Little Scientists
House Certification
Little Scientists House is Australia’s only dedicated STEM certification program for early learning services and classrooms.
Becoming a Little Scientists House is a 24-month certification period that allows you to showcase to parents and the community that your team is delivering best practice inquiry-based STEM education. It also gives you access to a range of early STEM teaching support and promotional resources throughout your certification period.
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The Little Scientists House certification program has been running since 2017, with over 200 services and classrooms certified across Australia.
As Australia’s leading provider of STEM professional development to the early childhood sector, Little Scientists offers certification as a way to recognise early learning services and classrooms that are committed to best practice early STEM education and making an ongoing investment in their team’s STEM professional development.
To become certified or renew your certification, a service will:
- Designate two educators to undertake STEM professional development.
- Co-develop an inquiry-based STEM project with your children, which is then submitted to Little Scientists for assessment — a valuable opportunity to gain feedback on the strengths and development areas of your STEM project work.
How to certify or renew as a House
Step 1. Two educators attend two STEM PD workshops.
Whether you’re certifying for the first time or renewing your House certification, the first step is for two educators at your service to attend at least two STEM PD workshops with Little Scientists. This PD must take place in the 24-month period before submitting your certification application or renewal application.
One of these workshops must be an in-person or in-service workshop, while the other workshop can be an in-person, in-service, or an online workshop (not a STEM Hour). If your service is not located near any in-person workshops, please email house@littlescientists.org.au and we can customise this eligibility.
Why is PD important? Two workshops in 24-months is the minimum level of STEM professional development needed to ensure that an educator is maintaining and building upon their STEM teaching skills, knowledge, and confidence. The skills and pedagogy that educators gain at these workshops will also directly support them to run a high-quality STEM project.. For this reason, the two educators who attend STEM PD should ideally be the same educators who develop the project.
Please note that a certification period lasts 24-months after which you can renew your certification by fulfilling the same PD requirements in Step 1 and submitting a new inquiry-based STEM project.
Step 2. Co-develop your inquiry-based STEM project.
An inquiry-based STEM project follows the project inquiry cycle. This starts with selecting a single research question sparked by an observation, interest, or question raised by your children — for example, “Why are spiderwebs sticky?” — and then progressing through each stage of the cycle. The emphasis of an inquiry-based STEM project is on process and learning and explores a research question over an extended period of time of at least several weeks or months.
Co-developing an inquiry-based STEM project with young children is an important early STEM teaching skill that is developed over time and with practice. To maximise the success of your project, do not embark on your project until your educators have developed their STEM teaching skills in Step 1. When you’re ready to start preparing for your project, read this Project Support Page for all the information and resources needing to start planning.
Please note that a certification period lasts 24-months after which you can renew your certification by fulfilling the same PD requirements in Step 1 and submitting a new inquiry-based STEM project.
Step 3. Submit your application.
Once you have completed the eligibility requirements explained in Step 1 and 2, you can submit your application to certify as a Little Scientists House. Applications will be reviewed every four weeks and will be assessed using the project criteria here. Little Scientists will provide you with feedback on your project’s strengths and development areas and will let you know if your application is approved or if more information if needed.
Update: As of January 2026, Little Scientists has removed the certification fee so that there are no extra costs involved in certifying your service as a Little Scientists House. We hope this helps!
Step 4. Receive your pack & perks.
Upon approval of your Little Scientists House application, Little Scientists will share your Little Scientists House packs and perks with you.Your postal pack will include:
📌 Custom Little Scientists House certificate to display in your lobby.
📌 Little Scientists project book “Everyday inquiry in practice” (currently out of print)
📌 STEM Starter Cards.
📌 2-year certification planning calendar.
Your digital pack will include:
📱 Free access to Little Scientists online STEM Hours during your certification period.
📱 Digital Little Scientists House stamp to display on your website, email footer, and marketing.
📱 Invitations to attend virtual House Catch-ups to network with other Houses.
📱 Access to 15-minute STEM support calls with Little Scientists.
📱 Access to one 45-minute STEM mentoring session with Little Scientists.
Little Scientists will help promote your achievement by:
📣 Recording a short promotional video interview with you to celebrate your project. See examples here!
📣 Providing a custom media release to share with local media. (Look at 7NEWS Toowomba’s coverage of Concordia Lutheran College Kindergarten’s House certification!)
📣 Providing a template to invite your state and federal MPs to visit your service.
Step 5. Keep it up! Make a plan.
Your certification is just the beginning! Over the next 24-months, keep up the commitment and investment in early STEM education within your team. This means continuing to co-develop inquiry-based STEM projects (practice is essential!), attending STEM professional development to maintain and build upon your skills, and making the most of your Little Scientists House support and perks. For example:
⏰ Book your team into Little Scientists online STEM Hours (they’re free for Houses!)
⏰ Attend the virtual quarterly House Catch-ups to network with other Little Scientists Houses.
⏰ Set a goal for the number of projects your team will develop over the next 24-months.
⏰ Set a mid-year reminder for booking a virtual 45-minute STEM mentoring session.
⏰ Browse upcoming STEM workshops and schedule them in for your team.
Your House Perks (Launched 2025)
STEM PD & Implementation Support
Free
STEM Hours
Free team access to Little Scientists’ online STEM Hour webinars (usually $30pp)
$20 & $200
PD Discounts
$20 off every in-person workshop ticket & $200 off every in-service workshop booking.
Email Support
Ongoing support via our dedicated inbox: house@littlescientists.org.au
Community
Catch-Ups
Scheduled online House Catch-ups to network with other Houses, share updates, and ask questions.
15-minute
Support Calls
Access two 15-minute STEM support calls per year with Little Scientists via phone or Zoom.
45-minute Mentoring
Access one 45-minute STEM mentoring session per year for an educator or small team with Little Scientists via phone or Zoom.
STEM Resources
Planning Calendar
24-month certification planning calendar.
Digital Stamp
A digital certification stamp to use across your website, emails, and marketing.
STEM Starter Cards
Little Scientists STEM provocation card set.
Certificate
A personalised Little Scientists House certificate to display in your lobby.
Promotional Support
Promotional Video
Little Scientists will record a short online video interview with you to explore your STEM certification project. The video is yours to keep! You and Little Scientists can then share the video across our websites, social media, and marketing.
MP Invitation Template
Little Scientists will provide you with a MP invitation to email your state and federal MPs inviting them to visit your service. This does work!
Local Media Release
Little Scientists will provide you with a custom media release to share with local media to promote your STEM certification achievement. Look at Concordia Lutheran College Kindergarten’s 7NEWS coverage!
Map Listing
A listing and link to your service on the national Little Scientists House map of STEM certified services and schools.
Inquiry-based STEM Projects
Little Scientists Houses are early learning services and classrooms that are passionate about embedding inquiry-based STEM education into everyday curricula and play. The most effective way to develop your skills in embedding STEM learning is to co-develop inquiry-based STEM projects with your children. This is why developing an inquiry-based STEM project is a requirement of your Little Scientists House certification application.
An inquiry-based STEM project follows the project inquiry cycle. It starts with selecting a single research question sparked by an observation, interest, or question raised by your children — for example, “Why are spiderwebs sticky?” — and then progresses through each stage of the inquiry cycle. The emphasis of an inquiry-based STEM project is on process and learning and explores a research question over an extended period of time of at least several weeks or months. Visit our project support page to learn how to start your own inquiry-based STEM project. You can also read about some of our favourite projects here.
Little Scientists House Map
Little Scientists is proud to have certified over 200 early learning services and classrooms across the country for their commitment to high-quality inquiry-based early childhood STEM education.
To find your closest Little Scientists House certified service, explore the interactive map below and then click the house icon for individual service contact details.