ABSTRACT
Since our adventure of the previous chapter covered the role of constructive free play and its influence on science, mathematics, and technology, our journey in Chapter 6 will consider free play as it relates to the exciting themes that undergird engineering and architectural concepts. We will see first-hand how young children’s work during free play is similar to the engineer’s or architect’s blueprint. The chapter begins with a review of the relatively scant research literature on the development of engineering and architectural thinking. The chapter continues with an investigation of the development of VCPO construction, which includes a generalizable model of young children’s early stages of VCPO building development. What comes next is novel: We analyze young children’s VCPO structures through the lens of professional engineers’ and architects’ plans and conceptions. To help us in this task, we compare young children’s and older children’s free play constructions with the projects of professional engineers and architects through examination of fundamental, real-life engineering and architectural concepts and principles.
