Students training to be early childhood and early elementary teachers often see STEAM tools as intimidating in teaching--hands-on robots helped them.

Getting pre-service teachers comfortable using and teaching with STEAM tools


Students training to be early childhood and early elementary teachers often see STEAM as intimidating--here’s how working hands-on with robots showed them how much they already knew

Key points:

  • Hands-on learning can build teacher-students' STEAM confidence
  • Using real-world tools to prepare students for the workforce
  • These study methods play a key role in student success
  • For more news on STEAM, visit eCN's Teaching & Learning hub

In my fall 3rd-year “STEM in Early Childhood” class, I noticed a common trend: The pre-service teachers, who were all women, shared a stereotypical belief that they were not math or science people, and therefore not equipped to teach STEAM. I typically assign a hefty 20-page final project in my STEM course, but I decided to take a more playful and hands-on approach for this group of students. My motivation was simple: I wanted to help the class build confidence in teaching STEAM concepts.

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