STEM Exploration for Infants and Toddlers: Light and Shadow
A：STEM education for young children is not just about programming, machines, and AI, but also about guiding them to use everyday materials to solve real-life problems. For infants and toddlers, their daily “work” is to explore the materials, tools, and objects around them, and to find causal relationships and solve problems.
A：For infants, adults can use light and shadows as visual stimuli to cultivate their ability to track objects visually. For example, wrapping a flashlight with a handkerchief and moving it slowly in front of the infant to guide their gaze to follow the light and shadow.
A：Everyday materials can be used as a medium for infants to explore light and shadows. For example, various transparent materials (transparent boxes, glass, plastic wrap), various artificial light sources (flashlights, candles, coloured lights), and light tables.
A：Infants can learn about the effects of light and discover that natural light (such as sunlight) and artificial light (such as electric lights and lamps) are different. They can also think about how shadows are formed and experience how shadows change with their body movements. Infants will learn to use tools such as flashlights, magnifying glasses, and candle lights to explore light and shadows.
A：One way to explore light and shadows with infants is to prepare a large box that they can crawl into. Place coloured small lights or decorative lights inside the box and encourage the infant to crawl inside and experience the changes in light and shadows. You can also create holes in the box to observe the trajectory of light beams entering the box.
A：One way to explore light and shadows with toddlers is to adjust the lighting using curtains or blackout curtains, allowing them to observe the changes in light throughout the day. Place familiar toys on a light table and observe how they change under different lighting conditions. You can also take toddlers outside at night with a flashlight to search for creatures hiding in the dark, such as insects, birds, and small animals.
A：One way to explore light and shadows with toddlers is to provide a small tent or enclosed space at home and encourage them to bring a light source into the enclosed space. Use a projector to project the building blocks made by the toddler on the wall. Encourage toddlers to observe their shadows on sunny days or to draw the shadows of objects in the sunlight with a brush.
A：Parents can create a shadow puppet theatre with their children to promote language development. They can use cardboard to cut out hand puppets of different shapes and sizes, and then project them onto a white sheet or wall using a projector or flashlight in a dark room. Together, they can create and act out stories, which can help to develop their language and storytelling skills.
A:
S (Science) – Sensing that sound is generated by vibration and that the sounds produced by different materials are different.
T (Technology) – Using the body as a tool (low technology) to create sound.
E (Engineering) – Repeated experimentation to determine how to create a specific sound.
M (Mathematics) – Classification, comparison, and understanding of spatial terms.