ECSTEM 2019

Last week I attended the ECSTEM conference for the first time. Ever since I heard about it I was so interested since it was especially about my current interests - Early childhood and STEM.

My takeaways from the conference are:

  • STEM can be integrated into all subject areas.
  • SEL can be supported through STEM activities.
  • Problem solving and other competencies can be developed through STEM experiences.
  • STEM activities can be planned with ordinary materials we have laying around the school or house.
  • STEM and play go hand-in-hand.
  • Importance of asking WH questions when working with students and STEM.
  • Engineering builds strong life-long skills.
In general I saw much representation of Science (S), Arts (A), and Engineering (E), a little less of Math (M), but no Technology (T) at all. With technology I mean robotics and coding. In fact, I was in disbelief when I learned that there would be no wifi available in the conference rooms. Well, that was how it turned out to be. In fact, there truly was no need for it since all the sessions were hands-on and about experiences teachers have had with STEM in their schools.


I also participated as co-presenter on the topic STEM Play Experiences in Preschool, which is what we've been doing in school for the last two school years. In this session we shared the process we went through to incorporate STEM play time in preschool and then had the teachers experience an activity themselves. It was a lot of fun and the reflection time at the end was quite enriching for all of us. 


I look forward to attending again, but this time, I'd like to share unplugged coding activities I do with the kids, that fortunately don't require wifi :)

Cheers!

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