Little Scientists

24/07/2024

The 2024 Olympics are just around the corner this 26 July-11 August. This once-every-four-year event provides rich opportunities to engage children in hands-on STEM explorations that develop their critical thinking, creativity, & STEM identities.

🏊 Let’s start with diving. Have you noticed that Olympic divers don't splash when they enter the pool? Explore this by setting up a water trough and letting children drop items from different heights. Observe each splash. What makes big splashes? What about small?

🔗 More ECE Olympics STEM ideas here: tinyurl.com/resource-olympics

23/07/2024

Oh hello 7NEWS Toowoomba!👋 Congratulations Concordia Lutheran College Hume Street Kindergarten on your Little Scientists House certification! We are thrilled to recognise your commitment to early STEM education and are impressed to see 7NEWS Toowoomba run this story to celebrate your hard work. Your kindergarten children and educator team are phenomenal, we're so please to be part of your early STEM journey 💚👏

22/07/2024

CERTIFIED for a 4th time: Congratulations to Froebel St Leonards for renewing your Little Scientists House certification! 🥳

Over 8 weeks, the children explored what types of chemical reactions they could create in the kitchen. They selected and mixed ingredients such as baking soda, vinegar, and sugar – and found that some mixtures created bubbles! They then extended upon this by experimenting with different mixtures, quantities, and powders to find a combination that would produce a long lasting bubbling effect!

🔔 Interested in Little Scientists House certification? Learn how you can showcase to parents and the community that your service is committed to early childhood STEM education: tinyurl.com/littlescientistshouse

Fröbel Froebel Australia Early Learning

18/07/2024

🥛 Have you tried the colour-changing milk experiment? All you need is some food dye, milk, detergent, and a toothpick!

Instructions:
1️⃣ Pour some milk onto a plate and add a few different coloured drops of food dye in the centre.
2️⃣ Touch the tip of a toothpick into the milk & ask the children to observe and record what happens.
3️⃣ Try this experiment again, but this time, add a drop of detergent on the clean end of the toothpick before dipping it in.
4️⃣ You’ll see a burst of colour in the milk, just like in this video.

Extending this:
Encourage the children to experiment with different amounts of detergent, milk, and food dye to see how this affects the colour burst.

This experiment was part of our “Nurturing STEM Dispositions in 0-3 Years” workshop. Purchase the full recording for more provocation ideas for young children: tinyurl.com/ow-stemdispositions

17/07/2024

Will we see you at our next NSW & VIC workshops? Book now to develop your skills & confidence in embedding rich STEM learning into your ECE practice.

Our interactive workshops are evidence-based, align with the EYLF, are NESA-accredited, and dive deep into pedagogy and group discussion. You’ll also engage in exciting hands-on activities, such as aerating chocolate, inventing spy devices, and hiding objects within bubbles!

🧪 Chemical Reactions Workshop, Penrith NSW (5 Sep)
BOOK: tinyurl.com/nsw-chemreactions-sep

💡Optics Workshop, Carlton VIC (6 Sep)
BOOK: tinyurl.com/vic-optics-sep

🌊 Water Workshop, Strathfield NSW (26 Sep)
BOOK: tinyurl.com/nsw-water-sep

Can’t see a workshop for you? Book an in-service workshop at a time that suits your whole team: tinyurl.com/inservice-workshop

16/07/2024

Balancing on a beam or tightrope can be tricky, especially for young children! Use this ECE activity to prompt children to explore the engineering principles behind balance & force ⚙️

What’s the science behind balance? Different forces such as gravity impact the object you’re balancing on, as well as your body. But you can help get these forces into equilibrium by adding a prop to stay balanced, such as a stick, fabric bag, bottles of water, or rope – it all depends on what object you’re balancing on and how your body reacts to it.

Check out this video of a tightrope walker, who uses a long pole to keep himself in equilibrium: https://youtu.be/XvzcLs3H5Jk

16/07/2024

Thanks Inspired EC for spotlighting the importance of early STEM education this month. You're absolutely right, STEM learning opportunities are abundant in children's everyday play as well as educators' curricula.

At Little Scientists, we believe that STEM learning should be integrated and embedded into everyday teaching curricula and play times, instead of being delivering as standalone lessons. In this way, STEM learning becomes richer, rather than compete for time in educators’ already-busy curriculum. An integrated approach to early STEM learning:
🟢 Allows children to develop a richer understanding of STEM concepts.
🟢 Allows children to understand how STEM applies to their daily lives.
🟢 Promotes cross-disciplinary learning.
🟢 Ensures STEM is integrated into children's overall educational experience.

This month we're talking all about STEM. For us, STEM isn't something we need to make happen, it's something that is happening in children's play each and every day. Our job is to make that learning visible.

How do we do that? Meaningful documentation.

But if you are ever stuck for the right words to explain children's STEM awesome-ness in play... here's a list to spark some thinking!

15/07/2024

Learn how to engage young children in citizen science this National Science Week in our 2-hour online STEM workshop (30 July).

In this interactive workshop for early childhood educators & teachers:

🔎 Gain ideas for citizen science projects to run with children like weather tracking & waterway monitoring.

🌱 Learn to support children to collect data, document findings, & report to local environmental groups.

🧠 Encourage children to think of themselves as powerful agents of change through age-appropriate citizen science.

BOOK HERE: tinyurl.com/online-citizenscience

Live event details:
🗓 DATE: Tuesday 30 July 2024
⏰ TIME: 3-5pm (AEST), 1-3pm (AWST), 2:30-4:30pm (ACST)
🖥 WHERE: Online + via recording
🪙 COST: $90pp

A ticket allows you to watch live or via a recording.

If you’re joining the workshop live, we’ll be inviting attendees to turn their cameras on so that we can have two-way interaction and rich group discussion. (If you'd prefer your camera off, that's okay too.)

11/07/2024

📽️ Explore the sounds behind movies and TV by supporting children to embrace their inner foley artists!

Movies and TV wouldn’t be possible without foley artists, who create sounds for the images we see on screen, like a creaking door or loud footsteps. The 3 activities in this post are just some of the ways to support children to explore the creative arts through STEM.

You can also check out this very entertaining video of how foley artists brought the movie “Zootopia” to life through sound: https://youtu.be/BU9nj2-6ZnA

10/07/2024

🎁 Guess what just arrived at Little Scientists HQ? Bee-Bots for the winners of the Little Scientists Early STEM Awards!

Bee-Bots are an early STEM learning tool that help children develop their computer science and programming skills, as well as their directional language 🐝 Education Technology Specialists is generously gifting Bee-Bots to our state, territory, and national winners – so keep your eyes peeled for our winners announcement in August!

Learn more about EdTechs and Bee-Bots here: https://www.edtechs.com.au/collections/bee-bot-kits

09/07/2024

The Little Scientists Early STEM Awards nominations are now over to our external judging panel!

Over the next two weeks, our esteemed judging panel will carefully review and grade the nominations. They have a hard task! The quality of this year’s nominations has been absolutely phenomenal, with project submissions exploring topics as varied as parkour, waterways, and modes of transport around the world!

Our incredible judges are:
🟢 Luke Atchison: Assistant Director, STEM Team, Australian Government Department of Education
🟢 Dr Kate Highfield: Associate Professor and Academic Lead, Early Childhood Education, University of Canberra
🟢 Himal Randeniya: Founder of LoveHeart AI
🟢 Margaret Shepherd: President of the Australian Science Teachers Association
🟢 BJ Anyos: Early Learning Coordinator, Questacon

Keep your eyes peeled. Winners will be announced in early August in the lead up to National Science Week!

04/07/2024

🚨FINAL TICKETS: Book into our Air STEM Workshop (29 July), held in partnership with the Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia - AISWA 🌬️

In this evidence-based workshop, you'll learn to create rich STEM learning experiences through the exciting topic of air and develop your pedagogical understanding of metacognition in early childhood. You’ll also engage in a variety of hands-on explorations, like using air to submerge a submarine, catching air in soap bubbles, and even moving odours with air.

🎟️ BOOK: tinyurl.com/wa-air-jul

Event details:
🗓 WHEN: 9am-2pm, Mon 29 Jul 2024
🖥 WHERE: Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia, 3/41 Walters Dr, Osborne Park WA
🪙 COST: $215pp

03/07/2024

NAIDOC Week is coming up 7-14 July, with this year’s theme: "Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud" to celebrate the resilient spirit of First Nations people and knowledge. Here are a few ideas for how you can support young children to meaningfully engage with STEM through First Nations perspectives:

🎙️ Play a reading of “Country Tells Us When...” by Tsheena Cooper, Mary Dann, Dalisa Pigram-Ross, & Sheree Ford in the Yawuru language.
⛅ Take the children outside and ask them to describe how the weather feels using the five senses.
🌡️ Invite children to explore the Bureau of Meteorology's comparison of First Nations and Western seasons.

Explore more conversation starters & activities for NAIDOC Week here: tinyurl.com/resource-naidocweek

National NAIDOC

02/07/2024

🎶 Did you know music and rhythm can help develop mathematical understanding in young children? Here are a few ideas from our recent Maths in Music Workshop:

💓 Watch a video of a heartbeat and ask children to clap along to the beat.
🏢 Use Lego blocks of different sizes to represent short, medium, & long beats and ask the children to clap what they see.
🐘 Sing “One Grey Elephant” to support children’s thinking around sequencing.

More ideas and loads of song links here: tinyurl.com/resource-mathsmusic

If you missed this two-hour online workshop, you can purchase a recording here: tinyurl.com/ow-magicofmaths

01/07/2024

Near Shailer Park? Book into our Computer Science Workshop in QLD (23 July), held in partnership with the Australian Institute of Early Childhood Studies.

In this interactive workshop, learn how to embed evidence-based STEM into your teaching practice, explore how to engage children in algorithms and sequencing without computers, and gain pedagogical expertise in computational thinking. Dive into hands-on activities, such as developing algorithms for everyday situations and writing code without a computer!

*Your service may be able to subsidise the cost of this workshop ticket through the Queensland Government's Kindy Uplift program. It's best to talk to your service director to explore this further.

🎟️ BOOK: tinyurl.com/qld-compsci-jul

Event details:
🗓 WHEN: 9am-12.30pm, Tue 23 Jul
🖥 WHERE: Australian Institute of Early Childhood Studies, 56 Commercial Dr, Shailer Park QLD
🪙 COST: $215pp*

01/07/2024

Thank you goodstartmarrickville_! We loved getting to know your energetic and friendly educator team at your in-service workshop on Saturday, in which we explored “Water & Co-Constructed Environments in Early Learning”.

In this foundational STEM PD workshop, educators explored how to engage children in STEM through hands-on, play-based activities using everyday materials like water, salt, ice, and rocks. For example, one group of educators ran experiments to make the dirtiest water possible. Then they tested different ways to make the water clean again using sieves, stockings, and coffee filters.

It was great to hear the educators reflect that if they ran this activity with children, they would extend the time for experimentation, giving children days to create their own ‘dirty water’, and then several weeks to explore how to make it clean again. What a great idea for an early STEM project!

💡 A key takeaway: There’s no need to rush children through the inquiry cycle. If you can, give children as much time and as many opportunities as possible to engage in exploration and experimentation *before* you add extension activities.

Have you seen Little Scientists STEM Inquiry Cycle? Access the online PDF here:https://littlescientists.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/0823-LS-Inquiry-Cycle-v2.pdf

27/06/2024

Did you see this viral video? A teacher uses the Lion King to get her students excited about maths! 😁

Watch it here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzsXSLRuFLs/?igsh=MzY1NDJmNzMyNQ%3D%3D

Have you tried something like this with children in your own service or classroom? Music is a great vehicle through which to support children’s learning in early childhood. If you tuned into our trainer Ana's recent online workshop “The Magic of Maths through Music”, you would’ve explored a variety of ways in which patterns, sequencing, and spatial awareness can be supported through music and movement experiences.

Here are a few other ideas for children 0-8 years:

🥁 Sing a song and invite the children to clap, stomp, or use instruments in time. Focus on the beat the first time, then the rhythm the next time. This will help children to notice the difference in the two patterns.

🌟 Sing a rhyming song with the children and stop before the end of a line to give children an opportunity to finish the pattern. For example: “Twinkle twinkle little...”

✋ Use fingerplays to create sequence-based transition experiences, like using the rhyme “Fat Sausages Sizzling in a Pan”. The children can be the sausages and when they ‘go bang!’, they can transition to the next activity.

🎵 Support the development of children’s sequencing skills through songs such as “One Grey Elephant”, “When Goldilocks Went to the House of the Bears”, “The Farmer in the Dell”, & “Green Grow the Rushes Oh” (view here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1q5PUGGW5E).

🕺 Songs with actions can encourage children’s spatial awareness skills, such as “Grand Old Duke of York” and “Stand Up Sit Down” (view here: https://youtu.be/t9WAGkQUUL0?si=nTMqRtQ-ZAEZ10nQ) and Punchinello/a (view here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFYE7G51Mgg&t=20s).

Send a message to learn more

26/06/2024

🫧 Blowing bubbles 🏓 Floating ping pong balls️ 🕯 Experimenting with candles... These are just a few of the activities explored in our “Air & Metacognition” STEM workshop last week.

At our 4th in-service workshop with the 3Bridges OSHC team, we examined air using everyday items like bottles, cellophane, and straws and explored how to support children to be aware of what they are learning.

As usual, our wonderful trainers Ana and Nicola received excellent feedback with one participant sharing: “The trainers were terrific, really engaging and very obviously knowledgeable which made it a great experience!” Well done Ana and Nicola 👏

The 3Bridges team is nearly halfway through their 10 in-service workshop package with Little Scientists. We’re thrilled to be on this professional development journey with them and applaud 3Bridges for their commitment to early STEM education. Thanks for another inspiring workshop!

📲 Interested in booking an in-service workshop for your team? Express your interest here: tinyurl.com/inservice-workshop

3Bridges Community

25/06/2024

We’ve SOLD OUT again! ✨

While we’re only halfway through the year, we’ve already surpassed our 2023 workshop numbers and now have yet another sold-out workshop – this time, our “Computer Science & Computational Thinking” Workshop in Summer Hill!

Little Scientists is proud to partner with the Australian supplier of Bee-Bots Education Technology Specialists to give all Computer Science Workshop attendees a 20% discount off the Bee-Bots range.

Missed out on this workshop? Check out other upcoming STEM PD:

💻 Book our online workshop: “Empowering Children through Citizen Science for National Science Week” (30 July): tinyurl.com/online-citizenscience

📅 Keep an eye out for new workshops in our calendar: tinyurl.com/workshops-2024

24/06/2024

Did you know it's Insect Week on 24-30 June? It encourages people of all ages to learn more about insects and provides rich opportunities for STEM exploration. Here are some insect facts and provocations to try with your children:

🐝 Bees dance to tell other bees where to find flowers with nectar.
Turn on some music and invite children to move their bodies like bees and imagine they are searching for nectar. Try changing the song and invite the children to explore different movements, beats, and rhythms.

🦗 Grasshoppers hear sounds through tiny ears on their bellies.
Take the children outdoors and ask them to describe the different sounds they hear. Then, have them block their ears with their hands and compare the difference.

🪳 Cockroaches can hold their breath for up to 40 minutes to save energy.
Invite the children to try holding their breath for a few seconds and share how they feel. Do they feel tired or need to take more breaths now? Or do they feel more energetic?

Visit our website for more Insect Week ideas for early learning: tinyurl.com/resource-insectweek

Learn more about Insect Week and their 0-5 learning resources: https://www.insectweek.org/learning-resources/?_who_is_it_for=0-5

Insect Week

20/06/2024

"Set up a tinkering space for children to create and invent. Stock up on electronics, magnets, circuits, robotic toys, LEDs, alligator clips and recyclable materials, plus supplies to join things together such as blue tac, playdough and tape.”

We love these STEM ideas for 3-6 year olds — as well as those for babies and toddlers — shared by Honorary Associate Professor Marianne Knaus. This article is a great summary of why early STEM is important and how educators can foster a STEM-rich teaching and learning environment within their services.

Thank you for your work raising the profile of early STEM education Honorary Associate Professor Marianne Knaus and the NSW Department of Education for publishing these excellent articles.

🔗 Read the full article by clicking the image below.

Honorary Associate Professor Marianne Knaus shares how STEM explorations lay the foundation for lifelong learning, plus activity ideas for little learners of all ages.

19/06/2024

📲 Join 500+ educators in our new Facebook group: Early STEM Educators Network! It’s open to all early educators and teachers interested in developing their early STEM teachings skills.

Join this supportive community to:
🤝 Network with like-minded educators in Australia.
💬 Ask questions and engage in rich STEM discussion.
📣 Share early STEM teaching successes and challenges.
💌 Receive early STEM resources and PD invitations.

Our group is new but growing fast, so if you’re happy to, please introduce yourself and let us know the context you teach in.

➡️ Join here: facebook.com/groups/littlescientistsearlystemnetwork

18/06/2024

☀️ Explore STEM with your children for Winter Solstice (21 June)! This is the day with the least sunlight hours in the year.

During these winter months, spark conversations with children in your service or classroom about STEM through the topics of the sun and moon, light and shadows, and the seasons. For example, invite them to explore these questions:

🦘 Which animals do you see in winter?
🌳 How do trees and plants change in winter?
👤 How do your shadows change during the day?
☀️ Is the sun high or low in the sky during winter?

17/06/2024

Comment below: Do children in your service or classroom participate in risky play? If so, what does this look like?

“Risky play must be put into context — ‘great height’ for a four-year-old is very different to a 10-year-old… as is ‘high’ speed or ‘dangerous’ tools... [Risky play] allows children to explore and test their own ability and develop and identify their own risk appetite.” - CEO of Play Australia, Robyn Monro Miller AM.

The ABC Australia’s recent article is a good starting point to spark discussions within your team about how risky play may look in your unique setting. 🔗 Read the full article: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-11/risky-play-benefits-for-kids-children-parents/103939538

Want to gain further insights on risky play and its benefits? Book into our online STEM Hour: “Unlocking STEM through risky play in early learning” (14 Nov)!

Our panel features two experts: Dr Shirley Wyver (senior lecturer in child development at Macquarie University) and Kelly West (Service Director of Adamstown Community Early Learning and Preschool). They will explore different forms of risky play, how it can be safely implemented, and how it can intersect with early STEM learning.

🎟️ BOOK: tinyurl.com/online-riskyplay

13/06/2024

Live near Perth? Book into our upcoming Air STEM Workshop (29 July), held in partnership with the Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia - AISWA 🌬️

In this hands-on workshop, you'll learn how to create rich STEM learning experiences for children through the exciting topic of air and develop your pedagogical expertise in metacognition in early childhood. Dive into hands-on activities, such as using air to submerge a submarine and move odours.

🎟️ BOOK: tinyurl.com/wa-air-jul

Event details:
🗓 WHEN: 9am-2pm, Mon 29 Jul 2024
🖥 WHERE: Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia, 3/41 Walters Dr, Osborne Park WA
🪙 COST: $215pp

12/06/2024

Little Scientists’ educational approach to early STEM learning is built on 3 core principles:

🔍 Inquiry-based learning: Children are naturally curious about the world around them. Allowing them to raise questions, conduct experiments, and observe the results will lead to the richest STEM discoveries.

🧩 Co-construction: Children and adults shape the learning process and construct knowledge together. Educators recognise that learning is a social process, and that problems and solutions are best explored as a team.

🧠 Metacognition: Children are aware that they are learning. This occurs when they consciously explore their own cognitive processes — thoughts, opinions, attitudes — and think about their previous knowledge, newly acquired knowledge, and journey to get to there.

Read more about our educational approach: tinyurl.com/about-ls

11/06/2024

QLD: Book into our Computer Science Workshop in Shailer Park (23 July), held in partnership with the Australian Institute of Early Childhood Studies.

In this interactive workshop, you'll learn how to embed evidence-based early STEM into your teaching practice, explore how to engage children in algorithms and sequencing without computers, and gain pedagogical expertise in early computational thinking. Dive into hands-on activities, such as developing algorithms for everyday situations and writing code without a computer.

*Your service may be able to subsidise the cost of this workshop ticket through the Queensland Government's Kindy Uplift program. It's best to talk to your service director to explore this further.

🎟️ BOOK: tinyurl.com/qld-compsci-jul

Event details:
🗓 WHEN: 9am-12.30pm, Tue 23 Jul
🖥 WHERE: Australian Institute of Early Childhood Studies, 56 Commercial Dr, Shailer Park QLD
🪙 COST: $215pp*

06/06/2024

🌬️ Feeling that Winter breeze? Explore wind patterns with children using “Wild is the Wind” by Grahame Baker-Smith!

The story follows a bird as it travels from Africa to Asia through all kinds of terrain — a beautiful story to ignite children’s curiosity about wind patterns and bird migration. Why not extend the children’s exploration of this book with STEM learning by asking them to:

🎨 Observe wind using their senses. For example, what noise does wind make? How does it feel on the skin?
🌲 Create wind-blown art by blowing paint around a paper using a straw.
🗺️ Make a daily weather chart, noting rain levels, wind speed, and temperature.

Explore more questions to spark STEM conversations with children: tinyurl.com/resource-wildwind

📷 Credit: Penguin Random House

Penguin Books Australia

05/06/2024

Whether you’re new to STEM or a veteran, book into our in-person STEM workshops in July and August to take your STEM teaching skills to the next level!

Our interactive workshops will develop your confidence in embedding rich STEM learning experiences into your teaching practice and allow you to network in a friendly environment. All workshops are evidence-based, align with the EYLF, and dive deep into pedagogy, group discussion, and hands-on explorations.

🤖 Computer Science Workshop, Shailer Park QLD (23 Jul)*
BOOK: tinyurl.com/qld-compsci-jul

*Your service may be able to subsidise the cost of your workshop ticket through the Queensland Government's Kindy Uplift program. It's best to talk to your service director to explore this further.

🪂 Air Workshop, Perth WA (29 Jul)
BOOK: tinyurl.com/wa-air-jul

🕹️ NESA-accredited Computer Science Workshop, Summer Hill NSW (6 Aug)
BOOK: tinyurl.com/nsw-compsci-aug

Can’t see a workshop for you? Book an in-service workshop at a time that suits your whole team: tinyurl.com/inservice-workshop

04/06/2024

Thanks Oz Education Early Learning Centres for having us at Olympic Park yesterday for our in-service Maths Workshop! 🧮 Our trainers Nicola and Ana were thrilled to explore STEM with your educators through the gateway of maths, symmetry, and pattern recognition. We love seeing everyday items like fruit, sea shells, and blocks be used to create fun, engaging maths explorations 🙌