These interactions need not be complex. For example, Carr and Underwood( 2024) share the following story: While playing on a nature playscape( an intentionally designed nature-rich play space), children gathered stones, leaves, and other loose parts for their“ potions.” When one child picked leaves from a bush, a teacher commented,“ Wow, look at what you have in your potion. I noticed you are picking leaves from this bush— this bush is still alive! Its leaves have a job to do— they are still growing. But look, I bet we can find leaves that have already fallen”( 230). The teacher did not demand that the child stop picking leaves; she redirected him to an alternative ingredient and gave an explanation based on an ecological ethic. This ethic can have long-lasting impacts on children’ s identities and actions related to the environment( Chawla & Derr 2012; Hoover 2021).
As this example illustrates, effective dialogue about E-STEM ideas depends on responsiveness to the needs of children and the environment. It also depends on educators addressing and reducing scientific misconceptions that children( and they) may hold, such as the misconception that the sun“ rises and sets.” It connects children to nature, capitalizes on their natural curiosities, and fosters care for the environment as it cultivates key concepts and skills( NAAEE 2016; NAAEE 2025).
Curiosity: E-STEM Play and Learning in Nature
Curiosity, or the desire to acquire new knowledge and experiences, is particularly relevant to E-STEM. It drives children’ s explorations, play, and inquiries and is considered foundational to science learning. Curiosity also aids in sense making, whereby children refine their perceptions as they gather information and learn from their environment( Banning & Sullivan 2011). Imaginative and representational play offer opportunities for interpreting and hypothesizing( Tunnicliffe 2020) while the theories children form about their world through nature play fuel curiosity and motivation to learn. This lays the foundation for future habits of caring for the environment( Hoyler & Wellings 2013; Wilson 2018).
Play in nature is often children’ s first and possibly most extensive exposure to science content, and it invites children to learn about their surroundings through their senses. Research indicates that cognitive processes require less effort outdoors and that playing in and with nature enhances curiosity and a sense of wonder( Torquati et al. 2017; Wilson 2018; Ernst & Burcak 2019). Nature play also reduces stress and fosters attentiveness, exploration, and cooperation( Yuan et al. 2025). This helps to explain the expectation that“ outdoor experiences, including opportunities to interact with the natural world, are provided daily for children of all ages”( NAEYC 2020, 17).
Gardens, schoolyards, and other outdoor settings provide prime venues for E-STEM learning and dialogic interactions, particularly in places with natural loose parts and during extended periods of self-directed play across seasons( Kelley & Williams 2014). Affordances such as trees, shrubs, sticks, logs, landforms, and water invite playful experiences that support children’ s executive function, resilience, problem solving, and creative thinking— all important attributes and competencies in the context of climate change( Carr et al. 2017; Ernst & Burcak 2019; Ernst et al. 2021). Furthermore, repeated visits to familiar natural spaces can enhance children’ s connections to their play spaces and their comfort engaging with the surrounding environment. These specific connections nurture curiosity and environmental stewardship( Sobel & Johnson 2004).
Evidence affirms that some children have limited access to nature( Goldstein et al. 2018; Yuan et al. 2025), but natural affordances exist no matter where children are located. Others have pointed out that there are inaccurate beliefs about the nature surrounding children. Attending to issues of access are part of teachers’ and others’ responsibilities( NAEYC 2019).( For more about this, see“ What We Talk About Grows: The Critter Count” in this issue of Young Children.)
Early childhood teachers tend to be very resourceful in finding nature-rich opportunities to engage children in E-STEM learning. For example, they may reach out to local environmental agencies like Melissa Fine did in New York City( 2018). She built on her kindergarten class’ s interest in trees by educating herself and finding support from a citywide organization whose mission is to plant trees in urban settings. This inspired a project focused on a hole in a tree as a habitat for fauna
22 Young Children
Winter 2025