Pre-K - 1st Grade STEM Program

Kid Spark’s Pre-K - 1st Grade STEM Program focuses on helping young students develop important competencies that are prerequisite for a lifetime of STEM learning. While many students learn these fluencies at home, this program helps fill in critical gaps that may exist, especially for underserved and underrepresented students.

All children are natural designers, but they need to learn foundational STEM fluencies in order to think like engineers and scientists. Regardless of their age, all children must acquire these basic fluencies to make sense of more advanced STEM learning opportunities, and to be successful in a technologically-driven world.

Examples of Foundational STEM Fluencies:

Spatial Reasoning

The ability to envision objects or ideas in three dimensions

Sequence & Correspondence

The ability to follow steps in order and place objects in a precise way

Creative Problem Solving

The ability to work through or analyze problems and explore different ways to solve them

What’s Included in the Program?

Kid Spark’s Pre-K - 1st Grade STEM Program includes the following resources:

Curriculum

There are a total of four units of instruction included in Kid Spark’s Pre-K - 1st Grade STEM Program. Each unit of instruction includes a unit overview, four lesson plans, and a unit assessment. Most lessons average 30 - 35 minutes and include opportunities for students to apply what they have learned through creative challenges.

Kid Spark curriculum follows the NGSS three dimensions of science learning: Science and Engineering Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Disciplinary Core Ideas.

* NGSS is a registered trademark of WestEd. Neither WestEd nor the lead states and partners that developed the Next Generation Science Standards were involved in the production of this product, and do not endorse it.

Foundational Fluencies STEM Lab

The Foundational Fluencies STEM Lab is designed to support Kid Spark’s Pre-K - 1st Grade STEM Program. The carefully curated materials in the lab are child-friendly and unintimidating; the larger scale allows for collaborative learning. Even the most inexperienced students can quickly and easily build sophisticated prototypes, and increase their confidence in STEM.

Each Lab serves up to two (2) students and Includes:

Engineering Materials

45 large-scale building components, 50 small-scale building components

Printed Curriculum Booklets

Includes teacher preparation materials, unit overviews, lesson plans, project building plans, and unit assessments

Transparent Lid

Includes inventory & organization guide to easily locate and manage materials in the lab

Professional Learning

To help Pre-K - 1st grade educators prepare to use program materials and resources in their classrooms, Kid Spark offers professional learning courses through our online learning management system.