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Engineering is good for Early learners- Five reasons why they should be engaged in it
Problem-solving is essential to engineering. Engineers are constantly on the lookout for a better way to do things. — Dinesh Paliwal
With Engineering, the process is really what is important.
After 3 years of STEM advocacy and spreading STEM awareness; I have emphasized the E in STEM a lot due to my Engineering background and yet I still get the feeling that a feeling that in the early years- Creche and Kindergarten years; teachers neglect the E in STEM because it is deemed to be too much work. Yet, they fail to realize that these younger ones can benefit from modified lessons that target problem solving and creation for these younger ones.
In modifying lessons for my STEM Bootcamp program in 2018, I had a lot of younger learners and had to return back to the drawing board for them. I asked myself the question; what does Engineering entail? I had to set aside the popular notion that Engineering is all about just building. I stared at a pictograph that I had used previously for a STEM week program for a Creche and Kindergarten school at Lekki, Lagos. When we worked with the little ones, we depicted the Engineering process through the activities we carried out as involving several steps from inquiry (asking questions) to deciding if the child’s creation (design) solves the challenge. It is in its entirety an immersive creative process. It is over and over asking “What if” to every situation presented in the challenge.
From my research, I discovered that the Engineering curriculum design parameters, as put together by Dr. Christine Cunningham, founding director at Museum of Science, Boston, could be adapted for early education. Focusing on six of Cunningham’s parameters we discover-:
- Relatable storyline:Getting children to review real-world problems that are relatable to a variety of learners. In our context here in Nigeria, it can be as simple as getting rid of the plastic waste that is found everywhere and is difficult to dispose of. The aim is to dwell upon is to build the children’s compassion for someone else and boost them with the self esteem of problem solvers.
- Hacking the Engineering design process: With our early learners, I have deduced that it requires three steps: explore, create, improve. Children should be given the freedom to be curious and create as any simulations as they desire as possible. Older children for the most part reflect and analyze whether they get solutions right or wrong; younger ones move from one situation to another with little time in between. The roles of parents or teachers in their lives, rather than assessing critically, is to support them by asking questions which should lead them to their own assumptions.
- Discovery and Exploration is natural for them-:Early learners arenatural explorers! They love to touch, squish, and test the properties of different items. They also love to talk about all that they learn over and over. Encouraging these tendencies is necessary for the Engineering process which is centered upon inquiry and exploration.
- 4.Teamwork:It is better for interpersonal skills to be embedded at these young ages as one of the critical skills of the 21st century is collaboration. Enabling our early learners to work in pairs or small groups means that they learn how to express their ideas to each other and work toward a common
5.Ownership : Children of all ages are more invested in the learning when their work impacts the outcome immediately. This occursfrom allowing children to direct the project they are given to carry out and decide on their own the course they should take.
Ultimately, we move away from trying to move children to what we believe is the “right answer.” In fact, majority of engineering activities have multiple solutions and allow for failure.
My favourite step of the process is the improve step; it enables children to develop and explore and retain the sense of resilience when designs fail.
In traditional education, failure is not an acceptable option…but in engineering, failure is embraced with open arms; as it is part of the process.
What remains in the back of my mind as critical is to realize our learners, our designers, our engineers, never fail. Only designs fail.
Adetola Salau; Global Educator / International Speaker / Author/ Social Entrepreneur/ Innovative Thinker/Future Readiness Advocate/ STEM Certified Trainer
She is an Advocate of STEM Education and is Passionate about Education reform. She is an innovative thinker and strives for our society & continent as a whole to reclaim it’s greatness.
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