Supporting young children’s future skills with STEM Education and ESD

"Haus der kleinen Forscher" is Germany’s largest early childhood education initiative in the domains of science, technology, engineering/computer science, and mathematics (STEM Education). With an accompanying focus on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), the aim of our programme is to strengthen children for the future, provide them with important skills and enable them to act in a sustainable way. Together with more than 200 local network partners "Haus der kleinen Forscher" Foundation provides a nationwide continuing professional development programme that encourages und supports pedagogical staff in facilitating the exploration, inquiry and learning of children at the ages 3 to 10.

Special project: Promoting ESD by teaching pedagogical staff and nursery managers

Since 2016, we have been running a project to strengthen the ESD competencies of young children aged 3-10 by supporting pedagogical staff and leaders of early childhood education institutions. We empower them to explore questions of sustainability together with the children, to accompany them and give them impulses, to act as role models and to create a space for discovery and learning.

We do so by providing professional training on ESD as part of our nationwide continuing professional development programme. Educators and managers from around 22,400 early childhood education and care centres, after-school centres and primary schools in Germany can actively participate in either our on-site workshops or free online courses. They also get access to our pedagogical resources. Due to ongoing close cooperation with our local network partners in Germany around 33,400 educational institutions will soon have access to the programme.

The pedagogic vision of the Foundation is based on the concept of co-construction – that is, children and their reference persons jointly shape learning processes. Central to these learning processes are exploration and inquiry. Children who are given enough room to explore both individually and collaboratively and who thus find answers to their many questions will develop important skills that benefit them in their future. As defined in the target dimensions of ESD by scientific experts in the field, children's competencies that will equip them well for their future include: the ability to recognise and understand concepts like nature and justice, the ability to critically reflect and evaluate their findings, values and moral options, and the motivation to act in a sustainable way.

In future, the "Haus der kleinen Forscher" Foundation will expand its continuing professional development programme addressing more of the aforementioned key competencies which are also in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Following the whole institution approach the Foundation will provide in-house trainings for all employees of early childhood education institutions to help systematically develop their institutions into places of ESD and sustainability.

As an actor of the German National Action Plan for ESD it is our aim to achieve the goals outlined in the plan by 2030.

International Work: Promoting STEM Education for Sustainable Development worldwide

The "Haus der kleinen Forscher" Foundation is connected beyond Germany with initiatives of early STEM Education and ESD. Together with Siemens Stiftung, the Foundation is currently setting up a so-called peer dialogue of leading educational players worldwide – the "International Dialogue on STEM Education" (IDoS). The aim of this new initiative is to learn with and from the best, to share experiences and ideas and thus to support the quality of ESD implementation in Germany.

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