STEM education is a model for learning the exact sciences — mathematics, physics, chemistry — in an integrated way, with applications and examples drawn straight from nature and real life.
Its benefits show quickly: it improves creativity, increases teamwork, develops communication skills, awakens curiosity, strengthens cognitive abilities, teaches children to take the initiative and supports social and emotional learning. The reason is simple: in an experiment there is no single correct answer written in a textbook, only an observation that has to be discussed. A child who sees something different from their classmate has to explain what they saw and why — and that is where all the learning begins.
In week nine of the PlusKids Summer School we learned about volcanoes, rainbows, space and microbiology, through educational and entertaining activities that stirred the children's curiosity. These four subjects were chosen so that each has an experiment behind it: the eruption you can stage on a table, light unfolding into colours, distances the mind cannot hold, and the living world we bump into daily without seeing it.
The most useful thing a child takes from such a week is not information but the habit of asking "why?" and looking for a way to check the answer.
Tomorrow we will have fun with geometric shapes and solids, and we will celebrate as we do at the end of every week.
About the PlusKids Summer School: https://pluskids.ro/en/summer-school