At New Shoots Tauranga, the creative minds, inquisitive nature, and collaborative spirit of our tamariki drive an inspiring approach towards their learning. Through captivating STEM sessions and hands-on project work, we empower every child to actively participate in their own educational journey, exploring, creating, and discovering together. This STEM-focused lens encourages tamariki to take ownership of their learning, transforming shared ideas into meaningful experiences that highlight the power of STEM learning in early childhood education.
What is STEM?
STEM is an acronym which stands for, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, an approach to education that integrates these fields through hands-on, problem or inquiry-based learning.
How We Bring STEM Learning to Life at New Shoots Tauranga
STEM sessions are tailored by the passionate and inspiring preschool kaiako at New Shoots Tauranga, showing how STEM learning in early childhood education can grow naturally from tamariki-led curiosity. The sessions follow the current interests and learning goals of the tamariki, explored through a STEM lens. This allows for greater learning opportunities for all the tamariki involved throughout the project as the project follows where the tamariki take it.
By working in collaboration with all the preschool tamariki at New Shoots Tauranga, a golden thread in their interests was found. Our STEM sessions were established and embedded into our curriculum based around this golden thread. As a result, the learning journey is significant as it means something to the tamariki.
Tamariki experience a learning environment where they get to be hands-on, interacting and being active participants during these STEM sessions. This allows them to explore and engage with the project, learning in their own time and at their own pace. Throughout the experiments, our tamariki collaborate with their peers and kaiako as they refine their working theories through trial and error, problem solving and asking questions to further develop their knowledge and understanding.
What does a STEM session look like at New Shoots Tauranga?
A recent STEM session at New Shoots Tauranga was centred around water, as this is our current golden thread found amongst the interests of our tamariki. We created a STEM experiment with a maths lens for the tamariki which included careful manipulation of the tools provided, such as pipettes, measuring spoons and jugs. The tamariki had to fill their test tube to a predetermined mark and then make a prediction about how many marbles it would take to make the water overflow out of the top of the test tube. Through number recognition, tamariki then circled their predication on the paper provided. Next, the tamariki started to add marbles to their test tube and counted as they went. We had some amazing predications where the tamariki got the exact number and some others that were so close!
Scientific concepts were weaved throughout our STEM sessions by applying principles such as water displacement and employing terminology including estimate, predict, experiment, and outcome.
This STEM session links to the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki the early childhood curriculum of Aotearoa New Zealand. Tamariki experienced an environment where they were increasing capable of playing, imagining, inventing and experimenting as well as using a range of strategies for reasoning and problem solving
As the tamariki are participating in the experiment, their ideas, questions and statements are all written into the project book. Photos are taken of the tamariki who are engaged in the experience and then later the tamariki cut these and glue them into the same pages. This allows them to revisit and discuss their learning, sharing the knowledge that we have co-constructed together.
How STEM Learning Helps Tamariki Transition to School
As tamariki actively participate and engage in our STEM sessions and associated project work, through their natural curiosity and creativity they are continually developing and expanding their language and communication skills. With these skills, the tamariki learn to articulate ideas, ask questions and explain their reasoning, which supports literacy in the classroom. They discover maths and, through mathematical thinking, learn concepts such as counting and measuring. Finally, our STEM sessions encourage problem-solving, critical thinking, and experimentation skills we believe are essential for school learning.
STEM sessions ease the transition to school by blending play with purposeful learning. Our purposefully curated STEM sessions help to build cognitive, social, and emotional skills while fostering curiosity, confidence, and a love for discovery—showing the value of STEM learning in early childhood education and setting tamariki up for success not only in the classroom but as lifelong learners.
Written by Saul Gaylard – Preschool Team Leader at New Shoots Children Centre Tauranga
About New Shoots Tauranga
New Shoots Tauranga is a modern, purpose-built early childhood centre nestled next to the city’s main thoroughfare on Cameron Road. Opposite the hospital and close to the city’s downtown core, we offer a convenient location for hospital staff, local workers and out-of-town commuters alike.
To read more about our centre visit our page or book a tour here
Read about our Centre Director, Jen on our blog.