STEM Play in Schools
Why STEM-Play?
Play is one of humanities’ highest achievements, alongside language, culture and technology. It is central to our biological makeup and our evolutionary history. While we know intuitively that laughing moments and holidays heal us, we relegate play to personal rather than professional lives. Work is often serious, but play is not.
Let's Play.
Play offers an opportunity to explore our world in our own time and space thus brings joy and wonder, curiosity and exploration, imagination and creativity.
Play supports not only intellectual achievement, but also emotional well-being. Play may stimulate development, but it may also be undertaken for no reason, other than it feels good.
Thinking
Tamariki will develop their thinking by using creative, explorative and curious processes to make sense of their experiences, thoughts and ideas.
The importance of play is well documented. It develops personality, supports interpersonal relations, stimulates creativity, brings joy and advances learning. Play reveals what we know and what we’re curious about. It motivates us to learn. Play helps us develop problem solving and social skills, become more organised, become more empathetic, and nurture our creativity.
Managing Self
STEM-play requires tamariki to be self-motivated, and provides opportunities for tamariki to develop a “can-do” attitude.
Play around the STEM subjects is particularly important, as the current and future workforce needs to develop integrated and interdisciplinary understandings, and transferable skills and competencies. Rather than focusing on specific skill development, STEM-play encourages innovation, design, creativity, and curiosity.
Relating to Others
Some STEM-play activities will be individual, but tamariki may also choose to work together on projects or creations.
In New Zealand, education must cater to tamariki with a diverse range of cultural and socio economic backgrounds, as well as differing learning needs. What’s more, teachers are dealing with increasing social and emotional challenges in tamariki, such as bullying, truancy, and negative attitudes towards school. STEM-play promotes learning for everyone by catering for prior knowledge, language and various ways of making sense of the world. Its play-based learning philosophy overcomes stress, pressure and failure. It enables children to be themselves, to learn and grow in their own space, and to be curious in and about their learning.