BRINGING COLOUR TO STEM

Children’s Discovery develops fun and engaging programs to expose young children to STEM-based concepts and open the door to life-long STEM engagement.

OUR VISION

Our vision is for all communities – particularly those historically under-represented in STEM-based learning – to value the power of play to support children’s healthy development and aspirations.

Children’s Discovery believes that investing in children from the ages of 3 and up, can build an innovative thinking capacity that is not being supported early enough by our current education systems.

OUR STORY

Inspired by first-hand experience of sharing the joy of discovery while visiting children’s museums in the USA, our founders committed to bringing the same opportunities to children in Australia. (Our current Children’s Discovery Board.)

Initially Children’s Discovery was involved in the design and development of experiential museums (or Discovery Spaces) and while these are excellent engagement and learning centres, they are typically located in large urban centres and often inaccessible to those that need them most. A desire to make these playful STEM-based learning experiences accessible to all motivated the second phase of our story. It began with a single local library and the co-development of a series of STEM-based programs for preschool children and accompanying adults. Within five years these programs had been expanded to include school-aged children and loanable science kits and had been adopted by over 300 libraries across Australia.

Today, through the public library network, Children’s Discovery benefits over 80,000 children annually, however, this represents a penetration rate of just 20% of public libraries, and there remains a significant unmet demand. See which public libraries are partnering with Children’s Discovery.

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WHAT WE DO

Children’s Discovery has created a number of programs based on critical scientific thinking that help children develop curiosity about their world and provide a means to understand it. Importantly, they are ‘child-centred’ and promote learning through play.

Our STEM-based programs have been designed for delivery through public libraries. Delivering programs through public libraries and community organisations makes them attractive and accessible to groups historically under-represented in STEM including: regional and remote communities, women and girls, and First Nations people.

Most importantly, our ‘train-the-trainer’ format develops local facilitators and enables a cycle of skills reinforcement and sustainable program delivery.

All Children’s Discovery activities are carefully researched and specifically designed to develop STEM-based knowledge, skills, and career aspirations through inquisitive and play-based learning. While we began our work with public libraries, our workshops and equipment are also suitable for schools, OOSH providers, early learning centres, and home schools.