STEM learning experiences during the early years shape how children see themselves as thinkers, problem-solvers, and explorers of the world. Yet many STEM activities that look similar on the surface are supported by different practices — with very different outcomes for children’s learning.
Read on to unpack four common practices educators use to support children’s early STEM learning experiences (including one to avoid). Three of these — free exploration, prompted exploration, and active engagement demonstration — are highly valuable when used intentionally. At Little Scientists we call these the Gateways to Learning because each practice opens another path to learning for children. However, the fourth common practice, passive engagement demonstration, is not aligned with best practice despite being used with good intentions.
Join Little Scientists’ Facebook group “Early STEM Educators Network” to share your favourite intentional teaching practices and STEM ideas with educators all over Australia.
Overview: 3 Intentional STEM practices (& one to avoid)
Practice 1. Free exploration
What is it?
Free exploration involves children engaging with open-ended materials and exploring natural phenomena with no predetermined outcome and minimal educator intervention. Educators provide time, space, and materials, then step back to observe how children investigate.
Example
In practice, this might look like an educator setting out loose parts, planks, tubes, and balls and allowing children to follow their own ideas about how they’d like to use them.
Children might decide to construct ramps with the planks and then roll objects down them. They might then choose to rebuild the ramps and test new ideas through experimentation and repetition.
The educator might notice the children’s persistence, collaboration, and problem-solving, but does not intervene to steer the learning in a particular direction.
Why educators use it?
- Aligns strongly with child-led play and respects children as capable learners.
- Supports curiosity, autonomy, and sensory exploration, particularly for very young children or when materials are new.
- It links directly to the assessment stage of the Cycle of Planning in the EYLF and MTOP V2.0 as it provides an opportunity for educators to observe children’s understandings and ideas.
Strengths & limitations
💪 Free exploration is especially valuable in the early stages of engagement, when children are becoming familiar with materials and phenomena. The EYLF and MTOP V2.0 position children as active participants in their learning, and free exploration honours this by allowing children to follow their own questions and interests.
✋ However, without educator interaction, STEM concepts often remain unarticulated. For example, while children may notice that a ball rolls faster down a steeper ramp, ideas about slope, speed, or force might not be named, compared, or extended. Some children may also not have experience with open-ended or child-led play and could struggle to come up with their own ideas for using the materials.
Key message
Free exploration is a valuable practice to help educators assess children’s interests, prior knowledge, and their STEM learning skills and dispositions — like critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, collaboration — but on its own, it does not guarantee STEM learning.
Practice 2. Prompted exploration
What is it?
Prompted exploration builds directly on free exploration with intentional educator prompts that deepen and extend children’s thinking — without educators taking control of the activity. Educators can prompt children in a variety of ways, for example:
🗨️ Verbal prompts and questions.
👁️ Visual prompts and signs.
🧩 How materials are provided in the environment. For example, the type and quantity of materials & how they are laid out.
✨ Modelling ways children could use the materials (avoiding telling children what to do).
Example
Building off the ramp example above, an educator might notice children adjusting the height of their ramps and ask, “What happens when you place the ramp higher?” or “How could we change this to make the ball roll more slowly?”.
The educator could bring out additional materials, like balls of varying weights and sizes or a tape measure, or they could allow children access to the sandpit to extend their explorations.
In this way, children remain in control of what they build and test, but their attention is drawn to patterns, relationships, and cause-and-effect.
Why this matters for early STEM
This approach sits at the heart of evidence-based early STEM practice because it keeps children as active investigators while making their thinking visible. Children are encouraged to predict, test ideas, explain outcomes, and revise their thinking — all foundational STEM capabilities. The EYLF V2.0 is explicit that intentional teaching and play‑based learning work together and the MTOP V2.0 is aligned with this approach. Prompted exploration is where they intersect.
Educators’ role
The educator listens closely, chooses moments to intervene thoughtfully, and uses language, materials, and the environment to extend learning rather than direct it. This directly aligns to the Planning and Implementation stages of the EYLF and MTOP V2.0 Cycle of Planning.
Key message
Educators have a pivotal role in extending children’s learning through intentional prompts and questions. Prompted exploration turns curiosity into learning without undermining play.
Practice 3. Active engagement demonstration
What is it?
The educator leads a demonstration, but children are actively and meaningfully involved throughout the process, rather than observing passively.
Example
To support an inquiry into rockets and energy, an educator might introduce a simple bottle-rocket investigation using vinegar and baking soda. Before the rocket is launched, children are invited to explore the materials by smelling and touching them, share what they already know, and discuss what they think might happen when the two substances are combined.
The educator then prompts the children to make predictions and explain their reasoning. After the rocket is launched, the educator revisits the children’s predictions, asks them to share what they have observed, and encourages children to reflect on what has happened.
When it works well
Active demonstrations are particularly useful when materials are unsafe or difficult to explore independently, when phenomena are challenging to access through free play, or when a shared experience supports collective thinking.
The EYLF V2.0 emphasises shared thinking and sustained conversations, both of which can occur in high-quality demonstrations where children’s ideas shape what happens next. MTOP V2.0 reflects the same idea through relationship‑based, shared learning.
Possible risk
If children stop predicting, questioning, or contributing, the demonstration can quickly shift into a passive experience, even if it looks engaging.
Key message
Demonstrations can support early STEM, but only when children are genuinely thinking and contributing, not just watching.
Practice 4. Passive engagement demonstration
What is it?
Passive demonstrations occur when the educator performs a STEM activity while children watch, often with explanations delivered as the activity unfolds or afterwards.
Example
A common example is a “volcano experiment” where the educator mixes ingredients at the front of the group or with minor involvement from the children.
The children then watch the reaction and the educator explains the science once the experiment is complete. In this example, educators use the experiment or activity to “teach” a concept rather than supporting children to explore and build knowledge themselves.
Why this is problematic?
For children aged 0–8, passive observation limits opportunities to predict, test ideas, and problem-solve. Learning becomes something that is shown to children, rather than constructed with them. The EYLF and MTOP V2.0 explicitly move away from this transmission-style of teaching and towards active, relational, and play-based learning.
Why it still happens
This approach is often unintentional. It can feel efficient, mirrors adult learning experiences, and is how many educators themselves were taught science.
Key message
If children are mostly watching, listening, and waiting, it’s not early STEM best practice, even if the content is “science”.
It’s not what you do, but how
Across all four practices, the same materials and activities can appear again and again. What changes is who is thinking, questioning, and investigating.
High-quality early STEM education — as envisioned in the EYLF and MTOP V2.0 — positions children as active, capable learners, with educators intentionally supporting, extending, and valuing their thinking. At Little Scientists, understanding these distinctions is fundamental to evidence-based early STEM practice because early STEM is not about showing children answers, but supporting them to build understanding.
Develop your STEM skills with pedagogy-based STEM PD:
- Browse our in-person STEM workshops.
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- Browse our online STEM Hours.
- Book an in-service workshop for your team.
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