Space exploration is intrinsically interesting to young learners. Children gaze at the stars and marvel at what it might be like to live "out there!" With the July 2020 launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover mission, and its landing in 2021, there is no better time to capitalize on engineering and science in the news. This mission is…

Electricity is an integral part of daily life. Children, like adults, infer the effects of electrical conductivity. They see the illumination of a lightbulb or feel the emission of warmth from an electric stovetop but may not understand the role electrical circuits play. Focusing on the concrete aspects of electrical energy transfer helps improve…

The United States is home to a culturally and linguistically diverse population of young children. In 2017, 10% of U.S. learners came from homes where languages other than English are spoken. Students who are learning English in addition to their native language(s) have the opportunity to become bilingual or multilingual in school. Thus, rather…

Robotics is emerging as an effective strategy for bridging the gap between technology and engineering design in early childhood classrooms (Bers, Seddighin, and Sullivan 2013). Using a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) grant received from the authors' school, they purchased a KIBO-18 set from KinderLab Robotics…

This article describes an early childhood lesson that integrated science, technology, art, social studies, math, and language. The authors' students compared robots, programmed and created stories with robots, and became robot-inventors. They also imagined how their robot-creations might impact the world--a core idea related to Science, Technology…

In an ever-increasing technological society, teachers have now, more than ever, a vast offering of educational technologies made available for classroom use. However, the time necessary for vetting and developing rigorous lessons with the usage of such technologies can be overwhelming for a classroom teacher. Still, teachers need the opportunity…

Young children are full citizens. They have full rights to use their "hundred languages," hands, and thoughts to contribute to the field of science. The founder of the Reggio Emilia approach, Loris Malaguzzi, emphasizes in his famous poem that every child has a hundred ways of discovering the world and a hundred worlds to invent. Today's…

Teachers have the daunting task of preparing students for a future that they cannot predict. In an age of information where students have the world quite literally at their fingertips, and with the ever-growing momentum of integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), it is not enough that students experience STEM subjects…

In a kindergarten classroom, exclamations like "Oh no!" may be causes for concern. However, when the students in Mrs. Grabia's classroom shouted "Oh no!" and "Uh oh!" during an engineering-infused 5E lesson, it meant that a persistent little robot had pushed its way out of the fences they had created. It also meant…

Because students have often been conditioned as passive learners and receivers of knowledge, it can be difficult for them to persevere in solving authentic problems. Nevertheless, teachers must persist in preparing students as problem solvers and critical thinkers. In an urban inner-city neighborhood school in the southeast, students embarked on a…

In order to prepare students to become the next innovators, teachers need to provide real-world challenges that allow children to exercise their innovation muscles. Innovation starts with a problem and innovators work to solve a problem by planning, creating, and testing. The real-world innovation process does not happen on a worksheet, and it…

To capture students' excitement and engage their interest in rocketships and visiting planets in the solar system, the author designed lessons that give students the opportunity to experience the joys and challenges of developing straw rockets, and then observing which design can travel the longest distance. The lessons are appropriate for…

Introduces a project for elementary school students in which students build a robot by following instructions and then write a computer program to run their robot by using LabView graphical development software. Uses ROBOLAB curriculum which is designed for grade levels K-12. (YDS)

Sixth graders built working "robots" (or grasping bars) for remote control use during a unit on simple mechanics. Steps for making a robot are presented, including: cutting the wood, drilling and nailing, assembling the jaws, and making them work. The "jaws," used to pick up objects, illustrate principles of levers. (DH)

Presents activities for K-4 students that explore two areas of body mechanics--bones and joints--with an emphasis on the human hand. Relates knowledge of how the body functions to comparable examples in robotics such as the "hand" of the Canadarm of the space shuttle. Activities are geared for students in pairs. (AIM)