Little Scientists Australia

That’s a wrap! From everyone at Little Scientists, we wish you a festive end to 2024 and a Happy New Year. We've been honoured to connect with so many educators and teachers this year through our workshops and the Little Scientists Early STEM Education Awards and to witness the STEM magic you’re creating inside your services and schools. Every child deserves access to high-quality early STEM education and we're immensely proud to support your work trailblazing early STEM in your services and classrooms. Thank you for being part of the Little Scientists community. Early STEM education wouldn't be possible without you 💚 Wishing you a safe and festive break, Emma, Anna, Ana, and Ruth for the Little Scientists team

✨ Final 2024 Highlight: For many of us at Little Scientists, our favourite 2024 memories involved the ECA Conference in Brisbane.  At our very own Little Scientists stall, we connected with hundreds of educators and handed out 350+ Little Scientists showbags packed with early STEM resources. We even offered polaroid selfies with our Dr Karl and Big Ted cutout, in celebration of our collaboration with Play School Science Time. A major conference highlight was presenting our research on "Overcoming Gender Bias in Early STEM Education" to an enthusiastic room of delegates. The room buzzed with questions, anecdotes, and strategies to foster gender equality in ECEC. This year's conference was a truly unforgettable experience and we can’t wait to come back in 2025. Early Childhood Australia #STEMEducation #EarlyChildhoodEducation #EducationActivities #ECEC #EarlyLearning #EarlyLearningIdeas 

📍 2024 Highlight #4: How many workshops does it take to train 1,327 educators in early STEM teaching skills? Approximately 57!  In 2024, Little Scientists delivered 25% more workshops across Australia (compared to 2023) and supported 462 services and schools to increase their STEM teaching capabilities. Our workshops stretched from Darwin to Melbourne, Far North Queensland to Adelaide to Western Sydney, and more. A huge achievement that wouldn’t have been possible without our incredible Local Network Partners: 🤝 AISWA - Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia  🤝 Northern Territory Department of Education (Northern Territory Government) 🤝 Gowrie SA  🤝 Australian Institute of Early Childhood Studies #STEMEducation #EarlyChildhoodEducation #ECEC #EarlyLearning #ProfessionalDevelopment 

🔬 2024 Highlight #3: Little Scientists was announced as a Finalist in the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes 2024. We were overjoyed to be a Finalist in the Department of Industry, Science and Resources Eureka Prize for STEM Inclusion, which is awarded to an initiative fostering greater inclusion in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in the Australian community. While we didn’t win on the night, Little Scientists is honoured to have been considered. This isn’t the end of the road though, as we’ll be back next year to take out the top spot! A very special thank you to three people who generously provided assessor reports and a testimonial as part of Little Scientists’ nomination:    • Christy-Lee Antonas, Deputy Principal, Hensman Street Elementary • Dr Kate Highfield, Associate Professor and Academic Lead, Early Childhood Education, University of Canberra • Lena Danaia, Associate Professor, Associate Head of School Staffing and Development, School of Education, Charles Sturt University #EurekaPrizes #STEMEducation #ECEC #EarlyLearning #EarlyChildhoodEducation  

🌟 2024 Highlight #2: We’re immensely proud of the high quality of our workshops at Little Scientists and we're glad educators and teachers feel the same:     “[Little Scientists] training is gaining a reputation as one of the most fun trainings we have ever participated in.”    “I enjoyed thinking outside the box using creative materials.”     “The presenter was wonderful, interactive, and facilitating lots of discussion within the group. She validated everyone’s ideas and showed curiosity in learning how the participants were doing STEM in their settings.”    “It was a great session… Lots of great ideas to use with inquiry projects happening back at kindy!”    #STEMEducation #EarlyChildhoodEducation #ECEC #EarlyLearning #ProfessionalDevelopment 

📺 2024 Highlight #1: Collaborating on Play School Science Time Season 3. This was Ana's (Little Scientists' Head Trainer) favourite memory from 2024 and who can blame her? We were thrilled when the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) asked Little Scientists to lend our STEM expertise to the latest season of Science Time. As part of the project, Ana visited the Play School set in Ultimo, reviewed episode scripts, and developed a captivating suite of companion STEM experiments for each episode, such as creating dye from vegetables and making moon craters.    Check out each episode and the STEM experiments: https://lnkd.in/e4i-KAZa #STEMEducation #EarlyChildhoodEducation #EducationActivities #InquiryLearning #ECEC #EarlyLearning #EarlyLearningIdeas #ProfessionalDevelopment

It’s Emma, Little Scientists’ Project Director here 👋 As it’s that time of year, I wanted to peel back the curtains and share some of our 2024 highlights with you.     One of our big goals this year was to significantly increase our training reach. I'm proud to report that we not only delivered 25% more workshops nationally, we trained 30% more educators compared to the previous year. We're super proud of this growth and could not have achieved it without for our small but mighty network of trainers across Australia 💚     We also ran the biennial Little Scientists Early STEM Education Awards, which are Australia's only dedicated awards to celebrate outstanding early STEM education. Not only were the quality of nominations in 2024 outstanding, the awards attracted more nominations than in any previous year!    At our award ceremonies across Australia, we were overjoyed to have in attendance so many leaders in STEM as well as Councillors, Mayors, Ministers, MPs, and Senators — many of whom were representing the Australian Minister for Education, the Hon. Jason Clare MP. Thank you for helping us to celebrate our deserving winners!    More 2024 highlights and moments here: https://lnkd.in/gqUwkP69

🔍 Today, we’re shining a spotlight on the Victorian Winner of the Early STEM Education Awards: Froebel Carlton Early Learning Centre in Melbourne.     Their winning inquiry-based STEM project “Blue! It sounds blue!” was sparked when their 0–3-year-old children were listening to animal audio recordings and became interested in the question: “What do ocean animals sound like?” They then embarked on a 3-month project to investigate, which involved:     🐬  Hypothesising about the sounds different ocean animals make.  🎨 Creating a 2-metre painting using colours inspired by ocean animal sounds (lots of blue!).   🐚  Visiting St Kilda Beach to engage in sensory play and collecting and sorting seashells.    Read more about their project: https://lnkd.in/gCMuMNix    Here's what the judges loved about this project:         "A wonderful example. Really great evidence of STEM in [early childhood].”    “This project’s [engagement with the] inquiry cycle... was so well documented.”    “The project was so creative in exploring the little ones' thoughts, feelings and questions about the ocean and how it relates to the world around them.”    Check out all the 2024 winners: https://lnkd.in/gavf2Ddn    The Early STEM Education Awards are proudly sponsored by LoveHeart, Education Technology Specialists, & EducationAll Australia.       Froebel Australia #STEMEducation #EarlyChildhoodEducation #EducationActivities #ECEC #EarlyLearning #EarlyLearningIdeas #EarlyLearningActivities #EarlySTEMAwards #EarlySTEMEducationAwards 

🛫 Little Scientists Head Trainer Ana recently travelled to Japan and connected with Professor Junko Ishizawa (Shirayuri University) and Associate Professor Rumi Haraguchi (Tokyo Gakugei University).     Ana sat in on Associate Professor Rumi's STEM workshop at the Gakugei no Mori Nursery School, in which children explored a range of reflective objects. In the photos, you can see the children exploring symmetry with mirrors and a worksheet.      This was a fantastic opportunity for Little Scientists to learn from colleagues in a very different context! Despite the geographical differences, there was a strong shared belief in the value of early STEM learning and the benefits of child-led and hands-on exploration.    💚 A big thank you to Professor Junko Ishizawa, Associate Professor Rumi Haraguchi, and the children and educators at the Gakugei no Mori Nursery School!    #STEMEducation #EarlyChildhoodEducation #ECEC #EarlyLearning #EarlyLearningIdeas #TeacherProfessionalDevelopment 

Sydney: Book into our “Mathematics & Pattern Recognition” Workshop on 13 March, held in partnership with Penrith City Council. In this interactive NESA-accredited workshop, learn to identify opportunities for children’s maths exploration in the everyday and gain expertise in the pedagogical topic of pattern recognition. Dive into hands-on activities, such as building a spiral staircase and investigating different types of symmetries in fruit. 🎟️ BOOK: https://lnkd.in/gn7bsGDc Event details:  🗓 WHEN: 9am-12:30pm, Thu 13 Mar 2025  🖥 WHERE: Penrith City Council, 601 High St, Penrith NSW  🪙 COST: $215pp #STEMEducation #EarlyChildhoodEducation #ECEC #EarlyLearning #EarlyLearningIdeas #TeacherProfessionalDevelopment