformer John Dewey
developed an instructional model based on a
philosophy he called the “complete act of thought.”
He wrote that to begin a sound educational
experience, students must sense something that
perplexes them and then act on it. Three decades
later, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget explored
cognitive development in children. He emphasized the
importance of physical experiences in learning, from a
child’s earliest years. From the 1960s onward,
educators moved from a pedagogy based on direct
instruction (teaching things) to constructivism
(creating learning environments that let children
examine their own preconceptions and construct their
own knowledge, yielding far more meaningful and
lasting ideas than children acquire by simply being
told things).
“Constructivism” is a term that might seem complex and mysterious to those
who are not involved in education research. But once you know what it means,
the concept is both simple to understand and easy to identify. In the 1970s,
researchers tried to determine what successful programs and methods had in
common. The researchers found that the common element was not what
happened in the classroom but what the teachers and caregivers believed about
learning. If the adults thought they were the providers of information, they were
not successful. If they believed that children needed to build ideas on their own,
magic happened. This book is built on that paradigm. Even though it outlines a
foundation of core ideas, the path to those ideas is always through the
explorations of the learner.
In the 1980s, education researcher Rodger Bybee and his associates at the
Biological Sciences Curriculum Study developed an instructional model called
the 5Es. Since then, this framework has become the most familiar sequence for
planning lessons with a constructivist approach. The 5E framework involves the
following phases: • engagement • exploration • explanation