ABSTRACT
At the end of the previous chapter, we emphasized the importance of bringing play back into the classroom and home and supported the need for this with evidence from early childhood and developmental research. Chapter 2, therefore, is all about play and how it provides an ideal vista for adults to observe young children engaging in remarkable STEAM endeavors. Since our focus is STEAM, we will be concentrating most of our efforts on constructive free play environments. The chapter begins with a relatively brief history of play. We then examine the dynamism of constructive free play in contemporary society. One setting that is receiving a growing amount of attention is the imaginative Playworld, conceived by Gunilla Lindqvist, a form of free play that has been researched and practiced extensively in recent years. We also consider the research that supports observation of young children engaged in free play as young as infants and toddlers.
