SECOND EDITION Teaching Problem Skills Th -Solving rough --- ## FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer # Engaging Young Engineers Excerpted from "Engaging Young Engineers: Teaching Problem-Solving Skills Through STEM, Second Edition" by Angi Stone-MacDonald, Ph.D., Kristen Wendell, Ph.D., Anne Douglass, Ph.D., Mary Lu Love, M.S., Amanda Wiehe Lopes, Ph.D. Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 1 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 1 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- FOR MORE, go to: Engaging Young Engineers Teaching Problem-Solving Skills Through STEM Skills Through STEM by by Angi Stone-MacDonald, Ph.D. Professor & Chair of Special Education California State University, San Bernardino Kristen Wendell, Ph.D. Associate Professor Tufts University Anne Douglass, Ph.D. Professor University of Massachusetts, Boston Mary Lu Love, M.S. Retired Lecturer & Director University of Massachusetts, Boston Baltimore • London • Sydney and Amanda Wiehe Lopes, Ph.D. Learning and Quality Improvement Manager --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer **Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.** Post Office Box 10624 Baltimore, Maryland 21285-0624 USA www.brookespublishing.com Copyright © 2024 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Previous edition copyright © 2015. “Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.” is a registered trademark of Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. Typeset by Progressive Publishing Services, York, Pennsylvania. Manufactured in the United States of America by Sheridan Books, Inc. The individuals described in this book are composites or real people whose situations are masked and are based on the authors’ experiences. In all instances, names and identifying details have been changed to protect confidentiality. Purchasers of Engaging Young Engineers: Teaching Problem-Solving Skills Through STEM, Second Edition are granted permission to download, print, and photocopy the Appendices in the text for educational purposes. These forms may not be reproduced to generate revenue for any program or individual. Photocopies may only be made from an original book. Unauthorized use beyond this privilege may be prosecutable under federal law. You will see the copyright protection notice at the bottom of each photocopiable page. Photographs are used by permission of the individuals pictured and/or their parents/guardians. Photographs in Figures 3.3, 3.4, 4.3, 4.4, and 6.3 by Kristen Wendell. All other photographs by K.A. MacDonald (www.kamacdonaldphoto.com). **Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data** Names: Stone-MacDonald, Angela, author. | Wendell, Kristen, author. | Douglass, Anne, author. | Love, Mary Lu, author. | Lopes, Amanda Wiehe, author. Title: Engaging young engineers : teaching problem-solving skills through STEM / Angi Stone-MacDonald, Ph.D., Professor & Chair of Special Education, California State University, San Bernardino; Kristen Wendell, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Tufts University; Anne Douglass, Ph.D., Professor, University of Massachusetts, Boston; Mary Lu Love, M.S., Retired Lecturer & Director, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Amanda Wiehe Lopes, Ph.D., Learning and Quality Improvement Manager, University of Massachusetts, Boston. Description: Second edition. | Baltimore : Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., [2024] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2023039574 | ISBN 9781681257495 (paperback) | ISBN 9781681257501 (epub) | ISBN 9781681257518 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Science--Study and teaching (Early childhood)—United States. | Technology--Study and teaching (Early childhood)—United States. | Engineering--Study and teaching (Early childhood)— United States. | Mathematics--Study and teaching (Early childhood)—United States. Classification: LCC LB1139.5.S35 S86 2024 | DDC 507.1--dc23/eng/20230830 LC record available at [https://lccn.loc.gov/2023039574](https://lccn.loc.gov/2023039574) British Library Cataloguing in Publication data are available from the British Library. 2028 2027 2026 2025 2024 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 4 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 4 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- FOR MORE, go to: Contents About the Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix A Note to the Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii Why Engineering and Problem Solving Are Important in Early Childhood Inclusive Classrooms ..... 1 1 Young Children Are Natural Problem Solvers: A Framework Overview ..... 3 2 Universal Design for Learning to Support Engineering Experiences in Inclusive Early Childhood Settings.....21 Using the Problem-Solving Framework to Teach Thinking Skills in Inclusive Early Childhood Settings.....37 3 Curious Thinkers ..... 39 4 Persistent Thinkers ..... 63 5 Flexible Thinkers ..... --- FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer MORE, vi Appendix A Early Childhood UDL Planning Sheet: Infants (Sample) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 B Early Childhood UDL Planning Sheet: Toddlers (Sample) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 C Early Childhood UDL Planning Sheet: Preschoolers (Sample) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 D Early Childhood UDL Planning Sheet: Blank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 E Infant Experience Planning Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 F Toddler Experience Planning Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 G Preschool Experience Planning Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 H General Materials List for Low-Cost/ No-Cost STEM Materials for Early Childhood Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 --- ## FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer # About the Downloads Purchasers of this book may download, print, and/or photocopy the Appendices for educational use. To access the materials that come with this book: 1. Go to the Brookes Publishing Download Hub: [http://downloads.brookespublishing](http://downloads.brookespublishing) .com 2. Register to create an account (or log in with an existing account). 3. Filter or search for the book title Engaging Young Engineers: Teaching Problem-Solving *Skills Through STEM, Second Edition.* vii Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 7 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 7 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- ## FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer # About the Authors **Angi Stone-MacDonald, Ph.D., Professor, Chair of Special Education, Rehabilitation, and** Counseling Department, California State University, San Bernardino Dr. Stone-MacDonald is a professor and chair for the Special Education, Rehabilitation, and Coun- seling Department at California State University, San Bernardino. Dr. Angi Stone-MacDonald earned her doctorate from Indiana University in Special Education and African Studies, where she studied the role of culturally relevant curriculum and cultural beliefs about disabilities in the experiences of children with developmental disabilities at a special school in Tanzania. Dr. Stone- MacDonald has worked with children and adults with disabilities for the past two decades as a paraprofessional, teacher, consultant, and researcher, including most recently as a faculty mem- ber. Prior to moving to California State University, San Bernardino, she worked at the Univer- sity of Massachusetts, Boston in the College of Education and Human Development and Early Education and Care in Inclusive Settings Program for 12 years. Her areas of research include early intervention, young children with autism, international inclusive education, and educator preparation for early intervention and early childhood special education. Dr. Stone-MacDonald serves her field and children and families with disabilities at the local, state, and national lev- els on a variety of committees and projects. She has been actively involved in state and local committees, organizations, and grant work with the state government to promote inclusion and adequate teacher preparation to work with children with disabilities in early childhood. She also taught STEM early childhood educator preparation courses and participated in STEM grants with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She has published several articles and four books highlighting inclusive education and early childhood special education. **Kristen Wendell, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Tufts University, Medford, MA** Dr. Wendell is an associate professor of mechanical engineering and education at Tufts Univer- sity. She received a B.S. in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University, an M.S. in aeronautics and astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a Ph.D. in science education from Tufts University. Dr. Wendell’s teaching and research interests include teacher education in science and engineering, the integration of engineering design into children’s learning experiences, and knowledge building communities in undergraduate engi- neering education. An NSF CAREER award winner, she serves as PI or co-PI on NSF-funded projects that investigate curriculum and instructional supports for inclusive knowledge con- struction by engineering learners. Major projects emphasize community-based engineering cur- ricula and professional development, engineering classroom discourse, design notebooking, undergraduate learning assistants, and responsive teaching for engineering. Kristen is an asso- ciate editor for the Journal of Engineering Education. She teaches courses in design, mechanics, electronics, and engineering education. Wendell previously served as assistant professor in the ix Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 9 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 9 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer x About the Authors College of Education and Human Development at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She was a graduate policy fellow at the National Academy of Engineering in Washington, D.C., and a research assistant in aerospace engineering at the Man-Vehicle Lab at MIT. **Anne Douglass, Ph.D., Professor, Executive Director, University of Massachusetts, Boston** Dr. Douglass is a professor of Early Childhood Education and founding executive director at the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation at the University of Massachu- setts Boston. Dr. Douglass’s research and teaching focus on leadership and quality improve- ment. She has significant experience in designing, evaluating and overseeing innovative quality improvement and professional development interventions and projects in the ECE sector, with particular expertise in quality improvement and leadership in center-based, family child care, and Head Start settings. She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in early childhood STEM education and served as the principal investigator on a professional development project to promote STEM teaching and learning with children from birth to age 5. Dr. Douglass brings almost 20 years of expertise as an early educator to this work, including as a teacher of children from birth to age 5, a program director, a family child care provider, and a quality improvement coach. Dr. Douglass received her Ph.D. from the Heller School for Social Policy at Brandeis University, her master’s degree in education from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and her bachelor’s degree in political science from Wellesley College. **Mary Lu Love, M.S., Retired, University of Massachusetts, Boston** Mary Lu Love is a retired lecturer/director of early childhood services at the Institute for Com- munity Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she managed grants, eval- uation projects, and a variety of grant work in the early childhood field. Her undergraduate degree is from the State University of New York, Potsdam, where she graduated with a major in interdisciplinary social science and elementary education certification. She holds a master’s degree in child care administration and has worked in early childhood education for 40 years as a teacher and administrator in public schools, Head Start, and private and nonprofit early child- hood programs. She was a part of the 2011 Department of Early Education and Care–funded project Focusing a New Lens: STEM Professional Development for Early Education and Care Educators and Programs. Ms. Love has taught in higher education part time since 1986, teaching ethics, science, and mathematics for all young children and supervising internships. Her two adult children are a particle physicist and an architect. **Amanda Wiehe Lopes, Ph.D., Learning and Quality Improvement Manager, University of** Massachusetts, Boston Dr. Lopes is passionate about creative approaches to learning. She has been a teacher, pro- gram leader, and curriculum consultant at early learning organizations across the U.S. includ- ing developing creative arts immersive early education and professional learning programs at the New York State Theater Institute, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Children’s Theater, Pacific Science Center, and Woodland Park Zoo. Through scholarship, Amanda investigates creative approaches to early learning through curriculum design, pedagogy, and leadership. She holds a Ph.D. in Early Childhood Education and Care from the University of Massachusetts Boston, an M.S.Ed in Early Childhood Education from the College of Saint Rose, and a B.A. in The- atre Arts from the University of Puget Sound. Amanda has been a guest lecturer and faculty at higher education programs across the United States including University of Massachusetts, Boston, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Russell Sage College, Fisher College, and Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 10 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 10 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer About the Authors xi Northeastern University. In her role as Learning and Quality Improvement Manager at the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Amanda uses her unbridled curiosity and fierce imagination to design innovative approaches to professional learning in early care and education to improve program quality, mobilize leader- ship from within the field, and inform research. Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 11 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 11 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- ## FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer # A Note to the Reader Engineers use problem-solving methods to find solutions to our everyday problems. The engineering process is an ideal problem-solving framework for designing learn- ing experiences that support science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learn- ing and cognitive development with young children. Young children problem-solve in their daily play. As teachers and caregivers, we can promote the development of problem-solving and critical thinking skills through intentional activities that support young children’s brain development. The concepts and methods of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provide a structure for planning lessons to meet the needs of a range of children. The first edition of this book came out of several years of work with early child- hood educators through different projects to promote STEM-related learning outcomes. Some of these individuals and projects are discussed in the Acknowledgments. After completing a seminar with early educators on improving STEM education for children from birth to age 8, the authors presented the results of that seminar and the recom- mendation report at two national conferences: the Division for Early Childhood Con- ference and the National Association for the Education of Young Children Conference. We were approached by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. to write a book about using engineering in early childhood inclusive classrooms and jumped at the idea. We devoted substantial time working together to deepen our theoretical founda- tion and think about what messages we wanted to convey. We were especially inter- ested in demonstrating how educators and caregivers can intentionally teach problem solving and STEM through engineering with children from birth to age 3. After research and activity development, we piloted engineering activities for the five key thinking skills in infant, toddler, and preschool classrooms. We also interviewed the teachers about what worked and what changes were necessary to implement the engineering experiences most effectively. The teachers gave us lots of substantive feedback on the activities, materials, and presentation of activities, and we incorporated that feedback into the chapters. The activities in this book can be taught in isolation or as a complete unit. Table I.1 provides an overview of the lessons featured in Chapters 3 through 7, where they are accompanied by detailed narratives about classroom enactment. Table I.2 lists 15 addi- tional learning experiences that we have developed especially for the second edition. Both tables sort the learning experiences by age group and thinking skill. For these learning experiences, we have suggested several books to use in conjunc- tion with the activities. Other books can be used to teach the same concepts, but we chose these books because they are high-quality examples of children’s literature and easily accessible to early childhood educators and parents. For the 15 new learning xiii Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 13 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 13 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer xiv A Note to the Reader **Table I.1. Annotated thinking experiences (Chapters 3 to 7) by age group** Infants Toddlers Preschoolers Curious thinkers With Where’s Spot? by Eric With One Duck Stuck, Preschoolers engage in “garden Hill (2003), infants are pro-written by Phyllis Root engineering” alongside vided with Hide-and-Seek (1998), toddlers explore Mr. McGreely, the main character experiences. what mud feels and looks of Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by like and compare and Candace Fleming (2002). They contrast it to water and investigate sturdy garden walls dirt. by asking questions, making pre- dictions, and building and testing. Flexible thinkers Through Have You Seen My Using One Duck Stuck, Preschoolers consider all the ways *Cat? by Eric Carle (2009),* toddlers focus on the that Mr. McGreely tries to solve infants participate in a story process of finding and his problem in the book Muncha! and a game in which they excavating for objects *Muncha! Muncha! and they have* must react to the problem of stuck in dried mud. the opportunity to plan at least a missing cat. two of their own solutions. Persistent thinkers *Baby Says Peekaboo! by DK* With Ten Dirty Pigs, Ten After more reading from Muncha! Publishing (2006) provides *Clean Pigs, written Muncha! Muncha!, preschoolers* infants with large flaps that by Carol Roth (1999), have the opportunity to build and can be opened to reveal a toddlers focus on getting persistently improve their own hidden picture. Manipulating all 10 pigs clean and the designs for protecting these flaps and searching process of scrubbing and Mr. McGreely’s vegetables. to find a hidden object both cleaning to get the pig require persistence. toys clean after mud play. Collaborative Using the class-made Find a Using One Duck Stuck, tod-Using The Tale of Peter Rabbit by thinkers *Friend Book, infants have the* dlers focus on the pro-Beatrix Potter (2002), preschool- opportunity to strengthen cess of finding objects ers consider the feelings that positive and trusting rela-stuck in wet mud using different individuals have in dif- tionships with others. teamwork. ferent situations and have an opportunity to work with a friend on a vegetable-carrier design challenge. Reflective thinkers Using a homemade baby With One Duck Stuck, Preschoolers have the opportunity faces game, infants have the toddlers have the oppor-to remember how they planned opportunity to find a friend’s tunity to recall the story, to solve a problem, how they picture. retell it, and create a new created their initial solution, and ending. what happened when they tried it out. experiences in the second edition, we have aimed to highlight books that represent diverse children, families, and authors. This book is divided into two sections. Section I explains the theory and evi- dence base behind our framework for children’s STEM problem solving. Section II includes the activity chapters where we show educators and caregivers how to use the problem-solving framework to participate in engineering learning experiences with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. In the beginning of this book, we provide a foundation for the book’s content by describing the engineering design process, engi- neering design in early childhood, and the five foundational thinking skills critical to developing young and adult problem solvers: curious thinking, persistent thinking, flexible thinking, reflective thinking, and collaborative thinking. Each thinking skill is discussed in a chapter. Table I.3 provides examples of each thinking skill for each of the three age groups. These thinking skills prepare young children to be successful in STEM activities and to learn to think as problem solvers. Finally, these skills sup- port positive social-emotional development, self-regulation, and the development of executive functioning. Chapter 1 begins by unpacking engineering design, engineering design for young children, and the five foundational thinking skills (as listed in Table I.2) for engineering Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 14 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 14 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer A Note to the Reader xv **Table I.2. Additional learning experiences (Chapter 8) by age group** Infants Toddlers Preschoolers Curious thinkers *Peekaboo Morning by Rachel Round Is a Mooncake by Flotsam by David Wiesner.* Using Isadora. Spark curiosity by Roseanne Thong. Encour-recycled materials, preschool- asking the infants what they age toddlers to be curi-ers will build a prototype of see when you turn to each ous about shapes of a floating city, and test its new page. various objects within their success. environment. Flexible thinkers *What Will Fit? by Grace Lin. Fiesta! (board book: bilingual Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by* Using a container with dif-Spanish-English) by Ginger Candace Fleming. Preschool- ferent objects, ask the Foglesong Guy, Encour-ers will explore and investi- infants, “What will fit?” age the toddlers to think gate different paths into the of as many different kinds garden without disturbing the of materials to use as wall they built in the previous streamers. lesson. Persistent thinkers *Baby Says, by John Steptoe. Off to See the Sea by Nikki Jabari Tries by Gaia Cornwall.* Ask infants questions about Grimes. Toddlers create new Preschoolers will build a what will happen and how water toys combining vari-flying machine out of blocks the brother in the story ous materials. and other materials in the feels. classroom. Collaborative *More, More, More, Said the One Springy, Singy Day by Whole Whale by Karen Yi.* Pre- thinkers *Baby by Vera B.* Williams. Renée Kurilla. Toddlers will schoolers will work together Ask questions about the work together as a group to to measure out the size of expressions of love by create musical instruments. a blue whale using people, making it personal with the objects, and other means at infants. their program, school, or in their neighborhood. Reflective thinkers *Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang. On Mother’s Lap, by Ann When Lola Visits by Michelle* Ask questions on each page Herbert Scott. Toddlers will Sterling. Preschoolers will cre- to link with infants’ personal stack toys on a chair and ate three pictures about what experiences. compare what they have summer feels, tastes, and done with what is in the smells like. story. and STEM. The premise of this book is twofold: First, young children can engage in a type of complex problem-solving called engineering design, and second, children’s engagement with engineering design can support their higher order thinking skills and, at the same time, provide an exciting context for integrated STEM learning in the early years. Chapter 2 discusses the UDL principles because we strongly believe that all chil- dren should have access through the application of UDL principles to high-quality STEM activities in an inclusive setting. After highlighting the evidence base for these principles for creating inclusive classrooms and lessons, we look at how the principles can help early childhood education teachers support young children with disabilities or delays as they engage in the engineering design process with their peers. We then discuss how we adapt the UDL principles to support children from birth to age 5 in inclusive settings. Finally, we discuss the templates we use in our engineering experi- ences to support young children using the UDL supports to make the problem-solving framework accessible to all young children. In Section II (Chapters 3–9), we demonstrate how to use the early childhood UDL- focused problem-solving framework to teach the five thinking skills to infants, tod- dlers, and preschoolers. Each thinking-skill-based chapter in this section includes three activities (one at each age group: infant, toddler, and preschooler) to illustrate how to design activities for that thinking skill within the problem-solving framework. All the activities also incorporate UDL supports, so that all children in the classroom can Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 15 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 15 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer xvi A Note to the Reader **Table I.3.** Developmental continuum of thinking skills Infants Toddlers Preschoolers **Curious thinkers** • Use senses to explore • Show eagerness and inter-• Show interest in learning wonder and actively the immediate est in people, objects, and new things and trying new explore people and environment experiences experiences things, especially the • Explore and investigate • Use senses to explore • Ask questions to get new and novel, and ways to make some-and manipulate the information eventually abstract thing happen environment • Increasingly make indepen- ideas. • Investigate ways to make dent choices things happen in the environment **Persistent thinkers** • Show interest in and • Show interest in favorite • Attend for extended peri- engage consistently excitement with familiar activities over and over ods of time when engaged, in a challenging task objects, people, and again despite distractions or and attempt multiple events • Find pleasure in causing interruptions tries. • Repeat actions many things to happen • Seek help when encountering times to achieve similar • Try several times until a problem results successful • Create and carry out a plan to solve a problem **Flexible thinkers adjust** • React differently to • With adult support, make • Try different ways to solve a to changing infor-people, events, and transitions between differ-problem mation and goals, settings ent tasks or activities • Adjust to new settings anticipate and plan • Try several ways to • Use different ways of com-and people with minimal for future scenarios, reach simple goals pleting a task assistance and consider new or • Shift attention as needed • Exhibit adaptability, imagina- different perspec-• Observe and imitate tion, and inventiveness when tives to “think outside how other people solve attempting to solve a problem the box. ” problems • Draw on different resources to solve a problem **Collaborative think-**• Engage in joint attention • Use adults as a safety point • Recognize basic emotional **ers coordinate two** • Imitate the physical to explore and return to reactions of others and their or more people’s actions of others • Engage in parallel play with causes actions in order to • Play simple games peers • Notice and accept that others’ achieve a common • Anticipate predictable • Use trusted adults as a feelings about a situation might goal. interactions secure base from which to be different from their own - Develop secure attach-explore the world ments with trusted • Show concern about the adults feelings of others **Reflective thinkers** • Recognize familiar • Look for familiar people and • Try different ways to solve a recall an object or people, places, and recognize names problem event in their minds, objects • Make connections between • Talk about experiences to remember it later, • Look for hidden objects objects and events evaluate and understand them analyze it, and then based on their previous • Recall familiar people • Draw on daily experiences plan to carry out next location • Know familiar routines and apply this knowledge to steps. • Recognize familiar similar situations people and objects by name participate in these engineering experiences. Each chapter follows the same sequence. In the thinking skill chapters, we do the following: - Briefly revisit the applicable thinking skill for that chapter and why it is founda- tional to STEM readiness for young children - Explain a routine or activity that can be used at each age level (infant, toddler, or preschooler) to teach the thinking skill, providing planning forms and templates to support educators in these activities and to plan additional activities - Highlight UDL practices for six children described in the “Profile Children” sec- tion that follows (two at each age level) and offer modifications and suggestions for these children with special needs or who are English language learners (each chapter shows teachers how to plan intentionally to meet the needs of all children) Excerpted from "Engaging Young Engineers: Teaching Problem-Solving Skills Through STEM, Second Edition" by Angi Stone-MacDonald, Ph.D., Kristen Wendell, Ph.D., Anne Douglass, Ph.D., Mary Lu Love, M.S., Amanda Wiehe Lopes, Ph.D. Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 16 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 16 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer A Note to the Reader xvii - Link all activities to standards/developmental milestones across domains - Offer additional suggestions to support various learners in the class In each of Chapters 3 to 7, we present annotated learning experiences to teach specific thinking skills to each of the three age groups and provide the tools to implement these activities in an early childhood setting. We walk through the activities, the planning process, and the implementation of the activities. Each activity uses a portion of the engineering design process to teach problem-solving skills. These activities illustrate methods to teach the prerequisite problem-solving and thinking skills that young chil- dren need to be successful in STEM learning. In addition, the activities presented in this book are accessible to all young children in the classroom through the implementation of UDL guidelines that have been adapted for early childhood education (Center for Applied Special Technology [CAST], 2012b). Each of these engineering experiences at a given age level uses the same template. The infant activities focus on the prerequisite skills for different aspects of problem solving, whereas the preschool activities take children through an entire step in the engineering process. All activities are linked to standards addressed in various infant-toddler and preschool curricula used in settings such as Head Start as well as the kindergarten Common Core standards and Next Gen- eration Science Standards to support school readiness (see Table I.2). Many of the activities presented in this book could be used to teach more than one or even all the thinking skills, but we have chosen to use the described activities in each chapter to highlight how to teach that specific skill. Using the templates, educators and caregivers can create customized lessons around an activity to teach children a different skill or focus on different outcomes depending on the goals and standards for the les- son. For example, in Chapter 7, the toddler collaborative thinking activity “Mud Exca- vations” is a great activity for teaching flexible thinking, but this activity can also be used with preschoolers and can teach persistent and curious thinking. We have chosen to use the activity for collaborative thinking and with toddlers to show very intentional ways to teach that skill with that age group. Chapters 3–7 highlight UDL supports for six children, two at each age level, who need additional supports to maximize their learning. The following “Profile Children” section provides more information about these children before ways to address their unique learning needs during the STEM activities are discussed. As we demonstrate the various activities, we emphasize strategies within the UDL framework to support all children in your setting. Finally, we will provide blank planning and UDL forms as appendixes to help educators plan additional activities to teach the specific thinking skills using the UDL and problem-solving framework. The completed planning materi- als are embedded in the chapters and appear as blank forms in the appendixes. Chapter 8 features 15 additional learning experiences—one for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers for each thinking skill. Chapter 9 discusses how to help educators apply this framework to their practice and adult learning and how to model problem solving as adults in their classroom and with their students. ## Profile Children The children described in this section represent real children we have worked with who are members of inclusive early childhood settings in the United States. These children are featured in the book’s chapters to help illustrate specifically and generally how to use early childhood UDL principles to support young children of all abilities. The Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 17 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 17 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer xviii A Note to the Reader examples include children who have different special needs and some who are English language learners. We hope the profile children will be similar to children you have in your own classroom who can learn problem solving and practice the five thinking skills through the activities in the book. In the templates, look for the UDL supports included specifically for one of these children and the supports that will help all children in the classroom develop problem-solving and complex thinking skills. ***Julia, Infant Julia is a 12-month-old girl who was born at 29 weeks and spent parts*** of her first 6 months in the hospital due to underdeveloped lungs and low birth weight. Despite these health challenges, Julia is doing very well. She lives at home with her mother, father, two older brothers (6 and 8), one sister (9), and her grandmother. She is babbling, can pull herself up, and is taking some steps with the support of an adult or a railing. She crawls all around the house and is very excited to explore the living room and kitchen. She is very excited to point to things and ask for them. Her parents have taught her some sign language that she uses, such as “more,” “juice,” “all done,” and “milk.” She is eating finger foods and has a good appetite. Julia sleeps through the night most of the time. Julia loves to imitate what her mother and siblings are doing. She plays well with her brothers and sister, but they do not always want to play with her. She likes to shake her head no, point to something out of reach, or wave bye-bye. She is starting to show inflection when she is babbling and has almost said “mama” and “dada.” She enjoys hearing books, and her favorites are those by Eric Carle and Dr. Seuss. She thinks they are very funny. She also likes books with soft and crinkly parts. Julia attends a child care center during the day while her parents are at work. She goes to the center Monday through Thursday and is at home with her grandmother most Fridays. On the weekends and in the evenings, she often tags along to sports and lessons with one of her older siblings. ***David, Infant David is 14 months old and was born with Down syndrome and a con-*** genital heart defect. He had open heart surgery when he was 6 months old. In his first year, David often got ear infections and has recently had a set of pressure-equalizing (PE) ear tubes placed in his ears. David lives at home with his parents and is an only child. Currently, David is not crawling or walking, but he can sit up on his own and scoots himself along the floor. He has good head control and enjoys tummy time. He is a poor sleeper at night but can take long naps. This results in crankiness and an uncer- tain progress at times for his various therapies because he is so tired during sessions. David is working with a speech-language pathologist through the early interven- tion program and is working on oral stimulation, oral-motor awareness, and multiple experiences with oral sensory stimulation. In speech therapy visits, the therapist has used short descriptive sentences to describe toys David picked up. After 2 or 3 weeks of speech therapy, David’s mother became adept at these techniques and began describ- ing his activities as he did them so that he could hear them and associate the object he had with the words he heard. David is making a few sounds, and his parents have taught him some sign language. At this time, his mother is a stay-at-home parent and works with him every day on therapy goals. She takes him to a mommy-and-me play- group at the early intervention site and also to the children’s hospital each week for his physical therapy appointment. He enjoys going to the pool and floating in the water with his parents. His parents want to enroll him in a child care center when he is 18 months old but are concerned about his many therapies and if the center will be able to handle all his needs. Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 18 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 18 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer A Note to the Reader xix ***Tam, Toddler Tam, a 20-month-old girl, was referred to the early intervention pro-*** gram for a developmental delay 6 months ago because she was failing to thrive and had some heart issues. She has been receiving services for early intervention for 4 months. Tam’s parents and grandparents are from Vietnam, but Tam was born in the United States. At home, they speak Vietnamese. Tam lives with her mother, father, and 4-year- old sister, and her maternal grandparents live nearby and often care for the children. Tam and her mother see an early intervention specialist and an occupational therapist in the home once a week. With the support of the occupational therapist, Tam is learning to eat baby food, hold an adapted spoon, and drink small amounts of liquid from a sippy cup. Her mother reports that Tam needs assistance with dressing but enjoys bath time. Tam plays by reaching for and batting toys, using Picture Communication Symbols the family has been given by the early intervention specialist, and making sounds or gestures. The symbols have the words in both English and Vietnamese so her parents and grandpar- ents can understand what each picture means from both the picture and the word. Tam is very interactive with those around her and tries to join in imitative sound play by making her own sounds following sounds made by others. She is starting to speak in syllables. Her mother told the early intervention specialists that Tam will use gestures and sounds to let her mom and dad know when she wants something, such as when she wants to be picked up, when she is full, or if she does not like a particular food. Tam will cry and fuss when she is not understood. She is motivated to move to get her toys, although she is not able to move far without assistance. Tam appears to enjoy being with adults and other children and likes being read to. When with other children, espe- cially her sister, Tam watches them, laughs, and attempts to imitate sounds they make. She loves toys that make sounds and is more motivated to be happy when given one of these toys. She especially likes toys that play tunes. ***Jessie, Toddler Jessie is 2 years, 5 months old. Her mother is from India and her*** father is an American of Swedish heritage. After a full term of 9 months, her mother gave birth to her via normal delivery. As an infant, she was healthy and breastfed by her mother. They would like to raise her as a bilingual child who can also speak Hindi. Both parents speak Hindi and English. Her father is a real-estate agent, and her mother is a professor. They met in India. Jessie met her early developmental milestones and started walking at 10 months and talking at 13 months but was struggling with social- emotional development. She did not like to separate from her family and had tantrums easily. Jessie does not have a diagnosed disability but has been assessed for early inter- vention based on social-emotional concerns from both the family and the child care center. She started speaking mostly in English but then shifted to using both languages for single words to two-word phrases. She seems to already recognize that she speaks Hindi at home mostly but English at school, and her vocabulary in both languages is growing. When she was 1 year old, her mother decided to go back to work, and Jessie started going to a family child care center in the neighborhood. At first, she had dif- ficulty adjusting to the setting, because Jessie would cry every time her mother left the house or left her at the child care center. It seemed that she was very attached to her mother, but gradually she stopped crying and started to play with the other children. Her motor and cognitive development are typical, and she has excellent visual-spatial skills and hand–eye coordination. Jessie has several playmates at her family child care center. She talks with the other children and initiates games and conversations, but she Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 19 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 19 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer xx A Note to the Reader can lose her temper very quickly if she does not get what she wants. She can engage in violent temper tantrums in which she kicks and screams and throws herself to the floor. She does not hurt her peers during her tantrums, but the other children usually go to another part of the room or another room if there are several adults. She particularly likes playing with the older children. Her favorite toys are building blocks, balls, and her veterinarian kit. She likes to build large structures but gets upset when the boys knock them down, purposely or accidentally. She likes to play with the family dog and cat. She is also fond of scribbling and asks for crayons. ***Brandon, Preschooler Brandon is a 3-year-old child with autism. He participates in*** an inclusive preschool classroom with 18 typically developing children and 3 other children with various disabilities. Brandon lives with his mother and two older sisters at home: Sara, who is in second grade, and Hilary, who is in sixth grade. Brandon uses a communication device to help him communicate and likes electronic toys and games, as well as playing with his toy trains. He has approximately 15 words to communicate verbally and uses signs or his communication device for more complex messages. He understands many picture symbols and recently started to use an iPad with all his sym- bols on it. His mother is happy to have a device that is easier to program with his com- munication boards and often asks Brandon’s sisters to help her program new words from school or new menus of choices related to a community outing. Brandon loves his new iPad and is more interested in using it to communicate and showing his skills to his classmates than he had been with his old basic electronic communicator. Brandon likes to go to school and enjoys free play and gym. He is more engaged in his reading activities when they involve a train, electronics, or his iPad, because these are his favorite things. Brandon has slightly delayed cognitive development, but his teachers and family hope that his cognitive development will improve as his commu- nication and language improve. He seeks interaction from his peers, but sometimes he is frustrated when they cannot understand what he wants or he does not get a turn in a game, and he will hit or scream as a result. His inclusive preschool teacher is working with Brandon to find more positive ways for him to interact with his peers and to ask to be part of their activities. When outside on the playground, Brandon sometimes has trouble interacting with his peers appropriately because he does not use a device when outside and therefore is more limited in his communication capabilities. Because he is good at kicking and throwing, his peers like to play games with him and ride tricycles together. ***José, Preschooler José is a 4 1/2-year-old boy who attends a preschool program in*** his city. He is friendly and cooperative and follows the rules and routines of his pre- school program. He enjoys playing with toys and outdoor play equipment. He plays cooperatively with his peers, shares, and takes turns. José initiates hands-on activities independently and sustains attention until they are completed. He demonstrates curios- ity through physical exploration. His favorite place to play is the dramatic play center. José can draw shapes and simple pictures. His fine and gross motor skills and social-emotional development are age appropriate. José can follow two- to three-step directions. He enjoys looking at books and sitting with his teacher listening to sto- ries, particularly ones that have pictures. However, listening to a story in a group and responding appropriately to related questions are difficult tasks for José. Attention in these tasks is variable. After 4 or 5 minutes, he tends to wander visually or get up and start walking around the classroom. At home with his family, José speaks Spanish, and his English expressive vocabulary is limited. His Spanish vocabulary and language Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 20 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 20 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer A Note to the Reader xxi skills seem more developed. None of his teachers speaks Spanish. He will respond to adult questions but prefers to speak in Spanish and will interact with peers in the class- room in Spanish if other Spanish-speaking children are in the same area. He commu- nicates frequently during free play and center time. When faced with a problem, he typically gives up, gives in, or walks away instead of using language to express himself. He generally describes objects by using color words. He asks questions infrequently, voicing them with inflection (e.g., “Mommy work?”). José can sort objects by shape, size, and color. He can name colors and identify shapes by pointing. José names simple objects and pictures in his classroom and can address his classmates by name. He demonstrates an emerging interest in letters and words, as evidenced by his journal writing. José can count by rote to 5 but is still work- ing on his understanding of patterns. Each of these children has unique circumstances but also strengths and needs that educators will recognize in children in their own inclusive classrooms. The UDL planning sheets and completed templates will help teachers plan for children with sim- ilar needs in their own classrooms and develop ideas to support all children so they can fully participate in the STEM activities. ## Universal Design for Learning Supports Unit Planning Sheets A summary of the UDL supports used across the unit for each age group is included in the appendixes on a form called the Early Childhood UDL Planning Sheet. The Early Childhood UDL Planning Sheet summarizes the supports across the different activities based on the type of support (e.g., materials, methods of assessment) and whether the support is designed for an individual profile child or can be made available to any child who needs that additional scaffolding. **REFERENCES** Carle, E. (2009). Have you seen my cat? Little Simon. Center for Applied Special Technology. (2012). Research evidence: National design on universal design for learning. [https://udlguidelines.cast.org/more/research-evidence#:~:text=UDL%20is%20based%20upon%](https://udlguidelines.cast.org/more/research-evidence#:~:text=UDL%20is%20based%20upon%) 20the,the%20results%3B%20they%20are%20prominent DK Publishing. (2006). Baby says peekaboo! Dorling Kindersley. Fleming, C. (2002). Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! Atheneum Books. Hill, E. (2003). Where’s Spot? Putnam. Potter, B. (2002/1902). The tale of Peter Rabbit. Warne. Root, P. (1998). One duck stuck. Candlewick Press. Roth, C. (1999). Ten dirty pigs, ten clean pigs. North-South Books. Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 21 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 21 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- ## FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer # Acknowledgments The first edition of this book developed over several years, starting with a state profes- sional development system grant in 2011 to fund a graduate seminar course in early childhood science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. The purpose of this project was to bring together a cohort of early childhood STEM fellows to work with STEM experts. The team was to develop a report with recommendations to the state for improving professional development for early childhood educators and, in turn, outcomes for children in the areas of STEM. Anne Douglass was the principal investigator (PI) on the grant, Angi Stone-MacDonald was a co-PI on the grant and taught/facilitated the graduate seminar, and Mary Lu Love worked on the grant staff. Kristen Wendell participated in the seminar as an expert, taught us all about engineer- ing design, and sparked our thinking about how to develop children as young engi- neers and problem solvers. The seminar engaged participants in understanding and discussing the state of the field in STEM education for children from birth to 5 years old and in after-school care and the state of professional development for early childhood educators in STEM edu- cation. Participants examined what gaps and needs existed and offered suggestions to strengthen STEM education. Together with experts in the field, participants developed a set of recommendations for improved professional development for early childhood educators in STEM education (see Stone-MacDonald et al., 2011). We would like to thank the Region 6 Educator and Provider Support Collabora- tive and Region 4 Professional Development Partnership of the Child Care Resource Center in Massachusetts for the opportunity to work with early educators across our state to advance the field in the area of STEM education. We would also like to thank the experts and early educators who participated in the seminar, from whom we learned so much. We would also like to thank the participants in our conference presentations at the National Association for the Education of Young Children and Division for Early Childhood in 2012 for their thoughtful feedback about our work, which generated some of the initial ideas in the book. Our learning experiences for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers would not be so rich without the dedicated teaching and comments from the educators at the Mission Hill School and Ellis Memorial Early Childhood Center. They graciously offered us their classrooms to pilot the activities and provided advice for improving the activities. Both places welcomed us and played with us while we introduced their children to the engineering activities. For the idea to use the book Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! (Fleming, 2002) to launch engineering challenges, we are indebted to Brandon Lee. We are also grateful to the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach at Tufts University for modeling so xxiii Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 23 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 23 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer xxiv Acknowledgments effectively how to integrate children’s literature and engineering. We thank Marylin Bennett and her early childhood colleagues at Marlborough Public Schools for inspir- ing the four-part emergent engineering cycle. Kathy Clunis D’Andrea awed us with her talent for posing thoughtful question to nudge children to the next level of problem solving. For the second edition, the Tufts and Vanderbilt Design Talks team helped us better highlight the crucial role of social and ethical reasoning in engineering design. In addition, we would like to thank people who came to our presentations about this work and pushed us to think more critically about the cultural messages and cultural sustainability in our lesson designs. We would like to thank Keith MacDonald for the wonderful and engaging pictures in this book. We all have a greater appreciation for the hard work it takes to create an excellent photograph that captures the moment of excitement and learning, particu- larly with young children who are always on the go. We would also like to thank the UMass Boston students whom we taught in early childhood educator preparation classes between the first and second editions of this book, particularly those in ECHD 441 Science and Math for All Young Children, for inspiring us to keep playing, learning, and writing more lessons to support early educators. Finally, we would like to thank Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., particularly our acquisitions editor, Robb Clause, for giving us the opportunity to write this book and for his support, and Savannah Neubert for all her guidance throughout the process. We hope our readers will benefit from reading this book as much as we have from writing it. Every project is a chance to grow as an educator, and we feel privileged to have had this opportunity. **REFERENCES** Fleming, C. (2002). Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! Atheneum Books. Stone-MacDonald, A., Bartolini, V. L., Douglass, A., & Love, M. L. (2011). Focusing a new lens: STEM pro- fessional development for early education and care educators and programs. [https://scholarworks.umb](https://scholarworks.umb) .edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=curriculum_faculty_pubs Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 24 Stone-MacDonald_FM_i-xxiv.indd 24 18/12/23 11:13 AM 18/12/23 11:13 AM --- ## FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer # Why Engineering and Problem Solving # Are Important in Early Childhood # Inclusive Classrooms Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 1 Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 1 18/12/23 11:16 AM 18/12/23 11:16 AM --- ### FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer **1** ## Young Children Are Natural Problem Solvers ### A Framework Overview Excerpted from "Engaging Young Engineers: Teaching Problem-Solving Skills Through STEM, Second Edition" by Angi Stone-MacDonald, Ph.D., Kristen Wendell, Ph.D., Anne Douglass, Ph.D., Mary Lu Love, M.S., Amanda Wiehe Lopes, Ph.D. Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 3 Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 3 18/12/23 11:16 AM 18/12/23 11:16 AM --- ## FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer Why Engineering and Problem Solving Are Important here are two big ideas behind this book. The first is that young children can be emergent engineers: preschoolers, toddlers, and even infants exhibit many of the # Tfoundational skills used in the complex problem-solving activity of engineer- ing design. The second big idea is that children’s emergent engineering activities can develop their higher order thinking skills and at the same time provide an exciting context for integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learn- ing in the early years. When we talk about STEM, we are not referring to stand-alone science, technology, engineering, or math activities that are isolated by subject area. Instead, we mean integrated STEM learning, where multifaceted experiences provide opportunities for children to participate in scientific and mathematical reasoning, com- puter and other technology use, and engineering design— all together within the same ac t iv it y. This book proposes a framework for children’s STEM problem solving. This problem-solving framework is based on engineering design: It uses engineering design problems as content and context for all four STEM disciplines to be practiced simulta- neously. Although engineering is one of the distinct STEM fields (it is the E in STEM), it can also be an activity in which knowledge, skills, and habits of mind from all four STEM disciplines are woven together. Of the four words represented by the acronym STEM, the word engineering is often perceived by educators, parents, and caregivers as representing something more daunting or unattainable than science, math, or technol- ogy. But really, at its core engineering is the systematic solving of human problems by connecting science, math, and technology with empathy and creativity. Engineers and engineering are all around us, every day, and everyone engages in many engineering- like problem-solving activities. One of the goals of this book is to demystify engineer- ing design and the skills that contribute to it. In the problem-solving framework featured in this book, children and adults work together through four phases of engineering design that are appropriate for young chil- dren. These phases are as follows: 1. Think about it. 2. Try it. 3. Fix it. 4. Share it. This chapter describes what children and adults do in each of these phases. It also describes five important higher order thinking skills that are essential for engineering designers and for young problem solvers. These thinking skills are as follows: 1. Curious thinking 2. Persistent thinking 3. Flexible thinking 4. Reflective thinking 5. Collaborative thinking The enhancement of these higher order thinking skills is the ultimate goal of engaging children in emergent engineering problem solving. This introductory chapter begins with a summary of recent successful approaches to foster STEM learning among children from birth to age 5. Next we focus on the E in Excerpted from "Engaging Young Engineers: Teaching Problem-Solving Skills Through STEM, Second Edition" by Angi Stone-MacDonald, Ph.D., Kristen Wendell, Ph.D., Anne Douglass, Ph.D., Mary Lu Love, M.S., Amanda Wiehe Lopes, Ph.D. Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 4 Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 4 18/12/23 11:16 AM 18/12/23 11:16 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer Young Children Are Natural Problem Solvers STEM and demystify engineering with some definitions of key terms and an overview of the engineering design process. We then turn to our problem-solving framework for emergent engineering. We describe its four main phases and its five foundational thinking skills. Finally, we set the problem-solving framework in the context of what we know about childhood development and standards for early education and care. ## APPROACHES TO STEM LEARNING: BIRTH TO AGE 5 Developmental research affirms that young children and STEM go together. For exam- ple, research tells us that preschoolers and some verbal toddlers can learn concepts in specific science domains (Gelman & Brenneman, 2004), exhibit reasoning skills for making sense of science investigations (Gopnik, 2012), use number sense to estimate and compare quantities (Sarama & Clements, 2003), apply algorithmic thinking to cre- ate simple computer programs (Bers, 2017), and collaboratively construct and trouble- shoot in a makerspace (Wohlwend et al., 2017). Preverbal toddlers and infants also show early number sense and an understanding of relative quantity (Dehaene, 1997), and they demonstrate knowledge of important categories in physical science (e.g., which things stay up by themselves and which things need support; Hespos & Baillargeon, 2008) and life science (e.g., animal and nonanimal; Rakison & Poulin-Dubois, 2001). They can interact with and respond positively to developmentally appropriate computer technol- ogies (e.g., digital photos of important people, videos of themselves solving problems; National Association for the Education of Young Children [NAEYC] & the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College, 2012). This body of knowledge about young children’s abilities indicates that they have many resources to apply to activities that involve science, mathematics, and technol- ogy. We believe these resources also equip children for the engineering-based problem- solving framework used throughout this book. Many other early childhood educators and researchers have laid the groundwork for our particular approach to engaging young children in inclusive STEM learning activities. This section describes the work of some key contributors to early childhood science, math, technology, or engineer- ing education. Their approaches give children opportunities to construct and represent their own knowledge through hands-on experiences facilitated by responsive adults. These contributions form much of the basis of what educators know about children’s potential for STEM learning in the preschool years. Less is known about what it looks like when infants and toddlers are included in early STEM activities, and for that rea- son, we intentionally include those younger age groups in our work. One important contribution to early childhood mathematics education is the Building Blocks ™ PreK curriculum, which reveals the incredible learning trajecto- ries that young children can follow in mathematics if ideally supported by research- based learning experiences (Building Blocks, 2013). Based on Doug Clement and Julie Sarama’s extensive, federally funded nationwide studies of children and mathemat- ics, the Building Blocks curriculum, manipulative kits, and software applications focus on finding mathematics in children’s everyday activities, from art to songs to building blocks (Sarama & Clements, 2003). The focus is on children “mathematiz- ing” by representing their activities with mathematical actions such as counting and transforming shapes. In support of children’s progress along the learning trajecto- ries developed by the Building Blocks researchers, early childhood math educator Greg Nelson (2007) has pioneered a Montessori-based method of providing struc- tured manipulatives and activities that preschool children choose and use to guide their development of number sense. More recently, curriculum development efforts Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 5 Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 5 18/12/23 11:16 AM 18/12/23 11:16 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer Why Engineering and Problem Solving Are Important like Make Connections (TERC, 2018) and Story telling Math picture books (Lin, 2020) have focused on supporting caregivers and children from all backgrounds in finding the mathematics in the world around them. In addition, Teaching Strategies GOLD ® is a child assessment system used in many states for ages birth to third grade that is aligned to state and national standards and used in Early Head Start and Head Start (Heroman, Burts, Berke & Bickart, 2010). It is associated with the Creative Curricu- lum but can be used with other curricula and “includes items specifically addressing inquiry science skills, life science, physical science, earth science, and technology and tool use” (Donegan-Ritter & Zan, 2017, p. 224). In early childhood science education, one widely used and praised inquiry-based approach is the Young Scientists Series created by Karen Worth and Ingrid Chalufour and their colleagues. Successfully applied across many different early childhood set- tings, this curriculum emphasizes hands-on experiences in which children construct and record knowledge about nature (Chalufour & Worth, 2003), structures (Chalu- four & Worth, 2004), and water (Chalufour & Worth, 2005) under the guidance of expert adult facilitation. Chalufour and Worth stress the importance of sustained time for children to explore the properties of physical objects and materials— both those in nature and those that they construct themselves. Adults play a key role in posing questions about children’s explorations and documenting their work and their discoveries. *The Ramps and Pathways approach developed by Rheta deVries and Christina Sales* (2011) has much in common with the explorations of physical structures in the Young Scientists Series. What differentiates Ramps and Pathways is its focus on balls in motion and its explicitly constructivist take on developing children’s physical science knowl- edge, inquiry skills, and design strategies. Children explore the never-ending possibili- ties for making balls move along tracks. The Preschool Pathways to Science (PrePS ™ ) approach (Gelman et al., 2009) is a method for structuring and implementing a preschool science curriculum that is based on domain-specific constructivist theories and cognitive scientists’ findings about young children’s mental development. It represents a synthesis of emphasizing science process skills, science language, and core science concepts around which a long (from several months to a full year) sequence of science explorations is organized. Since the publication of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013), which include engineering design, many new K–12 engineering curricu- lum materials have become available. There have also been several efforts to develop engineering-specific learning sequences for younger children. The preschool Wee Engineer ® curriculum from Engineering Is Elementary challenges preschoolers to design and test rafts, fans, wrecking balls, and noisemakers (EiE, 2022). The Head Start on Engineering / Ingeniería y Head Start program offers activities that empower fami- lies to use engineering to help their children thrive (TERC, 2022). Several other current approaches to young children’s STEM learning, including many makerspace programs, have their roots in Seymour Papert’s (1980) theory of con- structionism. Proponents of this theory view intellectual growth as the consequence of working on personally meaningful ideas with personally meaningful objects (both on computers and in tangible 3-D). Extending Piaget’s theory of constructivism, construc- tionists advocate for children to have access to rich learning environments and power- ful tools that can lead them to construct powerful ideas. This idea is consistent with the perspective behind makerspaces, the premise that people learn and grow by explor- ing materials and expressing themselves with handmade artifacts. Early childhood Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 6 Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 6 18/12/23 11:16 AM 18/12/23 11:16 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer Young Children Are Natural Problem Solvers makerspaces offer children a wide range of carefully selected and organized materials and tools that are appropriate for children’s small size and still-developing motor skills. The materials in a makerspace intentionally span a range of properties (e.g., flexibility, reflectivity, stability, ability to connect to other materials) so that children can explore many options for making creations that look and behave as they desire. Some maker- space tools have more specialized capabilities than those typically available in an early childhood classroom, such as cardboard cutting, colored LED lights, and programma- ble motors, but these special tools are not necessary. The key elements of makerspace programs are a neatly and beautifully displayed variety of supplies and a supportive community of helpers. With this support, even very young children can explore and create personally meaningfully artifacts. In the realm of more specialized tools, the child-friendly computer programming language ScratchJr (Bers, 2017; Bers & Resnick, 2014), intended for children as young as 4 years old, is an example of a computer-based constructionist tool for children’s exploration of personally meaningful ideas. Available on the web ([http://www.scratchjr](http://www.scratchjr) .org) and as an app for tablet computers, ScratchJr consists of a set of icons that can be dragged and dropped into place to command an on-screen “sprite” to act out a story of the child’s own creation. Explorations with ScratchJr encourage computational thinking, which involves applying mathematical and geometric reasoning to create an algorithm for a behavior. ScratchJr is reminiscent of Logo, an earlier constructionist computer pro- gramming platform designed for children. Early childhood activities with LEGO bricks (Portsmore, 2010), LEGO Mindstorms robotics sets (Bers, 2008), and even wooden unit blocks can also be examples of constructionist STEM experiences when the child is the one generating the ideas about how to use the tools. ## ENGINEERING DESIGN DEMYSTIFIED The learning activities in this book provide opportunities for young children to engage in something that we call emergent engineering. These emergent engineering activities are inspired by the way that adults participate in more sophisticated engineering design efforts. Although the results of engineering design are all around us, many people have an incomplete understanding of what engineers do or a negative impression about what engineering is. Before describing what young children’s emergent engineering looks like, let us take a moment to unpack engineering design from an adult’s perspective. ## What Is Design? *Design is a very common term used in many different ways, but we use it to talk* about any human activity with the conscious goal of creating an artifact or process that will solve an open-ended problem. An open-ended problem is one that has mul- tiple acceptable solutions. Design involves bringing about change in the physical and social world and changing a situation from the way it is to the way one wishes it to be (Simon, 1996). Often, design requires responding to an ill-structured problem. This kind of problem lacks all the information and structure needed to solve it. People engage in design to solve many kinds of problems, such as expressing themselves in words and graphics, decorating their homes and workplaces, putting food on the table, creating new organizations and communities, and challenging inequalities. At its best, when designers from all communities and backgrounds are included, design enables us “to build a better world, a world where many worlds fit” (Costanza-Chock, 2020, p. xvii). Design is also a key part of many professional domains, ranging from Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 7 Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 7 18/12/23 11:16 AM 18/12/23 11:16 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer Why Engineering and Problem Solving Are Important organizational design to fashion design, interior design, artistic design, graphic design, and architectural design. ## What Is Engineering Design? Engineering design is one of many types of design activities, and it can be defined more specifically than design in general. It is the organized development and testing— through the connection of math and science to empathy and creativity— of artifacts or processes that perform a desired function within specified limits (Davis & Gibbin, 2002; Dym & Little, 2004). The results of engineering design can be three-dimensional, such as vehicles and water filters; two-dimensional, such as drawings and printed sets of instructions; or digital, such as computer software. A well-known example of engineering design applied to an ill-structured problem is the “shopping cart challenge” taken on by the California-based design firm IDEO. For a television documentary on innovation, their team of designers was asked to take the familiar grocery store shopping cart and redesign it in just 5 days (Kelley & Litt- man, 2001). They were given no specific goals except to make a better shopping cart and no guidelines except to get it done within 5 days. The IDEO design team had to figure out whom to consult about the current shopping cart experience, what to focus on as the most frustrating and important problems of existing shopping carts, what level of safety to maintain, how much money to spend on materials, and whether to design and construct one or many prototypes to test out their ideas. They had to anticipate and prevent potential negative consequences of the shopping cart features they brain- stormed, and they needed to ask themselves whose perspectives and well-being they were failing to consider and how they could do better. Math, science, empathy, moral reasoning, creativity, and emotional regulation all played a role in their work. There was no specified path to follow to create a better shopping cart. This lack of a pathway is the essence of ill-structured engineering design work. Not only did the engineers have to figure out a solution to the problem, but they also had to figure out what steps to take to achieve that solution and how to take them responsibly and inclusively. Via YouTube, you can still view the ABC Nightline “Deep Dive” episode from 1999 for details on the IDEO designers’ approach to solving the ill-structured shopping cart problem (Gear y i nteract ive, 2011). Engineering design can also be applied to more well-defined problems. For instance, consider the highway repairs that are occurring all across the United States as cities and states work to maintain their transportation infrastructure. Civil engi- neers are often tasked with designing the set of materials, equipment, and processes that will be needed to repair a road. But for many roads, this is a well-defined problem that involves choosing from among a set of options rather than charting a new course to invent something unique. When a road needs to be repaired, the engineers already know how much wear and tear the road must sustain, how cold it gets in the winter, how hot it gets in the summer, how wide the road needs to be, what driving speeds it must support, and what materials the road surface currently contains. The engineer- ing design task is to choose the correct combination of materials (e.g., gravel, asphalt, macadam) to repair this particular road surface and to plan the right sequence of heavy machinery to apply those materials safely and reliably. Because other engineers have solved this same general problem of road repair many times before, there is already a problem-solving path to follow, and any single instance of road repair is more like a well-defined problem than an ill-structured one. Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 8 Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 8 18/12/23 11:16 AM 18/12/23 11:16 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer Young Children Are Natural Problem Solvers ## Defining Engineering and Technology in General Engineering design is just one activity— though a central one— within the enormous enterprise of engineering in general, which also includes activities of failure analysis, economics, ethics, aesthetics, communications, and quality control (ABET, 2021). Engi- neering has been informally practiced throughout history, but in recent centuries it has been formalized into professions and academic disciplines that rely heavily on math and science understanding (Seeley, 2005). Modern professional engineering companies work to make problem-solving products, systems, and analyses available to the public. Engineers work on many types of problems of different levels of complexity, ranging from very well-defined tasks, such as specifying the material for road repair, to highly ill-structured problems, such as improving the common shopping cart. In general, an engineer is anyone who applies creativity, empathy, and knowledge of mathematics and science to work on solutions to society’s needs and wants (Burns & Leisseig, 2017; Walther et al., 2017; Wulf, 1998). These solutions are called technologies. Technologies are the products that result from engineering work (Wulf, 1998). This means that everything from washable crayons to toothpaste to airplanes can be con- sidered an example of technology. The early education and care field often uses the word technology as shorthand for computer technology— that is, when educators talk about children using technology, they tend to think of children and computers or some other digital device, such as a tablet computer, a smartphone, a television, or a camera. In this book, when we talk about the T in STEM, we are referring not only to these examples of computer technology but also to technology in general (i.e., all the tools and products that result from engineering, from pencils to robots). When children engage in emer- gent engineering, they might participate in creating technologies such as block towers that protect a pretend vegetable garden from hungry rabbits. They might also make use of existing technologies to scaffold their engineering activities. For example, a tablet computer might help them keep records of their different design ideas, or a specially designed nonslip surface might help them build with blocks more easily. ## The Engineering Design Process Engineers typically work together to solve the problems that face society. As mentioned earlier, engineering design is the process of creating solutions to human problems through creativity and the application of math and science knowledge. The fundamen- tal practices within any engineering design process include at least the following six elements (Atman et al., 2007; Gibson et al., 2007; NGSS Lead States, 2013; WGBH Educa- tional Foundation, 2011): 1. Defining a problem: Observing a problem, seeing a need for a solution, and identify- ing criteria and constraints 2. Researching possible solutions: Gathering information and coming up with ideas to address the problem 3. Choosing and planning the best solution: Conducting an analysis of plans and data to determine which idea might best address the problem 4. Building and testing a prototype: Constructing a working model of the chosen solu- tion and investigating the working model to find out whether it solves the problem, holds up to any important tests, and follows any limits or rules imposed on the problem Excerpted from "Engaging Young Engineers: Teaching Problem-Solving Skills Through STEM, Second Edition" by Angi Stone-MacDonald, Ph.D., Kristen Wendell, Ph.D., Anne Douglass, Ph.D., Mary Lu Love, M.S., Amanda Wiehe Lopes, Ph.D. Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 9 Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 9 18/12/23 11:16 AM 18/12/23 11:16 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer Why Engineering and Problem Solving Are Important 5. Improving the design: Using evidence, comparing alternatives, and evaluating the ideas of peers to make adjustments until the working model solves the problem in a satisfactory way 6. Communicating the solution: Using oral and written language as well as tables, graphs, drawings, and models to express the solution to the problem and the advan- tages of the chosen solution When engineering educators talk about engineering design practices, they are refer- ring to ways of thinking and acting that are typical of adult engineers and that are productive for accomplishing engineering tasks (National Research Council [NRC], 2012). These practices do not occur in a regimented, consistent sequence of steps. They occur to different degrees and at different times within different engineering design processes. There is no single engineering design method (Lawson, 1997). Even though there is no single engineering design method, many experienced engineers employ a common set of engineering design practices engineers (Cross, 2003). Engineers continually formulate and test hypotheses about the optimal solution to the problem they are trying to solve. They analyze and build models of potential solutions and clarify their understanding of the problem along the way. A strategy called predic- *tive analysis is a tool used by engineers who are developing solutions that cannot be* immediately built or tested owing to budget constraints, complexity of design, lack of information about the client’s needs, or human safety, for example. Predictive analysis involves projecting how a proposed solution will behave before building and testing the solution itself. During predictive analysis, engineers estimate how many resources (e.g., time, money, fuel, raw materials) will be required to produce the solution, how successful it will be at solving the problem, how long it will last, and what impacts it might have on humans and the environment. Once actually constructed or brought to the pro- totype stage, solutions often require further testing and experimentation to meet the criteria for success defined previously, and even the criteria for success may be amended as engineers and their collaborators progress through solving a problem. Issues of diver- sity, inclusion, equity, and justice need to be considered carefully before a solution is completed. For instance, engineers might learn as they test their design in new contexts that it works for some communities but not others. To ensure that their design is not discrimina- tory in its impacts, they need to expand their sense of what counts as a satisfactory solution (Benjamin, 2019). Engineers might also find out that although a design solves the original problem, the act of manufactur- ing or using that design unintentionally introduces a new problem. For example, a solar panel installation on a building roof may generate enough electricity to save the building owner in operating costs. But in the winter, its slick surface makes snow slide off the roof in one sudden avalanche, causing damage to the cars parked below. This new problem of snow sliding must be addressed, too, for the solar panels to count as a good design solution. Taking responsibility for either Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 10 Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 10 18/12/23 11:16 AM 18/12/23 11:16 AM --- FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer MORE, Young Children Are Natural Problem Solvers preventing or addressing new problems introduced by designs is an important part of practicing engineering with an “ethic of care,” which requires not just technical skills preventing or addressing new problems introduced by designs is an important part of practicing engineering with an “ethic of care,” which requires not just technical skills but a great deal of moral reasoning as well (Riley, 2008, p. 111). Responsible engineering is important because the results of engineering design processes have an impact on people in their everyday lives. Industrial, mechanical, and electrical engineers design the structures, systems, and machines that fill peoples’ homes— including kitchen appliances, some furniture, heating and cooling systems, home lighting, televisions, music players, and computers. Every day, people use numerous substances perfected by chemical and biomedical engineers, including toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner, detergent, stain remover, plastics, bandages for cuts, and medicines. Vehicles are designed by teams of engineers from many disciplines, including mechanical, electrical, aerospace, and manufacturing engineering. The infrastructures of cities and towns— including municipal water systems, sanitation systems, roads, subways, bridges, tunnels, electricity delivery, traffic flow plans and traffic lights, skyscrapers, and airports— were all designed with the help of civil and environmental engineers. And of course computer engineers and computer scientists are behind the computer technology that now affects almost every arena of daily life. OUR PROBLEM-SOLVING FRAMEWORK FOR EMERGENT ENGINEERING This book emphasizes four phases of engineering design that are most appropriate for structuring young children’s problem-solving activities: Think about it, Try it, Fix Document and make sense of what happens. sense of what happens. whether it solves the problem. Improve the solution. --- FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer FOR MORE, 12 Why Engineering and Problem Solving Are Important more detail later), the four phases make up our problem-solving framework for emergent engineering. Table 1.1 lists the tasks that children and adults carry out together in each phase and shows how those tasks correspond to the practices of professional in each phase and shows how those tasks correspond to the practices of professional engineers. There are a few important caveats about the problem-solving framework. First, it is almost never developmentally appropriate— nor logistically feasible— for young children to conduct all four phases of the framework within a single sitting or activity. The phases are meant to help adults design units of learning rather than single experiences or lessons. However, by the same token, it is also typically not appropriate for young children to maintain a focus on only a single phase of problem solving during any one particular activity. In fact, professional engineers often implement several engineering design practices at the same time. It is not necessary, therefore, to design learning expe- particular activity. In fact, professional engineers often implement several engineering design practices at the same time. It is not necessary, therefore, to design learning experiences that limit themselves to only one of the four phases. There are several other approaches to focusing early childhood learning environments on the activity of problem solving, and our emergent engineering framework builds on these. We differ in the idea that children can be competent emerging engineers, and their problem-solving work can be in response not just to problems they have identified in their own daily activities but also to engineering problems that call for the application of creative thinking, mathematical reasoning, and scientific ideas. Our problem-solving approach using the emergent engineering framework could be incorporated into a Lillian Katz problem-based learning project or into a Reggio Emilia classroom, but the teacher would facilitate the children’s enactment of an engineering classroom, but the teacher would facilitate the children’s enactment of an engineering design cycle to guide their work. Figure 1.1 illustrates the phases and thinking skills of engineering design. We encourage you to use the vocabulary introduced in this framework while teaching. | Phase of children's work | Tasks for children and adults | Engineering practices | | --- | --- | --- | | Think about it | Talk, read, or listen about the problem. Discuss the goal for solving the problem. Identify the limits or“constraints”(e.g.,number of materials,amount of time,size of structure) on solving the problem. | Identifying problems;unpacking requirements and constraints | | Look for similar problems and existing solutions.Discuss the needs and wants of the people who have the problem.Explore available materials.Make decisions about the problem-solving approach.(“We will build a boat instead of a bridge to solve the problem of crossing the river.”) | Gathering information;revising the problem space | | | Brainstorm. Design the solution to the problem.Model it.Predict how it will be carried out or built and how it will perform.Sketch,dictate sentences,and make other representations of how the solution might look and behave. | Modeling and analyzing potential solutions | | | Try it | Work collaboratively or independently with hands-on materials to“do”或“build.”Take an action or construct an artifact that solves the problem.Materials can be blocks,recyclables,craft supplies,and so forth. | Prototyping | | Fix it | Test out the action or artifact.Decide whether or not the action or artifact solves the problem.Document what happens during testing and what that means for the next version.Make changes to improve the solution. | Testing and analyzing prototype performance;iterating | | Share it | Share the final action or artifact with children and adults.Drawand talk about it.Contribute to documentation panels.Reflect on initial ideas(brainstorms,sketches)和the final design anddescribe the differences between the two. | Representing and communicatingabout solution via multiplemodes(e.g.,drawings,text,speech) | --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer Young Children Are Natural Problem Solvers Weaving engineering vocabulary into your practice not only supports children’s devel- opment of STEM vocabulary and concepts, but it also reinforces the idea that your class- room is an engineering classroom— one where vibrant STEM learning takes place. ## Thinking Skills for the Problem-Solving Framework This book presents strategies for engaging young children in emergent engineering. To explain this idea of emergent engineering, it helps to draw an analogy to the field of emergent literacy. Early childhood educators and care providers know that most pre- schoolers and toddlers do not read entire books on their own from start to finish. How- ever, even though young children do not often pick up a book and read it independently, adults do not wait until children are in first grade to start literacy learning experiences. Instead, from the infant stage on up, educators and care providers help children develop the book-handling, phonological-awareness, and letter-knowledge skills that will help them become readers. Researchers have uncovered and clearly defined the skills that are foundational for reading, and educators and care providers work to develop these skills through early literacy initiatives and activities. Even though the children cannot yet read on their own, educators and care providers do many things to include young children in the act of reading: read aloud to babies, toddlers, and preschoolers; give infants books to feel and taste and gaze at; and help preschoolers retell stories as they view illustrations. Just as infants, toddlers, and most preschoolers are not developmentally ready to pick up a book and read it independently from start to finish, they are not quite capable of independently tackling a complex engineering design problem using all the phases of the problem-solving framework. Also, just as young children can be considered emergent readers, they can be considered emergent engineers who have many of the precursor skills that will be necessary to engage in independent engineering design later on. In fact, just as certain skills are required for reading literacy, certain skills are required for STEM literacy, and appropriately designed learning experiences can help develop STEM literacy skills, just as appropriately designed learning experiences can develop prereading skills. This book focuses on five thinking skills that are important for adult engineering, but just as important, they are skills exhibited by young children that can be extended and further developed through particular problem-solving expe- riences. The experiences presented in this book are designed to help children develop the foundational thinking skills for STEM problem solving; these skills also happen to be essential components of real-life engineering design. Infants are just acquiring these skills to begin to solve problems of reaching, grasping, and communicating non- verbally; toddlers are developing the thinking skills and applying them to many prob- lems in the physical world; and preschoolers are nearing readiness for complex problem solving on their own. What, then, are these foundational thinking skills for real-life engineering and young children’s STEM problem solving? Studies of professional engineers have revealed that the enterprise of engineering draws on individuals’ cognitive, sociocul- tural, and affective resources and that substantial growth occurs as engineers shift from novice to expert practice in design (Atman et al., 2007; Cardella et al., 2008; Cross, 2004). For instance, for engineers to plan possible solutions and revise solutions they have already tested, they need to engage in reflective decision making in collaboration with others (NRC, 2012; Schön, 1987). Rather than relying on random trial and error, engineers make decisions based on evidence about how well a design will work (NRC, 2012). To engage in reflective decision making in a collaborative way, people need tools Excerpted from "Engaging Young Engineers: Teaching Problem-Solving Skills Through STEM, Second Edition" by Angi Stone-MacDonald, Ph.D., Kristen Wendell, Ph.D., Anne Douglass, Ph.D., Mary Lu Love, M.S., Amanda Wiehe Lopes, Ph.D. Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 13 Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 13 18/12/23 11:16 AM 18/12/23 11:16 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer Why Engineering and Problem Solving Are Important for social interaction, including ways of communicating engineering ideas and ways of thinking like an engineer (Atman, Kilgore et al., 2008). Many of these ways of thinking overlap with the higher order thinking skills that should be fostered in young children. This book focuses on five thinking skills that overlap between engineering and young children’s development: curious thinking, persistent thinking, flexible thinking, reflec- tive thinking, and collaborative thinking. All the thinking skills come from our review of state standards for young children; they are the key skills that children from birth to age 5 need to learn at various levels of complexity. The following sections describe how engineers use each of these thinking skills and summarize the evidence of young children’s development of each skill. This book’s later chapters unpack each thinking skill in much more detail and describe what cognitive development research says about the thinking skills at each stage of growth from infancy to toddlerhood to the preschool years. ## Curious Thinking ***Engineers When determining the goals and constraints of a design problem, engi-*** neers consider broad, contextual issues, including social, logistical, environmental, and moral factors. For example, college engineering students working on a flood-control problem question the effects of possible design solutions on people and nature (Atman, Yasuhara et al., 2008). They ask not only who and what will be helped by this potential design, but also who and what might be harmed, and how might that harm be pre- vented (Nittala et al., 2021). Expert engineers working on a playground design prob- lem consider legal liability, neighborhood opinions, and maintenance concerns (Atman et al., 2007), and they collaborate with people from the disability community to ensure that children of all physical abilities can play together. Before beginning to plan and build solutions to design problems, expert engi- neers spend a substantial amount of time asking questions and gathering information about the problem (Atman et al., 2007). When engineers conduct predictive analyses, they use curious thinking to anticipate how possible solutions to problems might actually work. ***Young Children Anyone who has spent time with infants and young children*** knows that they love to explore new objects and environments. And when they encounter a puzzle about what makes something work, they attempt to solve that puzzle through play (Gopnik, 2012). However, their love of exploration and question- ing can be developed even further into a curious thinking habit of mind. For example, with encouragement to search for and observe insects in the school garden, toddlers can generate their own questions about insect behavior, such as how insects would respond to different surfaces and whether they sleep during the winter months when they cannot be found outside (Shaffer et al., 2009). In another example, when children are given a toy that only works one-third of the time it is activated, they develop ideas about what hidden variables might be responsible for the failures (Schulz & Sommer- ville, 2006). ## Flexible Thinking ***Engineers Experienced engineering designers know how and when to use a range*** of design strategies (Daly et al., 2012). They are flexible in altering their approach when necessary to deal with limitations of time and resources (Crismond & Adams, 2012). They must think creatively about how existing knowledge can be applied and combined Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 14 Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 14 18/12/23 11:16 AM 18/12/23 11:16 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer Young Children Are Natural Problem Solvers in new ways (NRC, 2012). As they try out a prototype of a design solution, they find new information concerning how well it works, and they have to adjust their ideas according to this new information. Engineering problem-solving work requires great creativity and mental flexibility. These skills are especially crucial when engineers discover that a potential design might have disproportionate negative consequences on a particular community or part of the environment. And these skills are needed for the results of engineering to reflect the diversity of society. ***Young Children Although young children sometimes perseverate on ideas and seem*** unlikely to ever relinquish their current thinking, cognitive science research has shown that young children can be quite flexible in their thinking when provided with enough evidence to accept new ideas (Gopnik, 2012). For example, in one study, 4-year-olds began by insisting that stomachaches could be not caused by psychological factors such as anxiety. However, as researchers presented the 4-year-olds with more and more evi- dence of psychologically caused illness, the children were more and more likely to give up their existing thinking and accept the new idea (Schulz et al., 2007). Similar research on children’s social reasoning shows that children also have great capacity for flexible thinking in social situations. In light of new information from a trusted person, they can change their perspectives about other people and their intentions (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning [CASEL], 2020). ## Persistent Thinking ***Engineers Iterative redesign is a universal feature of engineering (Petroski, 1996).*** Engineers make tweaks and cycle through repeated attempts at each phase of the design process, from refining their statement of the problem, to constructing dozens of prototypes, to proposing several options for materials selection and final specifications. Another way that engineering designers are persistent is by purposefully holding multiple sets of requirements in their minds throughout a design process. They con- stantly refer to the physical principles that govern the design scenario, the wishes that their clients have expressed for an acceptable solution, and their own personal experi- ences with similar problems (Cross, 2003). It takes persistence to keep all these elements in mind throughout a problem-solving process. ***Young Children As all early childhood educators know, classrooms of 3- and*** 4-year-olds can persist in solving the same problem (e.g., constructing ramps that keep cars from falling off them, moving water from one container to another using pumps) for many days— even weeks (Worth & Grollman, 2003). This persistent thinking is sup- ported by their teacher’s careful problem posing, provision of materials, and documen- tation (through photos, drawings, dictated texts, and anecdotal records) of children’s questions and findings. ## Reflective Thinking ***Engineers An interesting contrast between recently graduated engineers and*** their more experienced colleagues is that the novices utilize a systematic trial-and- error approach to design: implement and evaluate each design idea through many iterations. By contrast, experienced engineers evaluate tentative design ideas before implementing them, thus engaging early in reflective decision making and spending their time implementing only potentially fruitful ideas (Ahmed et al., 2003). They also explicitly view evidence-based decision making as the cornerstone of engineering Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 15 Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 15 18/12/23 11:16 AM 18/12/23 11:16 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer Why Engineering and Problem Solving Are Important design (Daly et al., 2012). No matter what design process engineers follow, their activi- ties always include analysis and testing of the work they are producing (Bucciarelli, 1994). When they have engaged in predictive analysis prior to prototyping and testing a solution, engineers use reflective thinking to compare their predictions with actual results. ***Young Children Reflection can be described as “remembering with analysis”*** (Epstein, 2003, p. 2). For young children, remembering involves recalling both what they planned to do and what they did. Analysis by young children answers the ques- tion “How did it go?” When children are guided to plan, carry out, and reflect on their own learning activities, they show more purposeful behavior and more success on intellectual measures (Sylva, 1992). ## Collaborative Thinking ***Engineers Informed engineering designers are effective group collaborators (Cris-*** mond & Adams, 2012). In fact, the ability to function well in teams is a requirement of college-level engineering education programs (ABET, 2021). Engineering professors often assign team design projects to help students improve their skills in teamwork, communication, and collective decision making (Borrego et al., 2013). These professors know that engineering is a collaborative endeavor and that successful practicing engi- neers engage often in the communication tasks of translation, clarification, negotiation, and listening (Darling & Dannels, 2010). ***Young Children In an example of a natural setting where children engage collab-*** oratively with an engineering challenge, Worth and Grollman (2003) describe a pre- school classroom where so many children were engaged in the challenge of making balls travel as far as possible down cardboard ramps that their teachers grouped them into teams of four children each; each team had either all 3-year-olds or all 4-year-olds. The teacher noted that although the 3-year-olds proceeded by carrying out trial-and- error methods together, the 4-year-olds truly collaborated by suggesting ideas to each other, trying them out, and communicating lessons learned to incorporate into their next ramp system. Being a contributing member of a team is a skill that can be learned. When encouraged to reflect on and listen to their peers’ recommendations, elementary school students critiqued each other’s engineering designs in ways that led to substan- tive changes in their products (Capobianco et al., 2011). ## THE PROBLEM-SOLVING FRAMEWORK, CHILD ## DEVELOPMENT, AND STANDARDS OF EARLY EDUCATION AND CARE Different theories of children’s cognitive and social-emotional development call for dif- ferent approaches to the creation of learning experiences. Our emergent engineering approach, grounded by the five thinking skills and the “think about it, try it, fix it, and share it” cycle, reflects the view that young children’s development is a back-and-forth process in which the social and cultural context strongly influences a child’s intellectual and emotional growth. Children’s innate cognitive abilities, social-emotional skills, and perceptions all interact with the people and objects around them at any given time, and different areas of knowledge and different skills emerge in different contexts. This is why the different activities in this book foster different kinds of thinking skills and dif- ferent parts of the engineering design cycle. Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 16 Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 16 18/12/23 11:16 AM 18/12/23 11:16 AM --- # FOR MORE, go to: bpub.fyi/engineer Young Children Are Natural Problem Solvers Our view of child development draws from several key theories of cognitive and social-emotional development. The first is Piaget’s constructivist idea (1954) that chil- dren construct new knowledge through interactions with objects in their environ- ment. For this reason, all our emergent engineering activities call for children to solve problems with physical objects and materials. Piaget’s constructivist idea was elaborated by Vygotsky’s theory that chil- dren’s knowledge construction is influ- enced strongly by conversation with more knowledgeable adults (1962). With the tool of language, adults help children articulate the abstract concepts they are constructing in their minds through their play and exploration of the world. As a result, all our emergent engineering activities place a strong emphasis on adults’ use of language to interpret, elaborate on, and raise questions to children about their problem-solving work and play. We also propose activities that at times seem just beyond children’s reach. We do this intentionally, because with the careful guidance of adults, children can stretch their skills to accomplish new tasks and then develop the skills needed to carry out those tasks on their own. This aspect of the emergent engineering framework relies on Vygotsky and Cole’s (1978) notion that children have a zone of proximal development where adults can offer scaffolding to enable children to carry out higher mental processes that they would not be able to do alone. Of course, the zone of proximal development is only open when children trust the adult who is offering support, and so emergent engineering activities also call for adult caregivers to be responsive to young children’s needs and to intention- ally serve as a secure base from which children can explore. The notion that attachment networks (Howes, 1999) are essential to both intellectual and social-emotional develop- ment is important to the work in this book. Finally, to help children reach their potential as emergent engineers, we have designed activities that are inspired by Fischer and col- leagues’ (1993) portrayal of children’s competence not as a characteristic of an individ- ual child but as an attribute of that child in context. The problem-solving experiences in Chapters 3 through 7 of this book provide rich, meaningful contexts in which children can explore big ideas and exercise higher order thinking skills to accomplish engaging tasks. These contexts allow children to demonstrate competence that often far exceeds what adults first thought possible for them. Standards of early education and care also support this book’s claim that young children can develop the five thinking skills of emergent engineering. In fact, the learn- ing goal of becoming a curious, persistent, flexible, reflective, and collaborative thinker is reflected in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010), as well as in early childhood learning outcomes documents for several states, including California, Ohio, and Massachusetts. Table 1.2 shows how standards for early education and care from these national and state documents align with each of the five emergent engineer- ing thinking skills. The learning activities in this book can help infants, toddlers, and preschoolers meet these standards and others as they take delight in becoming young engineering problem solvers. Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 17 Stone-MacDonald_Ch01_p1-20.indd 17 18/12/23 11:16 AM 18/12/23 11:16 AM --- FOR Why Engineering and Problem Solving Are Important MORE, go to: Table 1.2. Alignment of the emergent engineering thinking skills with standards for early education and care Why Engineering and Problem Solving Are Important MORE, go | | Curious thinking | Persistent thinking | Flexible thinking | Reflective thinking | Collaborative thinking | Web link | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Massachusetts Guidelines for infants and Toddlers (Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, 2011) | SED19. The young infant explores the environment around them.SED22. The older infant more actively explores the environment. | CD12. The young infant repeats a pleasing sound or motion.CD13. The young infant discovers that repeated actions yield similar results.CD14. The older infant observes actions and discovers that repeated actions yield similar results.CD15. The older infant performs an action to get a resulting event to occur. | CD30. The young infant begins to learn how objects work by handling them and watching others use them.CD31. The older infant actively explores the environment to make new discoveries. | CD24. The young infant becomes aware of patterns in the environment.CD28. The older infant begins to recognize patterns. | LC8. The young infant understands and uses social communication.CD9. The older infant begins to comprehend and use social communication. | http://www.eec.state.maus/docs1Workforce_Dev/Layout.pdf | | California Infant Toddler Desired Results(Center for Child and Family Studies, 2010) | COG6: Curiosity | COG7: Attention maintenance | COG2: Problem solving | COG1: Cause and effect | SSD13: Social understanding | http://www.desiredresultsus/docs/Forms%20page/DRDPP%20j010/T%206_29_10Fpdf | | Massachusetts Preschool Guidelines (Massachusetts Department of Education, 2003) | Science and technology, Inquiry Skills1. Ask and seek out answers to questions about objects and events with the assistance of interested adults. | | | Science and Technology, Inquiry Skills4. Record observations and share ideas through simple forms of representation such as drawings. | Science and Technology, Inquiry Skills4. Record observations and share ideas through simple forms of representation such as drawings. | http://fcsn.org/jpt/topics/earlychildhood/preschool_learning.eec.pdf | | Massachusetts Preschool STEM Skills (Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2014) | Observe and ask questions about observable phenomena(objects, materials, organisms or events). | | Construct theories based on experience about what is going on(Prek-LS2-2). Look for and describe patterns and relationships(Prek-LS1-2.Prek-LS1-3). | Support thinking with evidence.Engagement discussion before, during and after investigations. | Document experiences and thinking to communicate with others. | http://www.massgov.edu/docs/sec/2013/10/09/pkci-tech-standards.pdf | --- FOR Young Children Are Natural Pr MORE, oblem Solvers go to: Young Children Are Natural Pr MORE, oblem Solvers go | | COG4: Curiosity and initiative | COG5: Engagement and persistence | COG2: Problem solving | COG1: Cause and effect | LLD3: Expression of self through language | http://www.cdce.ca.gov/spcid/c/documents/ddp2010preschooling.pdf | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Ohio Early Learning Content Standards (Ohio Department, of Education, 2012) | Approaches to learning; Initiative and Curiosity | Approaches to learning; Engagement and Persistence | Approaches to Learning; Innovation and invention | Approaches to Learning; Planning; Action and Reflection | Social and Emotional Development; Peer interaction and relationships | http://education.ohio.gov/topics/EarlyLearning/EarlyLearning.Content-StandardTheStandards | | Head Start Child Outcomes Office of Head Start, 2011 | Approaches to learning; Initiative and Curiosity | Approaches to learning; Persistence and Attentiveness | Approaches to Learning; Reasoning and Problem Solving | Approaches to Learning; Reasoning and Problem Solving | Approaches to Learning; Cooperative | https://leekcats.afs.fhs.gov/hcs/htas/system/teaching/eecd/Assessment/Child%20Outcomes/HCS_Outcomes_FrameworkKrew2011.pdf | | Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (National Governors Association for Best Practices & Council of Chief School Officers, 2010) | Standards for Mathematical Practice, 1. Make sense of problems and play in solving them. | Standards for Mathematical Practice, 1. Make sense of problems and play in solving them. | Standards for Mathematical Practice, 2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. | Standards for Mathematical Practice, 3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. | Standards for Mathematical Practice, 3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. | http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CSSI_Math%20Standards.pdf | | Next Generation Science Standards for Kindergarten (National Research Council, 2012) | With guidance, plan and conduct an investigation in collaboration with peers. (K-PS2-1) | Use observations (firsthand or from medial to describe patterns in the natural world in order to answer scientific questions. (K-LS1-1) | Use tools and materials provided to design and build a device that solves a specific problem or a solution to a specific problem. (K-PS2-2) | Analyze data from tests of an object or tool to determine if it works as intended. (K-PS2-2) | With guidance, plan and conduct an investigation in collaboration with peers. (K-PS2-1) | http://www.nextgenscience.org/sites/ngss/files/k%20combinated%20DC%20standards%206.13.13_0pdf | | California Infant Bedder Desired Results © 2010 by the California Department of Education, Child Development Division. All rights reserved. Massachusetts Preschool Guidelines Copyright © 2003 Massachusetts Department of Education; California Preschool Learning © 2010 by the California Department of Education, Child Development Division. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2010; National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief School Officers. All rights reserved. Next Generation Science Standards for Kindergarten © 2013 Achieve. Inc. All rights reserved. | | | | | | | drawings that provide by Angi Stone-MacDonald, Ph.D., Kristen Wendell, Ph.D., Anne Douglass, Ph.D., Mary Lu Love, M.S., Amanda Wiehe Lopes, Ph.D. detail about scientific ideas. (K-ESS3- 3) California Infant Toddler Desired Results © 2010 by the California Department of Education, Child Development Division. All rights reserved; Massachusetts Preschool Guidelines Copyright © 2003 --- EDUCATION / PRESCHOOL & KINDERGARTEN “Provides excellent examples of high-quality STEM activities to support children’s problem-solving and critical thinking skills...a great resource for early childhood educators in inclusive settings.” oost young children’s problem-solving skills and set them up for long-term success with the second edition of this Bpractical guidebook! Enhanced with new lessons and timely topics—including equity and the use of makerspaces—this book will help you get all children ready for kindergarten by teaching them basic practices of engineering design and critical thinking skills. Using a clear instructional framework and fun lesson plans tailored for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, you’ll guide your “emerging engineers” as they explore big ideas and develop new ways of NEW IN THIS EDITION: thinking through engaging and challenging learning experiences. Q Introduce hands-on learning experiences that teach critical thinking skills—curiosity, persistence, flexibility, reflection, and and equity in STEM Every lesson plan updated More lessons based on new NEW IN THIS EDITION: Three new themes: computational thinking, makerspaces, and inclusion thinking skills—curiosity, persistence, flexibility, reflection, and collaboration Q Demystify and teach key phases of engineering design: think about it, try it, fix it, and share it Q Support school readiness by helping children work toward Q Support school readiness by helping children work toward kindergarten standards Q Use universal design for learning (UDL) principles to ensure that learning experiences work for all children, with and without development Expanded information on that learning experiences work for all children, with and without disabilities Q Encourage language and literacy development with suggestions for weaving reading into problem-solving experiences and using language to prompt children’s thinking assessment Updated book resources and experiences and using language to prompt children’s thinking skills Q Promote other skills needed for school success, including social-emotional skills, self-regulation, Sheets, and blank Experience Planning Templates ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Angi Stone-MacDonald, Ph.D., is a professor and chair for the Special Education, Rehabilitation, and Counseling Department at California State University, San Bernardino. Kristen Wendell, Ph.D., is an associate professor of mechanical engineering and education at Tufts University. Anne Douglass, Ph.D., is a professor of early childhood education and founding executive director at the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Mary Lu Love, M.S., is a retired lecturer/director of early childhood services at the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Amanda Wiehe Lopes, Ph.D., is Learning and Quality Improvement Q Promote other skills needed for school success, including social-emotional skills, self-regulation, and executive functioning Q Get practical materials, including activities, self-reflection checklists, Early Childhood UDL Planning