Bringing STEM into the early childhood setting is so important for kid's development! Today we speak with Kym Simoncini and Matt Bacon as they describe the work being done by Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) project to help 100 centres from across Australia use apps and picture books for help preschoolers understand patterns, map making, encoding and decoding, and investigations.

Hosted by Ben Newsome from Fizzics Education

More about ELSA - Early Learning STEM Australia

https://elsa.edu.au/

Introduction to ELSA - with Luke Carroll: https://vimeo.com/365204653

STEM Education Research Centre (SERC):

https://serc.edu.au/

STEM Practices

https://serc.edu.au/stem-practices/

Experience, Represent, Apply Framework

https://serc.edu.au/experience-represent-apply-era-heuristic/

STEM Booklist:

https://serc.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/STEM-Booklist_Publishing-040518.pdf

More about Kym Simoncini

Kym Simoncini is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood and Primary Education at the University of Canberra. 

Kym is a key part of the Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) project team. She is responsible for the Families’ app and educator professional learning. Kym has also written four companion picture books to be used with the four children’s apps. These books focus on patterns, map making, encoding and decoding, and investigations.

Kym regularly delivers professional learning for preschool and early childhood teachers centred on STEM in the early years. Much of Kym’s other research is located in Papua New Guinea, investigating family learning, elementary education and play.

More about Matt Bacon

Matt works in the STEM Education Research Centre at the University of Canberra. He is the research project manager for the Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) program.

He has over 17 years experience in higher education working in technology-enhanced learning, educational design, user experience design and curriculum development.

He has worked on research projects in augmented and virtual reality, learning spaces and design thinking.

About the FizzicsEd Podcast

With interviews with leading science educators and STEM thought leaders, this science education podcast is about highlighting different ways of teaching kids within and beyond the classroom. It's not just about educational practice & pedagogy, it's about inspiring new ideas & challenging conventions of how students can learn about their world!

https://www.fizzicseducation.com.au/

Know an educator who'd love this STEM podcast episode? 

Share it!

The FizzicsEd podcast is a member of the Australian Educators Online Network (AEON )

http://www.aeon.net.au/