ABSTRACT
In an era of standards-based education, accountability, and an emphasis on literacy and numeracy in the elementary schools, US classrooms have squeezed science out of the curriculum and are wary of engineering curricula. Although engineering has the power to integrate science, technology, engineering, agriculture, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines for young children, engineering does not appear as a subject area in the accountability examinations; therefore, some schools have been slow to find space in the elementary curriculum to accommodate it. This chapter describes the STEM Starters model and its new scale-up research and demonstration project, STEM Starters+, to focus on the lessons learned from this project that can be transported to other STEM programs in other countries, and to provide links to the curricular and professional development materials developed through the project for others to access.
