Facilitating the construction of Precursor Models through Early STEAM Education

MICHALIS IOANNOU

Abstract

This article examines the development and construction of precursor models through STEAM education in Early Childhood Science Education settings. More specifically, it discusses and analyzes the connections of precursor models in activities that follow the Engineering Design Process and link thermal phenomena and other Science concepts with everyday situations and challenges that young children are called upon to solve. It appears that through appropriately designed STEAM activities - utilizing physical experiments, digital experiments-games, drawings, and music-movement games - children are able to construct, initially, precursor models for individual phenomena, such as melting or condensation, and subsequently to construct wider precursor models, directly connected to nature and their experiences, for the water cycle. In this way, the connections between individual precursor models become evident, as does their utilization by children in order to synthesize and construct more complex and elaborate precursor models. 

Keywords

Precursor models, STEAM, Engineering Design Process, water state changes, Early Childhood Science Education

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References

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.26220/mje.5625

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