The National Science Teachers Association is holding its annual STEM Forum & Expo next week in Kissimmee, Florida. Members of the Engineering is Elementary team will be there, and we’d love to see you! Find us at booth #716 in the exhibit hall, check out our session on developing Engineering Habits of Mind, and visit us at the Elementary STEM Showcase! If you drop by our booth or attend one of our sessions, you’ll have the opportunity to enter a raffle for the EiE materials kit of your choice.

We know that budgets at afterschool programs, camps, and schools can be tight, which is why the materials needed to teach EiE’s engineering activities are “inexpensive by design.” Our curriculum designers try their best to require supplies that teachers can easily locate at their local craft or hardware stores. If you are short on time and looking for an inexpensive afterschool engineering activity with easy-to-source materials, don’t be discouraged—Go Green: Engineering Recycled Racers, one of our Engineering Adventures units, is the perfect activity for you!

Bringing engineering to your classroom can seem like a daunting task. Visions of a craft supply mountain and a textbook-sized teacher guide can make even the most seasoned teacher hesitate. Here at EiE, we know the importance of introducing engineering to students, but we don’t want teachers to see classroom engineering as a difficult or insurmountable burden. To ease the potentially stressful task of introducing a new subject, the Engineering is Elementary team has worked hard to create resources, guides, and charts that provide educators with everything they’ll need to choose an appropriate EiE unit and easily implement classroom engineering.

We’re looking for feedback from everyone who reads our blog or newsletter—that means you! If you fill out the short form (it should take no more than 10 minutes) below, you’ll automatically be entered to win the EiE teacher guide of your choice. You can view the full selection of EiE units here. Your feedback is extremely valuable to us and will help us produce the content that you are most interested in. This survey will close at 5 PM EDT on Thursday, June 1, 2017. 

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We are so excited about our upcoming early childhood curricula—and we know you are too! Every time we post an update, we hear an enthusiastic chorus of “That’s so exciting! When will it be available?” Both Wee Engineer and EiE for Kindergarten have tentative release dates of summer 2018. To tide you over until then, we compiled our most informative early childhood curriculum updates from the last few years to give you a comprehensive view of our process so far. Read on and make sure you visit the original posts to learn about the origins of our early education initiative and to read our favorite anecdote about smiley face erasers.