Abstract

The role of kindergarten is to efficiently prepare preschoolers for their encounter with the real world. This includes developing their skills, competencies, problem-solving abilities, as well as acquiring knowledge about themselves and their surroundings. STEM education can be a reliable ally in this process. The STEM perspective integrates four areas: S-Science, T-Technology, E-Engineering, and M-Mathematics. It employs an interdisciplinary approach that uses these sciences as access points for fostering investigation, dialogue, and critical thinking in children, relying on a constructivist, integrated and applied learning-by-doing approach. Teaching activities based on the STEM concept encourage open research, investigation, identifying problems, and proposing solutions. A formative, ameliorative psychopedagogical experiment conducted during the 2023-2024 school year aimed to identify the impact of STEM-specific didactic strategies in the Sciences domain on preschoolers’ scientific investigation skills. The research sample included 21 middle group children from Mărceni Bicaz Kindergarten, part of Regina Maria Bicaz Secondary School, in Neamț County. Through experiment, monitoring and statistical-mathematical techniques, data were collected, presented, analysed, and compared using an observation grid during pre- and post-experimental evaluations to highlight the impact of these strategies on developing scientific investigation skills in preschoolers.

Key words: Interdisciplinarity; preschool education; scientific investigation skills; STEM education; strategies