Antonia Passalacqua
Phi Sigma Sigma
FL

Guest Editorial: How to Integrate STEM Into Early Childhood Education

Sun, Nov 26, 2017 11:35 PM
Importance of STEM education

This article is a really good read if you're interested in STEM education, and how important it is for early childhood education. Through the article I learned that young children usually show interest in STEM in their pre-k years while they are playing with blocks, and different puzzles. These skills are important for brain development. Early support of STEM education will support diverse growth across many areas. The technology revolution made it imperative for children to start learn STEM subjects. A normal misconception about STEM is that most educators and parents think that STEM is only available and taught, or even introduced to older generations. However, we must implement these interests in the respective subjects at an early age.

Research Resources- How Humans Can Change Environments Collection

Sun, Nov 26, 2017 10:26 PM
“How Humans can change environments” Collection b

Janice’s first resource in her collection consists of a Sci pack. This sci pack is all about how humans act as agents of change in science. This sci pack consists of different aspects that affect the world around us like gravity, miners, rivers. The concept is essentially, how these aspects are humanly contaminated and how the effects of this ripple down to the community around us. The concepts also include learning about floods, landslides, rock falls etc. It also includes teaching about the soil and how the earths surface has changed over time. Her second resource is interdependence of life: Organization and Their Environment. We did this Sci Pack as a class, It would have been nice to see another alternative Sci Pack. Regardless, this resource still directly relations to the changing of seasons and the cycle of earth, which are concepts that students in elementary need to know anyhow. These concepts are important be aware of the different organisms that live in the world around us. Her third resource is another science object that talks about the earth as an entire system. This sci pack gives information on the different organisms but how each organism affects different world systems as a whole. This sci pack states different population variations and carrying capacity of the ecosystems. The fourth resource, continues on the topic of human growth. This sci pack consists of populations growth, the effects of technology on population and how humans effect the environment. This activity is directly online just like the other activities. This resource also explores how technology can help ecosystems and improve them directly linking to human interaction. The 5th resource is an article within a chapter. It is called Social Studies: Humans and the outdoors. This chapter is based on different outdoor learning experiences that you can teach to students for them to grasp the concept of humans interacting with land and how this effects us. This chapter helps students create connections between different subjects such as social studies and science. The last resource in this collection is Teaching through trade books: Humans and the Earth. This resource is journal article based on different activities that you can engaged children in with the earths natural processes. All in all this collection definitely embodies the concept on how humans can change environments. It is a very well thought out resourceful collection that will be a good reference in the future.