Kids love to explore their surroundings with their senses and wonder about every little thing around them. They desire to learn and are eager to understand everything in the world. Kids’ STEM courses provide children of all ages and levels with excellent opportunities to explore and learn about a broad range of concepts and ideas through hands-on, active learning. Kids’ STEAM classes usually include an exciting programme that would capture children’s interest and increase their engagement in their learning process during kids’ steam classes. There are a lot of other positive outcomes for kids to participate in kids’ STEM classes, apart from the concepts that they acquire from the course. Kids’ STEM courses (and for kids’ STEAM classes as well) help to nurture and develop children’s curiosity, motivate them to learn and solve problems on their own. Kids also learn to think critically and be confident in what they do through learning in kids’ STEAM courses.
1. Curiosity
Kids’ STEM/STEAM courses create an environment that sparks children’s interest to explore, be inquisitive and find out the answers through different fascinating and engaging hands-on during kids' STEM classes without having the fear of making mistakes. Learning to not be afraid of failures during kid’s STEAM classes is especially important in cultivating their curiosity as having a negative mindset discourages them from wanting to learn or explore further.
Through active discussions, open-ended questions as well as trial and error, children come up with new ideas to solve problems arising from different scenarios during kids’ STEM courses. They are encouraged to ask questions during kids’ STEAM classes and try again when they fail with the guidance and support of their peers and tutors. They will come up with innovative ideas and see failures as a part of learning instead of setbacks as an outcome of attending kid’s STEM classes.
Nurturing their curiosity during kids’ STEAM classes allows them to understand the world better and helps to cultivate their imagination and be innovative. These kids’ STEAM courses also help kids to turn mistakes and failures into opportunities to learn and improve, and thus, making them not afraid to fail in other aspects of life, and fuel their desire to explore the world even more.
2. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills
Having good critical thinking skills and problem solving skills are essential if you want your kids to have the ability to solve problems on their own and think logically. During kids’ STEAM courses, experiment is a good medium to introduce critical thinking and problem-solving skills to children.
Lots of experiments happen during kids’ STEM and STEAM courses. Through hands-on activities, children apply what they have learned in kid’s STEM classes to practice. During kids’ STEAM courses, they have to monitor the process of their experiments, as well as observe the outcomes. They encounter challenges and failures during the process, and need to analyze data and interpret information to think of ideas to help them overcome problems. During this learning process during kids’ STEAM classes, they have to make use of their analytical and problem-solving skills to come up with ideas to build on their existing knowledge, and make meaning of the information they gather to tackle different problems. This all lays the foundation for them to later learn more complex ideas in life.
3. Confidence and Resilience
Children experience trial and error during kids’ STEM classes. Trial and error are an important step in building kids’ confidence and guiding them to the road of being resilient. As kids try different methods to achieve the outcomes that they want during kids’ STEM courses, they learn to reflect on what they have done wrong in the process when they fail, make adjustments to their ideas and try again. In other words, kids’ STEAM classes allow them to undergo shortcomings in an environment that is comfortable and safe for them. Kids’ STEAM courses also give children a sense of accomplishment when they carry out ideas of their own, succeed to achieve their goals or build the gadgets that they want after serious attempts and effort.