PreK-5 STEM Explorers

I've been quietly working on this project for a while, and it is now ready to launch!

Introducing our new Early Learning Career Kits! Each kit is built around a STEM-related career (healthcare, engineering/construction, air & space, and more) and includes real tools, dramatic play materials, simple investigation prompts, and career-related books in both English and Spanish. Geared toward children in Preschool and Kindergarten, the goal is to promote purposeful exploration through play. When children wear a hard hat, use real (child-safe) tools, measure rainfall, or examine a model with a magnifier, they’re building early STEM identity alongside foundational skills.

Why career-focused kits in early learning?

• Career awareness starts early.

• Vocabulary becomes more meaningful when tied to authentic roles.

• Dramatic play becomes deeper when it’s connected to real-world problem solving.

If your students have been exploring AI with Day of AI or another curriculum, here’s a fun little tool to bring those conversations to life in a fresh way: AI Trivia Time from Day of AI USA! It’s a short trivia game built for classes that already know a bit about Artificial Intelligence and are ready to show what they know.

👉 Play it here: https://www.dayofaiusa.org/game\

How it works (quick + classroom-ready): Choose a grade band (K–6 or 7–12), create a team name, and select a topic. Read the trivia questions aloud, talk them through as a class, and submit your answers together. Built-in explanations help students dig into the why behind each question, and there’s even a monthly leaderboard with prizes!

This is a true plug-and-play option for busy classrooms. No long setup or extended time block needed. It works well as a quick warm-up, a post-unit check-in, or a low-stakes way…

I recently listened to this episode of the Math and Other Things podcast titled Why Math Identity Matters, featuring guest Liesl McConchie, and it was exactly what I needed going into the new year. The episode highlights compelling scientific reasons why our emotional relationship with math is deeply connected to our academic relationship with it.

What impacted me most was the conversation around the 41-minute mark, where Liesl discusses how teacher belief in students has a surprisingly large effect on student success. In other words, a teacher’s own math identity and attitude toward teaching math cannot be ignored. Liesl shares, “You can make up for almost three years of academic growth just by believing that all of our students can learn math. Go find me an intervention program that can do that.”

That idea is easy to agree with and much harder to consistently practice. One simple way I plan to…

Does your New Year’s resolution involve bringing more phenomena-based learning into your classroom? If so, check out the new phenomena videos from the Carolina Knowledge Center! Each clip is under one minute and perfect for sparking curiosity.

Phenomena are simply “observable, naturally occurring events that are everywhere.” These short clips give students something concrete to wonder about and serve as excellent launchpads for NGSS-aligned, three-dimensional learning.

🧑🏽‍🏫 Teacher Tips

• Use them as quick warm-ups or transitions. Play a video when you have an unexpected 5–10 minutes. Students can jump right into noticing and wondering without any prep.

• Align videos with your current unit. Pick a phenomenon connected to the ideas you're teaching—motion, weather, matter, ecosystems, light, etc.

• Let student questions drive the learning. After watching, ask: “What did you notice? What do you wonder?” Chart student ideas, then revisit and build on them throughout the lesson or unit.