Research On Practice Of Preschool STEM Education In Corner Activities

More and more studies have proved that STEM education has its unique significance and value in early childhood.Young children need STEM experience,and they also have the ability to gain from STEM activities.Therefore,"STEM boom"shows up in early childhood education.Lots of teachers have no idea of how to organize STEM activities because there does not yet have a sound STEM education system for young children in China.This study designed and organized several STEM corner activities from the perspective of "novice teacher" who has no experience in STEM education,and shard some useful tips.Referring to the guiding principles in the Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework,this study sorted out the connotation and main points of STEM education in early childhood,explored the connection between early childhood STEM education and corner activities,summarized the main points that effective STEM corner activities should have,which are:integration of two or more STEM subjects;activity context and materials should closely related to children's lives,and should be interesting;each of the child must become the master of every STEM corner activity.This study interviewed 12 teachers from "J" kindergarten on the purpose of finding the difficulties these teachers think they may have and the help they would like to receive in organizing STEM activities.In order to verify that it is more convenient to conduct STEM education in corner activities and find out the common problems in them,five STEM corner activities were selected from different activity areas.Two teachers with rich teaching experience were invited to observe all the activity processes using an evaluation tool named UTOP designed by UTeach Center in the United States.At the end of the article,the study shared some useful experiences of how to creating a STEM learning atmosphere,integrating STEM subjects,selecting activity content,and designing the activity process.Also the study summarized the problems of the activity with reference to the diagnosis of UTOP tools,and also discussed the advantages of STEM education in corner activities.Based on the theoretical results and practical experience obtained during the entire research process,there are some suggestions for STEM corner activities for preschool teachers,namely:integrating on the basis of understanding the connotation of early childhood STEM education;Enhance the delight of activities by fully understanding children;creating a context based on children's real life and explain the application of activity content in life;let children be surrounded by a well prepared environment atmosphere to mobilize children's enthusiasm.Specific suggestions were also provided to administrators in Kindergarten on how to improve teachers' STEM professionalism and creating a appropriate STEM education atmosphere.