STEM in the Park: Eliciting Young Children’s Understandings Through Dialogue and Image

Abstract This study investigated opportunities for young children (ages four to five) to engage in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) meaning-making through photo-prompted small group discussions. Situated in early childhood education contexts, the research focused on how children interacted with visual representations of their own playpark experiences to discuss phenomena involved in swinging, sliding, spinning, climbing and balancing. Twenty-five children from a regional Australian early childhood centre participated, with fourteen contributing verbal data analysed in this study. The early years was chosen for this study because STEM concepts and inquiry approaches are inherent in play-based and experiential learning. Photo prompts were used to facilitate recall and dialogic reflection, allowing for observation of how children communicated embodied and observed experiences. The study employed a qualitative interpretive design with thematic analysis, using embodied cognition and social constructivist theory as conceptual lenses to inform interpretation. Two central themes emerged, the role of embodied memory in children’s STEM-related talk, and the emergence of early scientific and mathematical language. Findings suggest that visual stimuli rooted in children's lived play can provide valuable opportunities for emergent STEM discourse in early childhood education. The study contributes to conversations about integrated and informal STEM pedagogies by offering insights into the methodological potential of photo prompts as a research and teaching tool.