Many elementary schools pay serious attention to choose the right educational approach for our children these days. It is a critical point to consider for children’s development, boosting their learning skills, and preparing a qualified workforce.
Although schools are different in their educational systems worldwide, most focus on STEM-based education or STEAM curriculum, especially elementary school students.
Integrating robotics and programming courses into the syllabus has significant advantages for the young. These benefits promote the students’ creativity, broaden their horizons through learning, and develop their cognitive skills.
This education also teaches kids to think effectively, solve problems, collaborate with their peers, and utilize logical reasoning.
So there are many merits of both STEM and STEAM education, along with coding and robotics for our kids. Let’s take a deeper look at these beneficial education programs.
What is STEM-based learning?
Education is crucial for our children, and it is essential to think about the best education for our kids. Education systems in STEM stand for Science, Technology Engineering Mathematics.
In other words, STEM is an educational approach that teaches students subjects such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. These disciplines and this program concentrates on hands-on learning and excelling necessary skills for the 21st century.
For example, the STEM program helps children become innovators through technology and science literacy and real-life applications of their knowledge.
This program boosts the child’s innovation, curiosity, problem-solving skills, and critical thinking instead of teaching only theories without application.
Surprising advantages of STEM education for the young
STEM education is an excellent opportunity for your children to explore their future careers, which involve STEM subjects.
Believe it or not, most of the jobs depend entirely on STEM subjects and computer literacy. So, the young need to start learning STEM disciplines at an early age in elementary school.
Additionally, the STEM-focused curriculum assists children to be initiative and self-confident. This educational program gives the learners chances to tackle challenges and find practical solutions to solve them.
In this way, the child learns to be a proactive initiator in handling challenges and confidently express their thoughts without fear.
Therefore, the STEM curriculum is beneficial for elementary school students by all means.
What makes STEAM education unique for our kids.
In this day and age, the world is changing dramatically. As a result, many educational institutes usually think about updating education to fit the new needs of our society and technology.
STEAM is another version of an education program to fit the new requirements of the workforce. By integrating the art among STEM subjects, children will become professional workers and get the most out of their education.
Therefore STEAM education means incorporating science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics to support children’s development.
By learning these disciplines together, this program will foster creative skills and engagement through learning designs funnily and interestingly. Moreover, STEAM-based learning boosts the
4 C’s of the 21st century. STEAM subjects help develop communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity, 4 C’s skills for success.
Advantages of STEAM education in elementary school
- STEAM education for all students: This education curriculum is universal and applicable for all learners worldwide.
All students can study STEAM subjects regardless of their nationality and culture from elementary school until high school.
- Classrooms are places for fun: By engaging in STEAM projects and art subjects, kids can enjoy hands-on learning and using visual arts.
STEAM projects help children innovate, learn to engage with other students effectively, and practice communication skills.
- Boosting academic performance: Learning scientific theories and practical applications enrich kids’ mentality and widen their early childhood perspectives.
As a consequence, their level of intelligence and educational performance will increase remarkably.
Programming courses integration
Nowadays, coding and algorithms are involving in many areas of our life.
So, of course, programming courses will continue to increase in demand in the future.
So the significant importance of programming, many schools are incorporating coding classes in their curricula.
These coding classes are designed for each age group starting from kindergarten until high school.
It is necessary to teach kids coding in early childhood because of its remarkable benefits for children. So let’s talk about some coding programs for kids.
- Scratch Junior (ScratchJr): It is an introductory programming course for kids to understand the basics of programming through graphical blocks. In this way, your children can edit, move characters up and down to build their desired games.
- Scratch: Scratch Foundation designed SCRATCH to teach children coding. Students can use Scratch in schools across STEM subjects and other social studies and language arts courses. By doing so, children can boost their creativity, problem-solving skills and share their creations with their peers online.
Robotics learning for our kids.
Robotics play a significant role in STEM education by making subjects easier.
Using robotics for education can encourage kids to learn more, boost their math skills, and allow them to study CS.
Not only this but also learning robotics itself is advantageous to your child.
Studying robotics helps children to develop their memories, foster their teamwork skills and innovation.
Here are some examples of robots for the young.
- Bee-Bot: Kids can easily use this friendly robot to learn sequencing and the basics of coding. Bee-bot also allows children to learn debugging and creating programs. Additionally, this yellow robot promotes the problem- solving, logical reasoning, and practice predictions.
- Ozobot: 74% of educators integrate this robot with the teaching process to surge the learners’ engagement in the classroom. This robot is movable and easy to carry during studying independently or in the classrooms. Additionally, kids can learn STEAM, CS, and coding via this robot. Ozobot also provides hands-on classes through Hybrid Program regardless of the children’s location, whether at their homes or classrooms.
- Edison: Children can use this programable robot as STEM teaching materials for robotics and programming. This robot also has sensors and systems that help children study across many disciplines, such as science and design thinking. In addition, the Edison robot allows kids to design their programs and get feedback in a fun way. This engaging learning process teaches students critical thinking and debugging.
Final Thoughts
- Schooling is an essential part of our lives, starting from early childhood until graduation from university.
- Proper education should begin at an early age.
- Children should learn what makes their future and career better in elementary school.
- Through STEAM education in elementary schools, they can have fun while developing important projects and acquiring vast knowledge.
- These advantages curricula impact positively on children’s mentality and help them to acquire the fundamental skills.
- Both STEM curriculum and STEAM-based learning prepare children to become future innovators and leaders.
- Children should also study coding and algorithms to boost their creativity and develop their academic qualifications.
- Kids can understand how to design robots or use educational robots to study STEM subjects with learning robotics.
Related topics.
Teach computing in primary school helps STEAM abilities
Learning through Robotics: Why and when?
Coding Lessons for kids: A good place to start
Ola Abdalla, MSc
Professional and top-rated writer on Upwork.com.Proven expertise in copywriting, content writing, and academic writing. Love writing and scientific research.
Email: ola-abdalla@frontier.hokudai.ac.jp