The STEM of sticks

I had the experience of listening to an Educational Consultant from Natural learning this week,
Niki Buchan hosted by ako, presented a workshop about being a STEM Detective to a group of teachers in Takapuna on Tuesday.

I just wanted to share some of the concept that either stuck in my head or they reminded me of why my teaching practise is the way it is.
A lot of what Niki shared struck a chord because I"m usually there for the under dog, the misfit, the ones that think differently.
I didn't achieve well in my school education, not at primary, Secondary or High school, I left school after failing a majority of 5th form for the second year in a row and only walked away with 5th English and 5th form Art.

I was that child that took a longer period of time to understand the subject matter  and just as I adjusted and felt confident then it would be time to change.
Even now I think of questions after the workshops are finished, or I think of a response to say to someone after they have walked away.
I have so many memories of my learning environments but very few memories of subject matter, its not surprising i've ended up being an outdoor educator.

 The biggest factor that started my career as an Early Childhood Educator is that from my own lack of concentration I can recognise the pattern of children that can't concentrate and that motivates me to get to know them and show them I am the learner and I am interested in learning about them.
Once a relationship has grown then there whole holistic learning takes over.
Lilian Katz once spoke in Auckland for a workshop and she said if you have a group of children playing together and someone is really disrupting them don't help them to get rid of the disruption, work with the child causing the disruption so they can join in with the playing.

We don't need to teach children that misfits don't belong, we need to teach children that misfits think differently from us and if we get to know them we might learn a new way of thinking.

Its makes me so very sad when adults classify a child due to there behaviour, behaviours are not a personality and anything that can be learnt can change, maybe they can't unlearn it because its there but there are so many other tools that children can learn to change behaviours.

So STEM =Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths


Niki got me thinking about the STEM of sticks!

Some educators look horrified when a child picks up a stick, naturally a stick needs a friend to stick around with.
Sticks are great to clash, sticks just embed contact don't they.
If you have a stick and someone else has a stick, well there is a game straight away.
Thats the beauty of sticks, just make some rules if you feel worried or you experience fear by watching stick contacts.
Its okay for sticks to contact other sticks, its not okay for sticks to contact the body.
How much space does your stick need?
How long are your arms?
Lets measure the distance from your shoulder to end of the stick, how long do you think that is?
How much space do you think that is?
Look in-between all the different trees and estimate which space in-between is the longest.
Want to be precise, get a rope and measure it out.
There is your STEM concepts.
I am actually exaggerating because most of the time you do not need to even suggest all this because children naturally experiment with there bodies.

Another great point was that our Children's Worlds are rapidly changing..........
So we want our children to think on their feet....
We need there minds open to change....
We need children to hypothesise.....
and so much more.

Please take a minute to listen to this radio interview, there are some really easy terms that link to STEM or project work.

Noted early childhood specialist Lilian Katz worries that when children spend too much time engaged in activities and exercises that they don’t really understand, their confidence in their intellect is undermined. As a result, many children come to think of school as irrelevant. Discover what Dr. Katz means when she says it’s not whether academics matter, but when. 
https://shar.es/aabBgq