Description: Early childhood teachers continue to seek activities that promote STEM-based learning. But most STEM books focus on science and math, excluding technology and engineering. Creative Investigations in Early Engineering and Technology helps teachers create a more well-rounded STEM learning program.
Brief description:
Angela Eckhoff, PhD, is an associate professor of Teaching and Learning-Early Childhood Education and director of the Virginia Early Childhood Policy Center at Old Dominion University. She holds a dual PhD from the University of Colorado-Boulder in educational psychology and cognitive science. She is a coeditor of the Full STEAM Ahead column for Teaching Young Children from NAEYC. Dr. Eckhoff studies the role of creativity in child development and learning, arts-based research and pedagogical practices, and early STEAM learning in both classroom and museum settings.
Review Quotes: Thoughtfully crafted for teachers and caregivers who seek to observe, support, guide, and facilitate young children's explorations, playful engagement, and creativity in STEAM-based activities (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, & Mathematics), Dr. Angela Eckhoff shares design-thinking lessons that can be used in classrooms, care-based, and home-based settings. Referencing standards & recommended practices from national entities supporting young children (NAEYC), technology integration (ISTE), and science teaching (NextGen from National Academies Press), this book includes over 25 activities that support children's experiences with engineering design through focus on force/motion/movement, sound/light/shadow, and construction, as well as active engagement with technology for knowledge/innovation (e.g., coding explorations), and communication/collaboration (e.g., artistic creation, tinkering, storytelling).
In each chapter, Dr. Eckhoff includes a quick overview of the STEAM content focus (e.g., force and motion), reviews basic scientific information, lists key concepts and guiding questions to share with young children and shares lesson activities and classroom examples. Large group, small group, paired, and individual activities are included, and each chapter ends with a brief list of related fiction and non-fiction children's literature, all of which could be used with preschoolers, or with slight modifications, for kindergarteners and first graders. Teachers and caregivers will appreciate the simple, hands-on, play-based activities can be quickly implemented to get children experimenting, problem-solving, and creating. Program directors and curriculum planners could also use this text as a resource in early childhood teacher trainings, offering teachers opportunities to engage in playful scientific experimentation, and then using those experiences to support teachers' further activity creations for students. This little gem of a book is a great resource to support children's play, creativity, and learning across STEAM topics.--Dr. Holly Carrell Moore "https: //www.arlingtondfwchildcare.org/" (3/26/2018 12:00:00 AM)