STEM Starts Here: Engineering in Preschool
- Your Friends at Superspace
- Jul 15
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 23
Engineering in preschool doesn't require robots. It just needs a few magnetic panels, some curious kids, and permission to build something wild.
Let’s get one thing out of the way: we’re not anti-robot. Robots are cool. Coding is cool. Future engineers absolutely will need to know how circuits work. But in a preschool classroom? Real engineering starts way before wires. It starts with what we can hold, move, build, and rebuild—preferably with a pile of oversized panels and a group of excited little learners ready to figure things out for themselves.
This kind of hands-on, body-sized building is exactly what lays the groundwork for early STEM development. And we’re not just saying that because Superspace is fun (although it really is). We’re saying it because research keeps backing us up: kids learn engineering through open-ended play long before they’re handed instructions.
Engineering Thinking Happens in Play
Preschoolers are natural engineers. Give them a structure to build, a tunnel to reinforce, or a ramp to tweak until the ball rolls just right—and they’re suddenly testing ideas, troubleshooting, and working through a process of trial and error that would make any science teacher proud.
A 2020 study by Gold, Vogt, Okamoto, and Doyle showed exactly how this plays out. They observed preschoolers during open-ended block play and found that the kids were instinctively engaging in goal-setting, material testing, and even failure analysis—all hallmarks of engineering design thinking. There were no step-by-step instructions. No right or wrong way. Just blocks, intention, and experimentation. Sound familiar?
In the Superspace world, this looks like a child realizing their roof keeps collapsing, so they widen the base. Or deciding they need more support under their bridge, so they add cross beams. That’s engineering in action—and it happens every day when we let kids build freely.
Big Structures = Big Thinking
Superspace doesn’t just add scale—it adds opportunity. Because when children work with materials that are bigger than their hands, they engage their whole bodies, their full attention, and their peers.
Yuan and colleagues (2024) recently explored how young children approach engineering challenges in nature playscapes. They found that when kids had access to large-scale, open-ended materials—ramps, planks, panels—they showed more curiosity, more problem-solving, and more collaborative planning. Simply put: the bigger the materials, the bigger the thinking.
We see this in action every time a group of preschoolers uses Superspace to build a tunnel big enough to crawl through, then debate how to reinforce it so it doesn’t collapse under their combined enthusiasm. It’s not just fun—it’s functional logic. Engineering doesn’t start with screens or scripts. It starts with a need, an idea, and something to work with.
Trial and Error Is the Teacher
Preschoolers don’t just do engineering—they feel it. They feel it when their ramp sends a ball flying across the room. When their structure wobbles and they instinctively look for symmetry. When something falls apart and they immediately start figuring out why.
Qian and Pan (2020) called this “engineering play”—and they didn’t mean that as a metaphor. In their study, preschoolers engaged in repeated, intentional testing during block construction, and were shown to naturally take on roles like planner, builder, and problem-solver. Their learning wasn’t guided by adults—it was guided by curiosity. This is exactly what Superspace is built for. When kids test a beam across two panels and it collapses, they don’t see failure—they see a chance to try again, differently.
And here’s where it gets exciting: these seemingly small decisions—try this instead of that, brace this side, build it taller—have big developmental outcomes.
Building Now Builds Math and STEM Later
A 2021 study by Verdine, Golinkoff, Hirsh‑Pasek, and Newcombe connected the dots. The researchers found that the complexity of a 3-year-old’s block-building directly correlated with their later performance in spatial and mathematical tasks. Translation? Kids who engage in deep, creative construction play build brains that are wired for STEM.
This doesn’t mean you need to ditch number games or circle time—it just means that letting kids build big, complex, collaborative structures is more than just play. It’s practice. The act of designing a functional, stable structure with Superspace panels is literally building the spatial awareness and logical reasoning skills that support future math success.
The Science Is Already There
If all this feels intuitive, that’s because it is. Preschool teachers have been watching this kind of learning unfold for decades—we’re just finally calling it what it is: science. A 2015 chapter by Sheridan and Reeve, published in Research in Early Childhood Science Education, laid it out clearly. They argued that science education in early childhood doesn’t have to be formalized or filled with vocabulary—it just needs to be rooted in observation, curiosity, and experience. Sound familiar?
When a child builds a bridge, tests it, modifies it, and then shows it off to their friends? That’s science. That’s engineering. And that’s why Superspace doesn’t need batteries or wires to be a powerful STEM tool.
Final Thoughts
Preschoolers don’t need robots to learn engineering. They need materials that invite them to build, revise, and build again. They need the space to test ideas—and the freedom to fail and try something new. Superspace was made for that.
So go ahead—push the chairs aside, give them the panels, and let them go. There’s a whole lot of engineering happening in that joyful mess of magnets, laughter, and trial-and-error. And you don’t need a codebook to see it.
References
Gold, M., Vogt, J., Okamoto, K., & Doyle, O. (2020). Learning engineering through block play: STEM in preschool. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 18(2), 123–139.
Qian, M., & Pan, Y. (2020). Engineering play with blocks as an informal learning context in preschool. Early Childhood Education Journal, 48, 467–480.
Yuan, Y., Zeng, W., Kloos, H., Brown, R., & Carr, V. (2024). Preschool engineering play on nature playscapes. Early Childhood Education Journal. Advance online publication.
Verdine, B. N., Golinkoff, R. M., Hirsh‑Pasek, K., & Newcombe, N. S. (2021). Associations of 3‑year‑olds’ block‑building complexity with later spatial and mathematical skills. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 795422. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7954229/
Sheridan, K. C., & Reeve, R. E. (2015). Role of play in teaching science in the early childhood years. In K. Cabe Trundle & M. Saçkes (Eds.), Research in Early Childhood Science Education (pp. 237–258). Springer. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7954229/
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