Engineering Peer Play: A New Perspective on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Engineering play is a new perspective for understanding young children’s play as a design process, paralleling the way engineers think and work to problem-solve (Bairaktarova et al. Child Youth Environ 21(2):212–235, 2011). Just as children enjoy planning and building with peers, engineers work collaboratively. The focus of this chapter is: is an engineering play perspective useful for framing the ways children play together? How does viewing children’s social constructive play as engineering help adults to support children’s development and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning? Previous research suggests children engage in process-focused play when there is opportunity to design and construct with novel materials like blocks or other loose parts (Brophy and Evangelou Precursors to engineering thinking (PET). In: Proceedings of the annual conference of the American Society of Engineering Education, Washington, DC, 2007). Observational research during preschoolers’ social constructive free play resulted in identification of nine engineering play categories (Gold et al. Child Youth Environ 25:1–21, 2015). This chapter makes the case that engineering play is useful for three reasons: (1) to understand valuable peer play processes during social constructive play; (2) as a perspective adults can use to support development and learning in several areas; and (3) to increase young children’s early STEM awareness and interest. We describe the development of this emerging field and discuss implications of an engineering play perspective for research and teaching.