Sesame Workshop, the parent company behind Sesame Street, is working to educate children in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (ST
EM). Reports have shown that US children are falling behind in the STEM areas. The United States government and several different organizations are working to create different programs to help close the gaps.
CA Technology has donated $1 million to Sesame Workshop to help continue the development of STEM programs for kids. The Sesame Street television program has added STEM curriculum to their episodes. They have created STEM learning resources for several medium, including the STEM related resources for the official Sesame Street website: sesamestreet.org.
Parents can also find ways children can develop a love of STEM in their preschool age and as they grow. Simple things like reading books that relate to the subject matter. There are many books that are written for the very young child to the advanced reader that provides information on different levels. Also reading about occupations that used these different subjects regularly will allow children know that what they are learning will be of benefit in the future.
Another way to get children interested in STEM is to get them immersed. Enrolling in fun science and enrichment programs may be one way to go about it. Depending on the area you live in, there are children museums, resources centers, and recreational programs that do offer STEM related enrichment classes. These classes are created to not only teach children, but to also be fun. Fees and age requirements will vary.
Even at home you can have fun with your child. There are different fun science experiments that you can do with your child that require only household products: scifun.org is one website that offers different experiments; another is exploratorium.edu with easy to follow experiments that uses things that can be found in the home.
Learning about STEM is something that can be introduced by Sesame Street, but parents can teachers can build upon that to make children ready to fill the STEM related occupations. CA donation will certainly be of benefit to this and future generations as we look to close the STEM learning gap we have with other countries.