Why are there waves in the ocean? Why is the sky blue? Young children are constantly engaged in scientific inquiry. Earlysciencematters.org gives you the free online resources you need to help early learners become “scientific thinkers” by conducting their own investigations and making their own discoveries.

About Early Science Matters

Bringing out the scientist in every child

Children naturally engage in scientific exploration and discovery early in life. By harnessing this innate curiosity, high-quality early science education can support a child’s growth and development in many areas—and prepare the children of today to become the scientists, inventors and innovators of tomorrow.

To give early childhood educators across the nation the knowledge and skills they need to boost children’s mastery of early science, the University of Illinois Chicago College of Education launched the Early Science Matters project in 2019 with an incubator grant from the Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood.

Today, early childhood professionals and parents across the nation and around the world visit our website to learn how to integrate science into their early learning environments and activities.

Early Science Matters has four core objectives:
  1. To give early childhood educators the knowledge and skills they need to teach early science
  2. To help early childhood educators set up environments that promote science literacy
  3. To provide engaging activities and lessons that foster the development of early science skills
  4. To help create a world of science-literate citizens
About the University of Illinois Chicago

The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a community of scholars committed to educational equity and social, political and economic parity. UIC develops new knowledge about education that improves teaching, learning and assessment; informs policy and practice; and is valued by the communities that it serves. The university directs its teaching, research and public service to all learners, with an emphasis on learners in urban environments.

About the University of Illinois Chicago College of Education

The College of Education at the University of Illinois Chicago strives to prepare the next generation of educators, educational leaders and educational researchers to establish equity in Chicago public schools. Making good on the promise of public education requires us to acknowledge and address the problems of inequality explicitly and courageously, so that the public education system can help all children achieve their full potential.

About the Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood

The Caplan Foundation for Early Childhood is an incubator of promising research and development projects that have the potential to enhance the physical and mental health, safety, nutrition, education, familial support, acculturation, societal integration and quality of life of children from birth through age seven in the United States. The Foundation’s goal is to provide seed money for imaginative proposals that exhibit the greatest chance of improving the lives of young children on a national scale.