[Research] Start STEM education way earlier: from 5 through 9
years! Posted by Bert Maes on July 28, 2010 Four researchers in
the fields of neuroscience, psychology, biology, and education
have found evidence that should transform our educational
practices in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
(STEM). Their research is demonstrating that young children have
the capacity to learn more than anyone previously imagined.
Their key finding is that acquisition of information by the
human brain is most rapid and efficient from birth to the
preteenage years. Our current pattern in formal science
education is focused on 14-16-year-olds. By this point, however,
we have entirely missed the optimal learning period for
children, and the optimal moment to get young people attracted
to science, engineering and manufacturing. The period from
kindergarten through 4th grade is “a peak window of opportunity
for teaching basic science concepts.“ According to Bayer –
regardless of gender, race or ethnicity – interes