On Sale Beginner STEM Guide
Feed your child's curiosity of the amazing world around us with a range of family-friendly STEM activities to boost their intellectual development from a young age! This page is our beginner STEM range which is appropriate for kids aged 3 - 7.
You are now on Beginner Level (ages 3 - 7).
What is STEM?
STEM, short for Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics referes to a series of technical subjects that is vital to our modern development over the past decades. STEM is not only included in many Australian school curriculums, STEM is celebrated and highly valued around the world! With such a great influence in Australia and around the world, encouraging your child to study STEM allows children to develop key skills that will provide them with the foundation to succeed and adapt to an ever changing world.
These key skills include:
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No matter what your child wants to be when they grow up, these key skills will encourage and support your child to become the best of who they want to be!
Spending quality time with your kids
Not only does learning STEM have many benefits for their future, the best way to encourage skill developmen is to keep kids entertained and curious. Dabbling in STEM activities is a great way to surprise kids to see the world they are starting to get familiar with differently. Not only that, many STEM activities is great for naturaly spending more quality time together, while learning new things together.
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Beginner STEM Activities
A nice game of 'I SPY' never fails to entertain a curious child, don’t be shy from giving the game a twist by calling the features out instead of the first letter of the object. This activity will help build the child’s communication and critical analysis skills, but beware of heavy binoculars, because they won’t be able to hold them up for long.
I SPY, particularly when involving binoculars is a great introduciton to STEM because it shows them how the world can appear 'bigger' through binoculars due to technology and it can encourage them to question how it happens. It also physiaclly engage their senses: not only through hearing and sight, but also through touch.
Encouraging them "I SPY <feature of the item" will all encourage them to understand how technology has changed our worlds
Sample things:
| "I SPY something that has four wheels that takes us to the school and home" to represent a car. |  |
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"I SPY something that helps us cook our food every night" to represent a stove or microwave. |
Other fun STEM activities that you can do with some recommended binoculars include:
- - Treasure hunt
- - Walking a straight line while looking through the wrong lens
- - Birdwatching
- - Observing wild life
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Saxon 10x25 MWP Compact Binocular for a little fun around water |
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Saxon Traveller 10x25 Compact Binocular a mix of quality and price |
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Saxon 8x21 DCF Compact Binoculars the lightest of the three, and least costly! |
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Pentax 8x21 UP series compact binocular colour variation to your kids' preference!
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Studying tiny things
Use a handheld magnifier or microscope to study the world around you! The amazing thing about these microscopes is that anything can be a fun experiment, their crayon drawings, their favourite toy, their every meal or the leaves in the backyard.
Let them know you appreciate them by letting them appreciate the tiny things! Your child can look through materials throughout its multiple states:
- - Spices
- - Mouldy bread
- - Mac and cheese
- - Nutella on toast
Let them learn life lessons where they are able to observe it, and they will develop their independent thinking and critical analysis.
Key tip: Always start at the lowest magnification if there are options with your magnifier.
Here I’ve listed some recommended kids friendly microscope:
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Saxon ScienceSmart Field Microscope 20x for insects, leaves and 3D objects |
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Saxon SBM ScienceSmart Biological Microscope SL-BL Easily portable and highly versatile for use indoor or outdoor as it can be powered by both AC power or batteries, for the kids interested in cell! |
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Celestron 28 Piece Microscope Kit Biological microscope with no hefty price tag, comes with prepared specimen slides |
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Extremely portable and lightweight, plus it can stream onto your smart devices through an app!
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Stargazing
Lastly, if your kids are interested in space and the cosmos, a telescope is the gift of a thousand miles. A nice beginner telescope is plenty to view close celestial objects such as the moon, it will also be able to observe planets and it can double for viewing birds or objects on the ground.
With the telescope, make sure you are picking the ones with an Altazimuth mount as those are the most simple mount to use. For young children, it is best to take control of a the telescope to find particular objects to make sure they're in awe! You can also encourage them to move it too as they get more familiar with controlling it as they get older.
Warning: Do not look at the sun through a telescope. This will cause permanent eye damage! Always be present with your child and telescope to keep them safe!
How to observe the moon
With the moon, it has 8 different phases which it cycles through once every month, which means your child will have a few days at a time to look at each phases of the moon! The moon cycles through from a new moon (which is not visible) to a full moon (when it is the brightest), and the specific order are: new Moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full Moon, waning gibbous, third quarter and waning crescent.
Using the tool provided on NASA page here, you can plan ahead by checking the phases the moon is currently in and what it will be in the near future.
Here I’ve listed some recommended kids friendly telescope that will allow you to observe the moon:
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Saxon F767AZ Newtonian Reflector Telescope affordable, perfect for observing the moon and larger planets |
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Saxon Novo 607AZ2 Refractor Telescope wide FOV for tracking planes, ideal for both moon viewing and land viewing |
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Saxon 707AZ2 Refractor Telescope wider aperture leading to brighter and clearer images, also comes with a barlow lens which will double the magnification |
Conclusion
That concludes the first beginner STEM guide, hopefully, both you and your child had a great time together. And if you find that your child is ready for the next step up in STEM, you're more than welcome to start the beginner STEM guide 2 by clicking on the link!
Resource list:
What is STEM? (And Why Is It So Important To Your Child’s Early Learning?)
What is STEM? (Department of Education)
Stem microscope activities for kids