Making STEM Learning Count For More Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts in partnership with Northrop Grumman Foundation invite your early childhood classrooms to participate in the Wolf Trap Early Childhood STEM Learning Through the Arts (Early STEM/Arts) Residency Program. Thanks to the generous support of Northrop Grumman Foundation, this program is available at no cost to your school. Grounded in its intentional arts-integrated approach to STEM learning, Wolf Trap engages young learners in the discovery processes integral to mathematics, engineering, and the sciences through dynamic, performing arts experiences. By ensuring that children’s first STEM learning experiences are engaging and compelling, Wolf Trap cultivates children’s excitement and natural curiosity about STEM subjects. The goals of Early STEM/Arts are to: (1) provide early childhood educators with professional development opportunities that teach effective ways to use music, drama, and dance to engage children in active learning experiences that support STEM curriculum (2) improve the STEM skills for children ages 3 to 6 through developmentally appropriate, artsintegrated learning that increases school readiness, promotes the development of 21st century skills, and supports cognitive and social/emotional development.

Program Offerings (led by Wolf Trap Teaching Artists): One-Week Classroom Residency: five consecutive days of sessions for up to four classrooms. Each session is 30 minutes with the teacher in the classroom followed by 15 minute debrief discussions between the teacher and Teaching Artist. - and Professional Development Workshops: in these interactive sessions early childhood educators explore the natural connection between the performing arts and children’s STEM learning. Each session includes a handout and is 3 hours in length. - or Family Involvement Workshops: bring young children and their siblings, parents, and caregivers together through shared Early STEM/Arts experiences. Each session is 1 hour in length. Why Arts in early childhood education? The arts and sciences share sequential learning and habits of mind that mutually support creative problemsolving, imaginative thinking, and transference of skills and knowledge. Arts-integrated teaching methods tap into children’s innate desire for active, multisensory learning as children literally embody concepts by singing and dancing, and engage their imagination through puppetry, story dramatization, and role play. Why STEM in early childhood education? Research confirms that young children are able to learn STEM concepts as the brain is particularly receptive to learning math and logic between the ages of 1 and 4.* Research also confirms that early math skills are the strongest predictor of later academic success.** Wolf Trap Contact Information: Jennifer Cooper, Director, DC/MD/VA Regional Program 703.255.1933 or [email protected] wolftrap.org/STEM

“The arts are among society’s most compelling and effective paths for developing 21st Century Skills in our students.”

“To succeed today and in the future, America’s children will need to be inventive, resourceful, and imaginative. The best way to foster that creativity is through arts education.”

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

Reinvesting in Arts Education, 2011 report from the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

*Chesloff, JD. “STEM Education Must Start in Early Childhood.” Education Week. 2013. Retrieved November 2013, http://www.readynation.org/uploads//20130328_JDChesloffEdWeek030613.pdf **Duncan, G. J., Dowsett, C.J., Classens, A., Magnuson, K., Huston, A.C., Klebanov, P., et al. (2007). School readiness and later achievement. Developmental Psychology, 43, 1428-1446.