Early Science Education for Open Minds and Social Good

As a global society, we are facing complex challenges including the climate crisis, a virus pandemic, migration, social inequality, and the digital divide. These issues yield the chance of transformation for the better, but they also come with uncertainty, misinformation and rapid change. To cope with all of this, it's more important than ever that we raise a generation of young people who are well-equipped to find their path through these challenges. Children need the knowledge, abilities, and agency to think and act responsibly, and to navigate and design the future.

But how do we do this?

Education can be a powerful solution. As children, we start with an untamed curiosity and openness to exploring the world. Early education, especially science education, encourages children to ask their own questions, and supports them in learning ways and methods to find answers. It aims to comprehensively help children understand the world and to apply in a value-based way what has been learned. Knowledge, skills, and understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematical phenomena are vital in understanding global problems and supporting actions in society that address these challenges in a meaningful and knowledge-based way. Inquiry-based science education taps into children’s thirst for exploration and helps them to work together and appropriate the world through understanding. Our work at the non-profit Haus der kleinen Forscher Foundation (House of Little Scientists Foundation) can offer an example of fostering this way of thinking and acting from children’s earliest years.

Promoting the inquiring spirit of children

The Foundation is committed to high-quality early education in the domains of science, technology, (information) engineering and computer science, and mathematics (STEM) with the aim of preparing children for the future and enabling them to act in a sustainable way. The laws of physics and nature are a part of children’s everyday lives: in the morning, the alarm clock rings; toothpaste foams when brushing the teeth; hot cocoa gives off steam in a mug; on the way to kindergarten, children observe flowers that were still closed the day before. Children want, quite literally, to grasp their world and to learn more about it. These numerous occasions in daily life are a great starting point for exploration and inquiry.

Our mission is to promote a questioning and inquiring attitude in children; to give children the opportunity to discover at a young age their own talents and potential in inquiry-based learning; and, by so doing, to lay the foundations for reflective engagement with technological and social changes in the interest of sustainable development. The Foundation’s pedagogic approach is research-based and child-centered. It focuses on the interests and abilities of young children and emphasizes collaborative, inquiry-based learning in dialogic exchange.

Supporting teachers’ and educational institutions’ professional development

In order to achieve this, we work closely with educators to support them in promoting this kind of learning in children. The “Haus der kleinen Forscher” program is among the largest early childhood education initiatives in Europe. It aims to enhance the educational opportunities of all children between the ages of three and ten in Germany. For this purpose, we provide teachers and other staff with a continuing professional development program.

Together with over 200 local network partners, we provide a nationwide professional development program that helps educators to facilitate children’s exploration, inquiry, and learning. About 82,000 early childhood educators and teachers from over 33,300 early childhood education and care centers, after-school centers, and primary schools have participated in the initiative’s program. About 2.8 million children attend the participating institutions. Partners of the Haus der kleinen Forscher Foundation include the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, the Siemens Stiftung, the Dietmar Hopp Stiftung, the Deutsche Telekom Stiftung and the Dieter Schwarz Stiftung. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research has supported the initiative since 2008.

The initiative’s approach supports educational institutions to develop as a whole institution offering children favorable development and learning environments. With its activities, the Foundation supports the implementation of existing education plans in the domains of science, technology, computer science, and mathematics as well as education for sustainable development (ESD), thus contributing to the implementation of global Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education). For example, teachers support children to explore basic forms of energy by inquiring about hibernating animals. Children may also learn about heat insulation and how to air rooms in a way that enables good exchange of air without wasting energy.

Learning at the organizational level – Dialogue with field developers in education

At Haus der kleinen Forscher Foundation, we reflect our work as a learning organization by obtaining advice and feedback from renowned experts in various disciplines, thereby enabling us to continuously develop the concepts and program further. All activities of the education initiative are research-based and evaluated on an ongoing basis. We engage in open dialogue with scientists and professional practitioners, and collaborate internationally with several countries. The Foundation contributes to expert groups such as the expert forum driving forward the UNESCO Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development in Germany.

In cooperation with the Siemens Stiftung, we initiated the International Dialogue on STEM Education (IDoS), a network designed to fuel discussions on future-oriented education, to share pedagogical approaches, to empower collaboration, and to learn from each other as education initiatives in an international community. In 2019, I was part of a team of writers who published a report on how an inquiry-based educational approach to STEM can make a difference in society. We proposed a set of guiding principles of STEM Education for Sustainable Development, and provided practical approaches collated from six continents on how to make this work. The position paper was discussed and, amazingly, endorsed by educational experts and decision-makers from over 30 countries.

By empowering our children’s potential from a young age, by trusting in their spirit of inquiry, educating them to be scientifically literate, and engaging them in perspective-taking and collaboration, I believe we can help them address the most complex issues of our time with confidence and skill.

For more information about the “Haus der kleinen Forscher“ initiative’s work or about the International Dialogue on STEM Education (IDoS), please visit the Foundation’s website.

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