A Preschool Class’ s Inquiry-Based Project About Frogs
Effective Curriculum: Designing and Implementing Meaningful Learning for Every Child
From Investigation to Advocacy
A Preschool Class’ s Inquiry-Based Project About Frogs
Victoria Damjanovic and Stephanie Branson
All young children deserve to participate in curricula that provide rich experiences for holistic development( NASEM 2024). Quality early learning curricula address growth across content areas and young children’ s developmental domains. In addition, they honor each child’ s pace of learning and emphasize the value of family engagement in the early education setting( Epstein et al. 2018; NAEYC 2020; NASEM 2024). Educators can draw on various approaches, philosophies, theories, and research to achieve curricular aims, including inquiry-based approaches designed to support children’ s development and learning.
In this article, we( the authors) share what we learned from observing the classroom of two preschool educators, Ms. Evelyn and Ms. Kelly, who cotaught a group of 3-year-old children at a university-based lab preschool in the southeastern region of the United States. We served as the program’ s director( first author) and instructional coach( second author), which allowed us to gather information about how the teachers intentionally planned and facilitated a project about frogs that addressed science, technology, engineering, and math( STEM) learning goals( see“ Curricular Practices in Context” on page 47). We also share how preschool and early primary educators
46 Young Children
Summer 2025