Two important new reports on early childhood STEM call for action to support teachers, engage parents, build public awareness, and invest in research.
- The Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s STEM Starts Early calls for collaboration among sectors to implement and sustain progress. This National Science Foundation-funded report also features research by the FrameWorks Institute on how to build greater public understanding of the importance of STEM learning opportunities for all children. The center also has a blog post explaining STEM learning trajectories in young children to help teachers and other adults understand what should we teach? Where do we start? How do we know where to go next? How do we get there?
- Early STEM Matters: Providing High Quality STEM Experiences for All Young Learners, by the Early Childhood STEM Working Group (convened by the Erikson Institute and UChicago STEM Education and comprised of scholars, policymakers, curriculum developers, and educators from around the United States). This report was funded by the Searle Funds at the Chicago Community Trust and it also calls for explicit recognition of STEM within early learning standards and alignment of standards from Pre-K through 12.
The STEM Learning Ecosystems Initiative recently presented a web seminar to members exploring the implications of these reports with the studies’ authors. The Samueli Foundation, the Overdeck Family Foundation, and other STEM Funders are supporting early childhood STEM strategies.