STEM stands for: Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. These subjects all play a huge part in a child’s overall development and performance in school, so it’s important for parents to try and explore them at home. I’ve partnered with an independent school in Surrey to share with you some ideas on how to incorporate STEM subjects into your children’s everyday life!
Learning STEM outdoors
By learning outside children will be encouraged to use all of their senses which makes learning more fun and memorable for them, especially if they are a kinaesthetic learner! While exploring the great outdoors, teach your child about plants, animal habitats, the seasons, the stars and a range of other topics. Science especially can be learnt through being creative and messy outdoors which will help them to engage in the tasks more.
Learning STEM through water play
Experimenting with water and different materials is a great STEM activity for you to try with your child. See what happens when water is cooled or heated. Drop (safe) items into the bath and see which ones sink and which one’s float and ask your child if they know why. Create paper boats – a classic that I am sure everyone remembers as a child. Let your child get involved and see which one they make can hold the most weight or last the longest!
Learning STEM through creativity
Creativity is definitely the secret to STEM subjects and research proves that playing with ideas increases learning. It can also lead children to ask questions that are trickier to answer such as ‘How do planes fly?’.
Some more activities you could explore with your child at home are:
- Go outside and investigate plants, flowers and bugs! (science).
- Take photos and edit them on the computer (technology).
- Just like the paper boats, make paper aeroplanes. (engineering).
- Build structures with straws and tape (engineering).
- Build structures with marshmallows (engineering).
- Solve shaped puzzles (maths).
- Learn how to code or design graphics (technology).