Helping you spark a curiosity in STEM
Designed for preschool, child care and foundation
How ELSA works
The ELSA Program is a great way to introduce STEM concepts to young children using play-based games and resources.
Find out how the ELSA Program could work in your class with our step-by-step guide and examples.
16 world-class digital apps
Our in-depth digital apps that have proven to significantly increase young children’s STEM abilities.
Each app engages children in a different STEM skill and is designed to extend their learning through real-world experiences.
Best of all, our apps empower children to be creators not consumers of digital content.
STEM books and games
Included in the program is a comprehensive STEM resource pack that includes picture books, card games and board games.
Created by our team of STEM education specialists, these resources help explain key STEM concepts to children in a variety of familiar settings.
See what’s in our STEM resource pack.
Flexible and adaptable
Whether you’re after a year-long structured program or one-off teaching moment, ELSA gives you the flexibility, resources and tools you need to engage young children in STEM.
You can also easily adapt the program to make it fit within different cultures, contexts and abilities.
100+ experience ideas
Supporting the hands-on resources and children’s apps is an educator app packed with more than 100 experience ideas.
Easy to filter and search, the Pinterest-style dashboard gives you the flexibility to plan a day or a Term of engaging STEM experiences.
An example is engaging children in map making inside and then asking them to follow directions outside.
30+ lesson plans
Created by a team of education specialists, these comprehensive lesson plans help guide you through our Experience, Represent, Apply (ERA) learning cycle.
These are perfect for students in the first year of formal schooling, but are easily adapted for the year before school too.
Simplifies program planning
STEM education doesn’t need to be complex or complicated.
We save you valuable programming time by giving you the knowledge, tools and resources you need to plan and deliver quality play-based STEM lessons.
Australian education experts
Led by the University of Canberra’s Centenary Professor Tom Lowrie, our team of STEM-education specialists, learning scientists, developmental psychologists, data scientists and digital creators have developed an innovative and proven program.
Mapped to EYLF & curriculum
Our founder, Professor Tom Lowrie, co-created the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and brought the same passion for early years to ELSA.
The program directly maps to the EYLF, Australian Curriculum for Foundation, and state-based syllabi.
Use our curriculum mapping tool.
Research shows it works
Research and evaluation conducted by the University of Canberra and the Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER) showed significant performance gains in both STEM learning and numeracy for children that participated in the ELSA Program for a full year.
For STEM literacy skills, children improved at a rate 3 times higher than children not involved in the program.
For numeracy, the children improved at a rate twice that of the business-as-usual cohort.
Self-paced professional learning
Our self-paced online Professional Learning (PL) course gives you the confidence, tools and know-how to get the most out of the ELSA Program.
We have 9 online modules, including videos presented by our team, that you can complete at your own pace – at a time and place that suits you.
Families connect too
There’s an ELSA app for parents and carers so they can be part of the program too.
It’s packed with simple STEM-based experiences they can do at home while going about their day-to-day lives.
And much more …
Children As Content Creators
ELSA empowers children to be ‘creators’ not ‘consumers’ of digital content, using built-in affordances of tablet devices such as the camera and microphone.
Experience, Represent, Apply
Our pedagogical framework – the Experience, Represent, Apply (ERA) cycle – has been crafted from 20+ years of research and practice.
Research Evidence Base
ELSA has proven its effectiveness during pilots in 2018 & 2019, and a research project in 2020—with hundreds of educators and thousands of children taking part.
Educator Leadership
Educators who participate in ELSA are subsequently recognised as leaders in their field, with many receiving promotions and educational awards.
Data Driven
We have a comprehensive data analytics backend capable of providing rich insights into children’s usage on an individual, class and school level.
Learning Progressions
Educators have access to a dashboard for each child in the program which outlines their progress in the apps and learning progressions.