Live Webinars: 4 September 2023
Spatial skills in early years
Setting the foundation for future
maths and STEM success
Event details
This event has now concluded.
We will be holding more live webinars througout the year.
Strong spatial skills predict future success in mathematics and STEM. But what exactly are these skills, and why is it important to start developing them in the early years?
Spatial reasoning is an ability to manipulate objects and images in your mind, imagine things from a different point of view, and know how different objects relate to one another. You’d be using your spatial reasoning skills when building IKEA furniture or reading a map.
In this 30-minute webinar, we’ll look at spatial reasoning in the context of preschool and kindergarten children and explore how spatial skills lay the foundation for future educational success.
We’ll explore:
- What is spatial reasoning and what does it looks like in an early years setting?
- How spatial reasoning supports the development of all children, including those at-risk for having lower spatial reasoning and numeracy skills.
- Why spatial reasoning boosts numeracy and STEM literacy
- Examples of spatial reasoning activities that you can do with preschool and kindergarten children
We’ll spend the last 5–10 minutes of the webinar taking any questions you have.
This is a free webinar brought to you by Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) and a specialist education team from the STEM Education Research Centre (SERC) at the University of Canberra.
Dr Kevin Larkin
Kevin started his career as a primary classroom teacher and spent 14 years as deputy principal. He now inspires the next generation of preschool and primary teachers as an Associate Professor (Mathematics Education) at Griffith University. Kevin specialises in STEM education in early years education, mathematics education in primary and middle school contexts, and pre-service teacher mathematics education.
Kevin has received numerous awards for his teaching, including Griffith University Teacher of the Year in 2016, a National Citation for Inspiring Learning in 2017, and the Australian University Teacher of the Year Award in 2018.
He was part of the team that developed the Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) Program.
Dr Ilyse Resnick
Ilyse is an Associate Professor of Learning Sciences (Cognition) at the University of Canberra, in the STEM Education Resource Centre (SERC). She earned her PhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at Temple University and then completed a highly competitive Institute of Education Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Delaware, on cognitive development and applications in educational settings.
Ilyse’s program of research identifies and characterises the fundamental cognitive processes needed in complex spatial and numerical reasoning.
As part of SERC, Ilyse is working on projects examining how spatial reasoning supports understanding in STEM and how spatial reasoning can be included in teacher education.