E-School News – Laura Devaney 
Although research suggests that students as young as preschool age would benefit from STEM education, experts point to a gap between what the research says and how much STEM-focused curriculum actually exists in preschools. In an effort to address the national need to guide more students to STEM careers, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researchers are developing curriculum which introduces STEM principles during the formative preschool years. “Despite the evidence that introducing STEM during the pre-kindergarten years supports children’s cognitive development and positive attitudes toward learning and inquiry, there is very little STEM instruction in pre-kindergarten classrooms,”said Martha Cyr, principal investigator of Seeds of STEM: The Development of an Innovative Pre-Kindergarten STEM Curriculum; and executive director of The STEM Education Center at WPI.(more)