tools In support of joyful making and powerful learning for young children
Lead: Fred Uy, Hilary Seinz, and Zee Cline, California State University, Office of the Chancellor
Members:
- Shannon Gaussa, Kamin Science Center
- Sandy Roberts, Science Friday
- Dorothy Jones-Davis, The KID Museum
- Annalise Phillips, The KID Museum
- Meghan Eison, The League of Young Inventors
- Janet Stramel, Fort Hays State University
Current, publicly-available early childhood education curricula and learning standards encourage hands-on activities and imagination to help connect children’s creativity to learning STEM. However, educators often find one-off resources to incorporate over their larger units, or they don’t find them at all. TINY INNOVATORS: A Toolkit for Creating an ECE STEAM Makerspace provides a comprehensive guide for establishing engaging, hands-on learning environments for young children (ages 3-8) to explore Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM).
Embedded with inclusivity and culturally responsive principles, this makerspace toolkit provides strategies and examples so that early childhood educators can create lessons and learning environments at the intersection of child imagination, creativity, and inclusivity that forge STEAM classrooms of belonging.
Traditional early childhood learning environments often limit opportunities for hands-on, inquiry-based STEAM exploration, leaving young children with fewer chances to build creativity, problem-solving, collaboration, and critical thinking skills through meaningful play. Many educators and families also lack accessible frameworks for creating equitable, engaging, and developmentally appropriate makerspace experiences.
Tiny Innovators provides a comprehensive toolkit for creating early childhood STEAM makerspaces that center inquiry, creativity, and child-led exploration. Through hands-on, play-based learning experiences, children ages 3–8 engage in building, tinkering, collaboration, and problem-solving while developing foundational STEAM, social-emotional, language, and motor skills. The toolkit supports educators, families, schools, libraries, and community organizations in designing inclusive, developmentally appropriate learning environments that foster curiosity, innovation, and lifelong learning. It positions makerspaces not just as physical spaces, but as a transformative learning philosophy.
The strategies, guidance, and examples in this makerspace toolkit matter foster holistic development in young learners, combining cognitive, physical, social, and emotional growth. Through open-ended activities such as building, designing, and creating, children develop critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills. They learn foundational STEAM concepts in age-appropriate, tangible ways—like understanding balance while building a block tower or spatial awareness while designing a bridge.
- Guiding Principles for an ECE STEAM Makerspace
- Planning Resources
- Creating Learning Environments
- Approaches to Integrate Curriculum
Thank you to our Project Team!
Thank you to the Beyond100K Tiny Innovators Project Team for their design, strategy, and cultivation of this toolkit for the community.
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