Just Playing Around: Teaching PreK-Grade 3 STEM Through Inquiry, Exploration, and Play – Workshop #3: Engineering Sylvia Kennedy-Godin January 8, 2019

Children are naturally curious, full of questions, creative, and playful. This three-part workshop series uses the concept of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as play in which children are engaged in asking questions, making discoveries, experimenting, working with others, and working toward proficiency in NGSS and CCSS standards. The format of this workshop will use this playful approach to STEM. Participants will interact with each other, ask questions, explore materials, and play. This workshop is the last in a series of three workshops. The series starts with a focus on science followed by mathematics. Engineering is presented as an application of scientific and mathematical concepts. Technology is a tool that is woven throughout the series. The workshop content for this day is from the Boston Museum of Science’s Wee Engineers and Engineering is Elementary modules. During this workshop, participants will: explore ways to harness children’s natural curiosity; focus on real-world problem solving that helps children think about the designed world in which they live; discover ways to introduce the engineering design process to children in preschool to 3rd grade; and learn how to implement these practices into common pre-school environments.