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Engineering in Early Childhood
Engineering in early childhood education is not about formal equations or advanced technical knowledge. Instead, it’s about how young children naturally explore how things work—through stacking, connecting, balancing, taking apart, and rebuilding. At its root, engineering is a creative, hands-on process of solving problems with materials. Children are often doing it long before we give it a name.
In early childhood classrooms, engineering can show up in block play, ramp construction, marble runs, fort building, pulley systems, and experiments with cause and effect. It also includes questioning: What can hold more weight? How can we make it taller? How do we stop it from falling?
This kind of thinking often happens through trial and error, storytelling, and collaboration. It requires materials that invite exploration—loose parts, natural objects, recycled items—and an environment where failure is seen as a necessary part of learning.
How It’s Understood (and Used)
In recent years, engineering has entered early childhood spaces through the broader STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) movement. While many STEM programs are still designed with older students in mind, there is growing interest in how engineering habits of mind—like problem-solving, persistence, iteration, and systems thinking—can be supported from the earliest years.
Some classrooms adopt formal “design thinking” cycles or engineering challenges. Others embed engineering more organically—through open-ended materials and play-based provocations that allow children to build, test, and revise their ideas over time.
A tension exists here. When engineering is reduced to step-by-step kits or performance tasks, it can lose its generative, imaginative core. But when it’s rooted in real curiosity and supported through thoughtful guidance, it can nurture deep learning.
How It Relates to My Approach (optional)
Engineering aligns with many values in my work—but I interpret it through the lens of play, relationship, and process. I don’t center engineering as a separate subject, but I see it emerge naturally when children build block structures, invent water systems, or solve problems in the forest using sticks, string, and intention.
In Reggio-inspired work, engineering appears as part of children’s hundred languages—using materials and ideas to explore how things are constructed and transformed. In play-based and nature-based education, children test physics with their bodies, negotiate designs with peers, and revise their ideas again and again.
Rather than framing children as “future engineers,” I honor the engineering that is already present—alive in their hands, imaginations, and interactions with the physical world.
References
- Martinez, S. & Stager, G. (2013). Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom
- Brody, C. (2018). “Young Engineers in the Block Area.” Young Children, NAEYC
- Trundle, K. & Sackes, M. (Eds.). (2015). Research in Early Childhood Science Education
- Davis, J. & Waite-Stupiansky, S. (2010). Taking on Turnkey Science: Examining the STEM Movement in Early Childhood
- Casey, T. (2011). Loose Parts: Inspiring Play in Young Children
Glossary
- Engineering Design Process – A flexible cycle of identifying a problem, imagining solutions, building prototypes, testing, and revising.
- Iteration – The process of trying, adjusting, and trying again—central to how children naturally learn through engineering play.
- Problem-Solving – A core skill developed through engineering play, as children encounter challenges and explore solutions.
- Loose Parts – Open-ended materials that can be combined and repurposed for building, inventing, and constructing.
- STEM in Early Childhood – An integrated approach to supporting science, technology, engineering, and math through inquiry, play, and exploration.
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