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All educators and teachers participating in ELSA in 2022 have access to our self-paced online professional learning (PL) course. This course includes videos featuring our friendly ELSA academics who created the program.

Our PL course will step you through the ELSA Program’s underpinning pedagogical frameworks: STEM Practices and the Experience, Represent, Apply (ERA) model. You’ll also get in-depth explanations of how best to use the activities on our apps.

You are welcome to undertake this PL course at your own pace, in whatever way works best for you.

Note: you will need to login to the web browser version of our Educator app to access this course. Click the button below or paste this link into your browser: https://educator.elsa.edu.au/content/learning

Login to PL Course

Once logged in

Once you have logged in to the website version of our Educator app, please click on the ‘PL Videos’ tab at the bottom left of screen.

View and download our AR marker cards for App 2 and App 4 activities below.

App 2: Location and Arrangement

Activity: ‘Hide and Seek’

→

Download Animal AR cards (PDF)

App 4: Investigations

Activity: ‘Let’s Look for Clues’

→

Download Animal Traits AR cards (PDF)

Our ELSA Resources Pack includes picture books, card games, board games, AR cards for use with apps, as well as character plushies.

Basically, everthing pictured below.

How to use these resources

To make it easier for educators, we have put together this handy guide ‘How to use our resources’. If you didn’t receive this flyer in your ELSA Resources Pack, it’s a good idea to download it and print it out.

Download ‘How to use our resources’ (PDF)

Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) is a program to inspire curiosity and engagement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for preschool and Foundation-year children.

Children engage in STEM through play every day when they are, for example:

• creating patterns
• drawing designs
• building structures
• filling containers

ELSA includes a collection of integrated resources for educators, families and children. This connected collection promotes hands-on activities for children through digital, play-based learning experiences rich in STEM Practices, delivered through a series of mobile applications (apps) for tablet devices.

The ELSA apps for children support learning through play and act as a springboard for children to explore the natural world. The apps go beyond the screen to encourage active play that supports the development of STEM Practices.

The ELSA apps for children are aligned with the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and the Australian Curriculum for Foundation (as well as other state-based syllabi). The apps support child-directed, play-based learning in a variety of preschool and school settings.

Integrated educator resources and suggestions for families will support and assist children to make connections between their preschool/school and learning experiences at home.

ELSA was developed by the University of Canberra, with funding provided by the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) through the National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA).

ELSA is now managed by SPLAT-maths.

A child-centred design has been used to develop the ELSA apps and experiences for children.

The design of ELSA is underpinned by our Experience, Represent, Apply (ERA) learning framework.

Experience

This is what children already know. Children’s lived experiences are used as the foundation for concept development through social engagement and language.

Children will participate in a range of play-based, off-app experiences that provide opportunities for them to use language in ways that connect personal experiences with new understandings.

Represent

Children will play a variety of games on the apps to engage with, and represent, STEM concepts. These representations will include creating images, interpreting pictures, visualising and using symbols.

Children can create their own representations to use within the apps via the microphone and camera tools.

Apply

Children will build on their learning from the on-app activities through a range of off-app activities, guided by their educators and families.

Engagement with the visual and symbolic representatives on the app will also promote new child-centred, play-based experiences.

ERA Framework

The diagram below illustrates how ELSA’s child-focussed learning design is represented in an ERA cycle to support rich, deep experiences that develop STEM Practices:

Using this model, children will Experience a concept first. This concept is then Represented on the app in a game format. This engagement can then be followed with opportunities to Apply this idea to their own environment.

For example:

• Children can Experience copying a pattern in a story read by the educator about patterns in nature.
• They Represent this on the tablet by copying the pattern generated by an ELSA character.
• They Apply this by putting down the tablet and copying a pattern one of their friends has made using blocks.
• This ERA cycle then feeds into a new ERA cycle as children experience extending a pattern based on a new story.

Each of the ELSA apps for children has accompanying information for educators. This includes ideas and experiences for learning using this Experience, Represent, Apply cycle.

ELSA gives young children the opportunity to explore the practices that underpin everyday uses and foundational practices of STEM. These include ideas, methods and values.

The ELSA STEM Practices framework

There are opportunities to develop STEM ideas, methods and values throughout the day. Engaging with children through shared observing and noticing, asking questions and discussing ideas can help them make sense of STEM.

Patterns and relationships is a valuable topic for children to explore in preschool and in the Foundation year as it helps them understand their world. Exploring relationships between objects gives children new ways to consider relationships between people. This is identified within Belonging in the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF).

Patterns can be found all around us, and can be identified within Being in the EYLF. As children create patterns, sort and order with objects, they gain capacities that help with their transition to school – which is identified in Becoming in the EYLF.

In the Patterns and Relationships ELSA app, children will engage with and explore four core ELSA concepts:

• sorting
• ordering
• patterning
• representing

ELSA core concepts

Sorting

Sorting helps children develop strong skills in observing and sharing information. Children look closely at objects, notice differences and similarities, and then generate ideas to group objects together. Communicating their reasons for sorting makes this a rich learning experience.

Ordering

Ordering helps to develop problem-solving skills. When children arrange four blocks in order from smallest to largest, they must analyse the situation and then develop a solution. Over time, children will realise that objects can be ordered in different ways depending on the attribute chosen. A row of children ordered by height will likely be different to a row of children ordered by their birthday month. The Represent activity in the ELSA Patterns and Relationships app focuses on children ordering everyday events by time.

Patterning

Patterning develops spatial reasoning skills. Spatial reasoning helps children gain confidence in mathematics throughout school and into adult life. The ability to recognise, describe, and create patterns supports counting, number structure, early geometry and social development. By understanding patterns, children can make predictions about what might happen next from the pattern of what happened before.

Representing

Representing allows children to explore ways to code and communicate information. A symbol can represent a word, visual image, gesture or concept. In the ELSA Patterns and Relationships app, children will explore how a pattern of symbols can represent a dance pattern.

Experience, Represent, Apply cycle

To support rich, deep and connected experiences while engaging with the Patterns and Relationships app, we suggest using the Experience, Represent, Apply cycle:

Introduce opportunities for children to Experience an idea first. This idea is then Represented on the app in a game format. This engagement can then be followed with opportunities to Apply this idea to their own environment.

Experience, Represent, Apply with Patterns and Relationships

Experience

To support children in their learning, start with experiences in the real world that will introduce them to ordering, sorting, patterning or representing patterns. Many picture books use patterns to repeat text in predictable ways, while others describe colours or the order of events.

Find a favourite book and look for the STEM Practices within it. You can also turn daily activities into an experience of patterns and relationships. For example, tidying up is a great way to experience different ways of sorting – by colour, size or another attribute. Experiences like these help children understand what they already know, and also develop the appropriate language to communicate their knowledge. It also helps you as an educator to find out where the children are in their learning.

Represent

In the Patterns and Relationships app for children, each core concept has its own activity. Lunch boxes explores sorting. Children sort food into lunch boxes on whatever attributes they choose, and then describe how they sorted using the device’s microphone. Photo story is all about ordering. Children put photos into the order they occurred, and you can make your own stories using the camera on the device.

Let’s decorate is about patterning, and becomes increasingly complex the more children play. At first children copy a pattern, later they extend a pattern and finally they create their own. Let’s dance is about representing a pattern in symbols and movement. Try each of the three songs and dance to the music.

Apply

After engaging with the on-app representations, children can apply what they did using different materials and in different situations – such as using patterns to make real decorations for a special event happening at your centre/school. Or you can create a sorting station and invite children to bring objects in from home or outside. This helps transfer their ideas to different contexts.

EYLF outcomes

The Experience, Represent, Apply activities in Patterns and Relationships are aligned to outcomes from the Early Years Learning Framework. Activities in Patterns and Relationships align mainly with Outcomes 1, 4 and 5.

Outcome 1

Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency with activities such as Let’s line up. Here children work together and negotiate to arrange themselves in order of size. Also, the on-app activity Lunch boxes encourages children to work collaboratively.

Outcome 4

Children develop dispositions for learning with many of the dance activities, such as Let’s copy a music pattern (where children star in their own band and copy patterns with musical instruments), and the on-app activity Let’s dance. Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another when you use the Experience, Represent, Apply activities to support their learning.

Outcome 5

Children begin to understand how symbols and patterns work with the on-app activity Let’s decorate. Here they copy, extend and create patterns. Children use information technology to investigate ideas and represent their thinking with all the on-app activities in ELSA.

Foundation year and pathways to school

As they move from preschool onto primary school, children will expand their understanding of patterns and relationships. They will still make observations, and share them with others, but these become more nuanced.

Sorting takes on new dimensions. As well as colour and size, children may sort based on the material the object is made of or, for example, whether an object can float on water. This is strengthened through investigations such as placing a variety of objects in water to see which float, and recording the outcome.

Ordering objects extends to making direct comparisons, as well as more indirect uses of length. At first, children will compare length by putting objects side-by-side. Later, they will compare the length of two objects by using a third object as a measure. Activities become more challenging as they lead to formal measurement skills.

Patterning continues at school as a connection to algebra. As well as using objects to create patterns, children will also draw and copy patterns on paper.

Language and reasoning skills continue to grow at school. Children will be expected to explain the process of their thinking for comparing objects, and discussing their reasons.

The following content descriptions are examples from the Australian Curriculum for Foundation (the first year of formal schooling), which build on ELSA Patterns and Relationships.

For more information about our other children’s apps – and customised information for your state or territory – try our SPLAT-maths Curriculum Tool.

Mathematics

• Establish understanding of the language and processes of counting by naming numbers in sequences, initially to and from 20, moving from any starting point (ACMNA001)
• Sort and classify familiar objects and explain the basis for these classifications. Copy, continue and create patterns with objects and drawings (ACMNA005)
• Compare, order and make correspondences between collections, initially to 20, and explain reasoning (ACMNA289)
• Use direct and indirect comparisons to decide which is longer, heavier or holds more, and explain reasoning in everyday language (ACMMG006)

Science

• Participate in guided investigations and make observations using the senses (ACSIS011)
• Engage in discussions about observations and represent ideas (ACSIS233)
• Share observations and ideas (ACSIS012)
• Science involves observing, asking questions about, and describing changes in, objects and events (ACSHE013)

Technologies (digital technologies)

• Recognise and explore patterns in data and represent data as pictures, symbols and diagrams (ACTDIK002)
• Collect, explore and sort data, and use digital systems to present the data creatively (ACTDIP003)

Location and arrangement are natural topics for preschool and Foundation-year children as they explore and engage with their world. Children should be given opportunities to experience, observe and describe positions, directions, people, places and things within their centre/classroom, home and community.

Identifying and using spatial language is important in preschool and in the Foundation year, and has significant implications for later learning.

Understanding their place in the world is connected to Belonging in the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). As children use spatial language, symbolise representations and engage with maps, they gain capacities that help in their transition to school, which is identified in Becoming in the EYLF.

In the Location and Arrangement ELSA app, children will engage with and explore four core ELSA concepts:

• position
• location
• arrangement
• orientation

ELSA core concepts

Position

Children learn about position through the use of spatial language and by participating in play that allows them to demonstrate notions of position. The use of prepositions such as ‘on’, ‘inside’, ‘beside’ and ‘below’ support children to understand their position relative to other people and objects – and also the position of objects relative to other objects and people.

The Little helpers game encourages children to use positional language to play with one of the ELSA characters as they tidy up objects. This game has a variety of options including:

• free-form moving of objects
• following directions that include static and dynamic positional language

Location

This is about describing different fixed-point locations within a familiar environment and includes details regarding placement and position.

Children need to problem-solve where the locations are, based on descriptions of that place. They are then able to navigate themselves to those particular locations.

Children will eventually develop an understanding of relative location; namely, that many locations are described in relation to themselves, an object or someone else.

The Hide and seek game requires children to follow your instructions to locate where the animal card is hidden in their centre. (Later, children can follow instructions from other children.) Once the children have located the animal card, the card will animate using augmented reality (AR) as a reward.

Arrangement

Children begin to understand that their world can be visually represented using maps and models. Mapping provides a way of representing and communicating about space, requiring children to consider position and orientation. Children will also recognise that objects can be arranged in different ways within an environment and can be seen from different perspectives.

The Playground game gives children the opportunity to represent their own playground in digital form using a range of pre-designed objects commonly found in many centres. Once the map is constructed, children can see it from different perspectives and points of views.

Orientation

This is about understanding the relationships between different positions in space and movement through space within a map environment. Children use directional language to orientate themselves and others in a representation of space (e.g. a map).

The Directions game asks children to imagine that they are on an excursion to the zoo. They are required to move the characters on the map from a start to an end location. The children can also describe their own path around the map using a captured image.

Experience, Represent, Apply cycle

To support rich, deep and connected experiences while engaging with the Location and Arrangement app, we suggest using the Experience, Represent, Apply cycle:

Introduce opportunities for children to Experience a core concept first. This idea is then Represented on the app in a game format. This engagement can then be followed with opportunities to Apply this idea to their own environment.

Experience, Represent and Apply with Location and Arrangement

Experience

To support children in their learning, start with experiences in the real world that will introduce them to locations, arrangements and mapping.

Read books about locations, journeys or maps. Then do some simple activities that help children understand what they already know and develop the appropriate language to communicate their knowledge. (This stage also helps you find out where children are in their learning.)

Represent

In the Location and Arrangement app, each core concept has its own activity:

• Little helpers explores prepositional/spatial language.
• Hide and seek is about using adjectives to describe locations.
• Playground is an experience in creating a map and viewing it from different perspectives.
• Directions requires map interpretation and following directions.

Apply

After engaging with the app representations, children can apply what they did using different materials and in different situations. For example, making and playing with models and maps. This helps transfer their ideas to different contexts.

EYLF outcomes

The Experience, Represent, Apply activities in Location and Arrangement are aligned to outcomes from the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). Activities in Location and Arrangement align mainly with Outcomes 1, 2, 4 and 5.

Outcome 1 – Children have a strong sense of identity

• Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency.
• Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect.

Outcome 2 – Children are connected with and contribute to their world

• Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation.
• Children become aware of fairness.

Outcome 4 – Children are confident and involved learners

• Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity.
• Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating.

Outcome 5 – Children are effective communicators

• Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes.
• Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media.
• Children use information and communication technologies.

Foundation year and pathways to school

As they move from preschool onto primary school, children will expand their understanding of location and arrangement and spatial reasoning. They will still make observations and share them with others; however, these become more systematic. (The numeracy general capability within the curriculum provides opportunities for spatial thinking.)

Understanding of position continues to grow as children move from thinking about position in relation to self, toward thinking about position in relation to others. Children explain the location of objects and places with increasingly descriptive language and make observations regarding their physical environment.

Mapping various environments becomes more complex, as children characterise everyday objects in those environments via symbolic representation. They begin to build mental models of the larger world, understanding that maps represent space that we cannot always see.

Interpreting and following spatial directions continues to improve at school as children navigate new spaces (physically and in more abstract forms through maps). Sequential, step-by-step procedures to navigate environments are established.

Language and reasoning skills continue to grow at school. Children will be expected to explain their thinking process for describing locations and arrangements and discuss their reasons.

The following list of content descriptions are examples from the Australian Curriculum for Foundation (the first year of formal schooling) which build on ELSA Location and Arrangement.

For more information about our other children’s apps – and customised information for your state or territory – try our SPLAT-maths Curriculum Tool.

Mathematics

• Describe position and movement (ACMMG010)

Science

• Science involves observing, asking questions about, and describing changes in, objects and events (ACSHE013)
• Participate in guided investigations and make observations using the senses (ACSIS011)
• The way objects move depends on a variety of factors, including their size and shape (ACSSU005)
• Share observations and ideas (ACSIS012)

Technologies (digital technologies)

• Recognise and explore digital systems (hardware and software components) for a purpose (ACTDIK001)
• Follow, describe and represent a sequence of steps and decisions needed to solve simple problems (ACTDIP004)
• Generate, develop and record design ideas through describing, drawing and modelling (ACTDEP006)

Representations is a valuable topic for children to explore in preschool and Foundation year as it provides a way for children to understand their world (or imaginary worlds) and then to express this understanding using language, pictures and symbols.

Exploring the ways that objects can be represented gives children new insights into how others’ view the world and how others communicate these views. As children grow in confidence in understanding their world, and then later representing this understanding, they gain capacities that help in their transition to school.

In the Representations ELSA app, children will engage with and explore four core ELSA concepts:

• decoding
• encoding
• conditionals
• debugging

ELSA core concepts

Decoding

Decoding is a core understanding that young children develop as they experience the world. They learn that the real-world objects they interact with every day can be represented in various forms including words, drawings, photos, diagrams, maps and symbols. Understanding how information can be represented in these various forms is an important developmental step and underpins early literacy and early numeracy.

Encoding

Encoding, like decoding, is a way of representing experiences and then communicating these experiences to others. When encoding, children communicate their understanding of their world using words, drawings, photos, diagrams, maps and symbols. Later children learn that these symbols can be combined in various ways to communicate information more efficiently (e.g. using symbols to indicate that instructions repeat or loop or reverse).

Conditionals

Using Conditionals develops a child’s ability to understand that the ways events and objects are represented is influenced by other events or objects. Conditionals are a common component of children’s early language experiences – e.g. children become more familiar with conditional words and phrases such as – only if, if then, until, whenever etc. The Represent activity for conditionals (Let’s dress for our celebration) allows children to dress one of the ELSA characters and to see what impact this has on the characters experience of various weather conditions.

Debugging

Debugging is a term that describes the process of identifying errors in the representations of sequences and events and then correcting these errors to achieve the intended outcome. It is a core understanding that young children develop as they attempt to accurately represent their world. As they do so, they come to realise that others sometime misunderstand what they are trying to communicate and then learn more efficient and accurate ways to check their representations.

Experience, Represent, Apply cycle

To support rich, deep and connected experiences while engaging with the Representations app, we suggest using the Experience, Represent, Apply cycle:

Introduce opportunities for children to Experience a core concept first. This idea is then Represented on the app in a game format. This engagement can then be followed with opportunities to Apply this idea to their own environment.

Experience, Represent and Apply with Representations

Experience

To support children in their learning, start with experiences in the real world that will introduce them to encoding and decoding.

Read books about recipes, building or robots. Then do some simple activities that help children understand what they already know and develop the appropriate language to communicate their knowledge. (This stage also helps you find out where children are in their learning.)

Represent

In the Representations app, each core concept has its own activity:

• Let’s make musical instruments explores decoding.
• Let’s play in a band is about creating music as a way of encoding.
• Let’s dress for our celebration is an experience in making decisions about clothing depending on outside weather conditions.
• Let’s make sounds requires children to debug their creations to create the sound they like.

Apply

After engaging with the app representations, children can apply what they did using different materials and in different situations. For example, making diagrams, and then playing with blocks to build structures based on these diagrams. This helps transfer their ideas to different contexts.

EYLF outcomes

The Experience, Represent, Apply activities in Representations are aligned to outcomes from the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). Activities in Representations align mainly with Outcomes 1, 2, 4 and 5.

Outcome 1 – Children have a strong sense of identity

• Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency.
• Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect.

Outcome 2 – Children are connected with and contribute to their world

• Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation.
• Children become aware of fairness.

Outcome 4 – Children are confident and involved learners

• Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity.
• Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating.

Outcome 5 – Children are effective communicators

• Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes.
• Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media.
• Children use information and communication technologies.

Foundation year and pathways to school

As they move from preschool onto primary school, children will expand their understanding of decoding, encoding and conditionals. They will still make observations, represent these observations in some way and share them with others; however, these become more systematic as children begin to use common symbols to represent their observations.

In school, children will be required to decode information created by others, make sense of that information and then encode a response. In doing so, they will self-correct (debug), where the illustrations, pictures, words, diagrams, etc., they have created do not communicate exactly what they intended. In science, they will learn more about the conditionals that exist in nature (e.g. plant growth is dependent on good soil, water and sunlight, and changing these conditions results in very different outcomes). Later they will learn about basic coding instructions to move a BeeBot (simple robot) around their classroom.

Language and reasoning skills continue to grow at school. Children will be expected to explain their thinking process when encoding and decoding and discuss their reasons for representing their experiences in particular ways.

The following list of content descriptions are examples from the Australian Curriculum for Foundation, the first year of formal schooling, which build on ELSA Representations.

For more information about our other children’s apps – and customised information for your state or territory – try our SPLAT-maths Curriculum Tool.

Mathematics

• Connect days of the week to familiar events and actions (ACMMG008)

Science

• Science involves observing, asking questions about, and describing changes in, objects and events (ACSHE013)
• Participate in guided investigations and make observations using the senses (ACSIS011)
• Share observations and ideas (ACSIS012)
• Engage in discussions about observations and represent ideas (ACSIS233)
• Daily and seasonal changes in our environment affect everyday life (ACSSU004)

Technologies (digital technologies)

• Recognise and explore digital systems (hardware and software components) for a purpose (ACTDIK001)
• Recognise and explore patterns in data and represent data as pictures, symbols and diagrams (ACTDIK002)
• Follow, describe and represent a sequence of steps and decisions (algorithms) needed to solve simple problems (ACTDIP004)
• Generate, develop and record design ideas through describing, drawing and modelling (ACTDEP006)
• Sequence steps for making designed solutions and working collaboratively (ACTDEP009)

Young children are born investigators. They poke and prod whatever they discover. They expect to discover things for themselves as they explore and they are problem solvers as they investigate. They delight in learning new skills and developing new understandings about their world. By providing daily experiences with concrete objects, you can help children develop inquiry skills while supporting their natural curiosity.

As children actively and successfully participate in investigations, they build a strong foundation for a continuing interest in, and understanding of, STEM. Opportunities for investigations are all around us – the air we breathe, the food we eat, the flowers we grow. By taking advantage of naturally occurring events in your centre and at home, adults can help young children acquire important investigative processes: observing, proposing, verifying and explaining.

Why investigate?

Doing an investigation involves learning to question, observe, classify, communicate, measure, predict, infer, experiment, and construct models – as opposed to merely learning facts, concepts, and theories someone else has concluded. For example, blocks are an ideal material to offer children as they experiment with properties of matter, motion and stability. When children engage in open-ended exploration with blocks, they can ask questions and develop hypotheses about why blocks do or don’t fall when stacked high.

During an investigation, make sure you provide ample opportunity for open-ended exploration, and then stimulate further investigation by asking divergent questions. These include questions that help children to (1) describe observations, (2) explain procedures and (3) make predictions. Then, following their investigations, ask children questions that (4) encourage them to reflect on what they learned.

Investigations and the EYLF

The ELSA Investigations app fits well into the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) as it has the following benefits that support Being, Belonging and Becoming:

• cognitive (e.g. inquiring, reasoning, predicting and hypothesising)
• social (e.g. being a valuable part of a community, cooperating, sharing, negotiating, playing and working in a group)
• language (e.g. communicating ideas in various ways, including nonverbal)
• physical (e.g. engaging with both small and large motor skills during investigations)
• emotional (e.g. following their interests, developing a love of investigations with others in a playful environment, caring about living things and having fun)

In the Investigations ELSA app, children will engage with and explore four core ELSA concepts:

• observe
• propose
• verify
• explain

ELSA core concepts

Observe

Observing is the critical first step in an investigation for young children, as they learn through interacting with their world. Observing is an active process and, as they interact with their environment, children notice or perceive something and register it as being significant. For example, when a child stares at a shell, then pokes, smells and rubs its surface. In ELSA, we encourage the use of digital and non-digital tools, so the child might also use a magnifying glass, or a microscope attached to a tablet device, to more closely attend to the details on the shell.

Propose

Proposing is a way to make sense of the observations that children have made. Proposing will later be called ‘predicting’ and ‘hypothesising’ at school. In the early years, proposing relates to initial, often naïve suggestions as to why something might be happening. For example, children might predict whether the grass outside will be wet, or might predict which objects will roll all the way down a ramp.

Verify

Verifying is an important step that builds upon observations and proposing. When investigating, it is important that young children discover simple ways to either confirm or challenge their initial proposal. Investigating will later be called ‘experimentation’ and involves a process to make sense of observations. For example, a child might propose that a large hollow tube can make the loudest sound. To verify this, they could do a simple test involving a small, medium and large tube.

Explain

Explaining is the final step in the process. Initially, using their everyday language, and then later with increasingly sophisticated language, children explain what they have discovered in the verify stage. They draw simple conclusions and give a reason for an action or an event. For example, a child might conclude that round things roll because they don’t have a surface that rubs a lot against other surfaces, or that bigger instruments are louder because more air can get through. Initially the explanations will be verbal, but later might include simple drawings and diagrams.

At each of the four stages, children need to be encouraged, through questions, to think and talk about their experiences and explorations, and to describe them to others. They also need encouragement to:

• predict what might happen
• make closer and more careful observations
• ‘look again’
• raise their own questions
• realise when further exploration is needed
• find ways of recording their observations so that emerging patterns are more apparent

Experience, Represent, Apply cycle

To support rich, deep and connected experiences while engaging with the Investigations app, we suggest using the Experience, Represent, Apply cycle:

Introduce opportunities for children to Experience a core concept first. This idea is then Represented on the app in a game format. This engagement can then be followed with opportunities to Apply this idea to their own environment.

Experience, Represent and Apply with Investigations

Experience

To support children in their learning, start with experiences in the real world that will introduce them to the idea of investigations. Read books about investigations that happen in nature or in the built environment. Then do some simple activities that help children understand what they already know and develop the appropriate language to communicate their knowledge. (This stage also helps you find out where children are in their learning.)

Represent

In the Investigations app, children develop logical reasoning skills through various investigations. It is themed around water and wildlife.

As with previous ELSA apps, Investigations will involve four activities:

• Let’s tinker with spare parts
• Let’s look for clues
• Let’s find the missing animal
• Let’s create more animal clues

Apply

After engaging with the Investigations app, children can apply these processes in different situations. For example, they can use their design from the ‘Let’s tinker with spare parts’ activity to build a water feature on the fence in your centre. This helps transfer their ideas to different contexts.

EYLF outcomes

The Experience, Represent, Apply activities in Investigations are aligned to outcomes from the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). Activities in Investigations primarily align with:

Outcome 1 – Children have a strong sense of identity

• Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency.
• Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect.

Outcome 2 – Children are connected with and contribute to their world

• Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation.
• Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment.

Outcome 4 – Children are confident and involved learners

• Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity.
• Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating.
• Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials.

Outcome 5 – Children are effective communicators

• Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes.
• Children use information and communication technologies to access information, investigate ideas and represent their thinking.

Foundation year and pathways to school

As they move from preschool to primary school, children will expand their understanding of investigations and the four processes underpinning it: observing, proposing, verifying and explaining. Their observations, and representations of these observations, will become more systematic as children begin to use more sophisticated:

• tools to record and verify their observations and proposals
• language to explain and communicate their observations

In the Foundation year and beyond, children will come to know more about living and non-living things based on their observations – and these will increasingly involve comparisons and classifications.

They will:

• pose and respond to questions about familiar objects and events
• verify their comparisons and classifications using data they have collected themselves
• develop and record their ideas through describing, drawing and modelling to engage in discussions about their observations and their ideas

The following list of content descriptors are examples from the Australian Curriculum for Foundation, the first year of formal schooling, which build on ELSA Investigations.

For more information about our other children’s apps – and customised information for your state or territory – try our SPLAT-maths Curriculum Tool.

Mathematics

• Use direct and indirect comparisons to decide which is longer, heavier or holds more, and explain reasoning in everyday language (ACMMG006)
• Answer yes/no questions to collect information and make simple inferences (ACMSP011)
• Compare, order and make correspondences between collections, initially to 20, and explain reasoning (ACMNA289)
• Sort and classify familiar objects and explain the basis for these classifications. Copy, continue and create patterns with objects and drawings (ACMNA005)

Science

• Living things have basic needs including food and water (ACSSU002)
• Objects are made of materials that have observable properties (ACSSU003)
• Pose and respond to questions about familiar objects and events (ACSIS014)
• Science involves observing, asking questions about, and describing changes in, objects and events (ACSHE013)
• Participate in guided investigations and make observations using the senses (ACSIS011)
• The way objects move depends on a variety of factors, including their size and shape (ACSSU005)
• Share observations and ideas (ACSIS012)
• Engage in discussions about observations and represent ideas (ACSIS233)

Technologies (digital technologies)

• Recognise and explore digital systems (hardware and software components) for a purpose (ACTDIK001)
• Generate, develop and record design ideas through describing, drawing and modelling (ACTDEP006)
• Sequence steps for making designed solutions and working collaboratively (ACTDEP009)

Digital literacy is important in our increasingly digital world. It can be defined as a set of knowledge, skills and behaviours that allow children to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

ELSA is aligned with the outcomes of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and the Australian Curriculum for Foundation (as well as other state-based syllabi), which include children gaining confidence in the use of digital technologies or digital media for information, communication and entertainment.

Apps are an increasingly common component of a child’s digital experience. Apps can open up new worlds to explore and can take children on adventures in ways that may be difficult or time consuming to do as real-world experiences.

Using play-based educational apps in preschool and Foundation can be a powerful tool for learning. Playing with the apps in pairs and in small groups helps the children develop their communication and social skills as they share their discoveries with each other.

Educators can help children explore apps by being active observers, asking questions and giving context to the experiences.

Educators also play an important role in connecting the on-app learning with activities in the preschool/school environment and beyond.

Examples of such activities are included in the information about each ELSA app for children in other sections of this Educator app.

Preschools/schools can be great places to model good use of digital technology such as apps. ELSA encourages best practice when using the apps, including:

• active play in a supportive environment
• social play in groups that promote sharing, communication and teamwork
• safe play that ensures a good posture and plenty of breaks away from the screen

ELSA recommends children spend a maximum of 40 minutes per week engaging with the ELSA apps. This can occur across multiple shorter sessions, and in small groups to promote teamwork.

The apps have been designed to support active play, and we encourage you to do a variety of off-app ELSA activities before and after using the apps (our Experience, Represent, Apply – ERA – cycle).

When digital technology is used well, it can open up new worlds and spark enriching conversations.

During the development of the ELSA Program, educators shared ways to ensure that every child has a fair turn on the tablets.

Below is a collection of their ideas. You may like to try some of them in your centre or classroom:

• Use a clock, a digital timer or a sand timer to show children when they have finished their turn.
• Put a checklist on a table, and set a timer when a child starts on the tablet. When the timer beeps, the child goes and finds someone who hasn’t had a turn on the tablet.
• Rotate children through different stations, including a tablet station as one of their stops.
• Let children self-manage by asking them to write their name on a sheet when they sign in, and then tick off their name once they have had a turn.
• For larger groups, give children a lanyard with a colour. For example, when it is blue group’s turn on the tablets, every child with a blue lanyard can go to the tablet station.
• Have the tablets available all day and let children choose when they want to use them and when they are ready to do something else. 
• Have short sessions on the tablet each day, so children can choose if they want to play.

The ELSA apps for children have four characters – Amy, Elliot, Piper and Remy – who accompany the children on STEM adventures. They encourage and assist children as they play and learn.

Here is some information about each ELSA character pictured above, from left to right.

Amy

A nature lover and outdoor explorer, Amy loves birds, Australian flowers and seed pods.

Amy says: ‘I love all animals but birds the most. My family takes me on bushwalks so I can see and learn more about the natural world. Exploring is my favourite thing.’

Elliot

Especially interested in technology, Elliot likes to inspect things and has a desire to understand how technology works.

Elliot says: ‘I love building things. Making robots with LEGO and my machine building kit – that’s my favourite thing to do.’

Piper

Dreaming to be an astronomer, Piper always asks questions about her world and wonders why things are the way they are. Piper’s wheelchair has a cool science pack that she carries with her.

Piper says: ‘I love to experiment with my science kit to mix and make things react. Looking up at stars and the moon at night are my favourite things.’

Remy

Having fun with music, rhythm, shapes and moving his body to hip hop is what Remy enjoys most. His shoes even change colour as he moves and dances!

Remy says: ‘I love music and art and I spin my body to any beat. Making shapes is my favourite thing.’

There are many ways that you can involve families of children taking part in the ELSA Program. Below we have listed some ideas.

• We have an ELSA Families’ web app that parents and carers can access for free. This web app includes a variety of activities that families can do to extend learning from preschool/Foundation into the home environment. It also gives an explanation of each of the children’s apps so that family members can get a better idea of what children are learning about as part of the program.
• Families may like to bring materials from home for children to use in activities. For example, families could bring in a few different leaves from the garden for a sorting station (which you could create as an Apply activity for Patterns and Relationships).
• Just like any other activity in your centre/classroom, ELSA activities can be adapted to involve your local community and celebrate culture. Many of the on-app activities allow children to take photos or record sound through the microphone. You can use this to customise the activities to your unique context. You may like to invite families to share their ideas on how to adapt ELSA activities in this way. If you do adapt our activities, we would love to hear about it! Please feel free to send us an email at team@elsa.edu.au.
• The ELSA Educator app includes several activities tagged as ‘Ideas for families’. You can find them by searching in the Activity Finder or STEM Map tabs. You can share these ideas with your families through your usual ways of communicating.

Educator app

ELSA values your privacy. Below we have outlined how your personal information will be collected, stored and used in conjunction with the ELSA Program.

Privacy: How the ELSA Program will collect, store and use data

• Your personal information is protected by law, including the Information Privacy Act 2014 (ACT) (Information Privacy Act) and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) is bound by the Information Privacy Principles in the Information Privacy Act.
• Your personal information and the personal information of other educators will be collected by the ELSA for the purpose of running the ELSA Program.
• ELSA will collect and use the personal information of educators for the specific use of the ELSA Program only. The personal information collected may include your name, signature, email address, phone numbers, place of employment and photographs.
• All data collected as part of the ELSA Program will be: stored on secure servers in Australia (no personal information is being sent overseas); and de-identified (removing names and images) before being used in reports or published in academic papers.
• Data and personal information may be used and disclosed by the ELSA to the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) and the ELSA app developers – including Stripy Sock, Mode Games and Two Moos – for the purpose of delivering and improving the ELSA Program only.
• No photos, videos, names or other identifying material collected as part of the program will be used for publicity without further consent from you.
• If you do not consent to the collection of your personal information, you will not be able to participate in the ELSA Program.

To find out more about how ELSA will manage your personal information, please visit our SPLAT-maths Terms and Conditions page (the company running ELSA).

To correct any personal information or make a complaint about a breach of an Information Privacy Principle, you may contact the ELSA team via team@elsa.edu.au or call 1800 931 042.

Any issues you raise will be treated in-confidence in accordance with relevant laws and investigated fully, and you will be informed of the outcome.

Children’s apps

ELSA values your privacy. Below we have outlined how your personal information will be collected, stored and used in conjunction with the ELSA Program.

Privacy: How the ELSA Progarm will collect, store and use data

• Your personal information is protected by law, including the Information Privacy Act 2014 (ACT) (Information Privacy Act) and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). ELSA is bound by the Information Privacy Principles in the Information Privacy Act.
• Your personal information and the personal information of other educators will be collected by ELSA for the purpose of running the ELSA Program.
• ELSA will collect and use personal information of children for the specific use of the ELSA Program only. The personal information collected will include children’s name (first anme and surname initial) and date of birth (month and year only).
• All data collected as part of the program will be: stored on secure servers in Australia, with a unique number assigned to each child (no personal information is being sent overseas); and de-identified (removing names and images of children) before being used in reports or published in academic papers.
• Data and personal information may be used and disclosed by ELSA to the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE) and the ELSA app developers – including Stripy Sock, Mode Games and Two Moos – for the purpose of delivering and improving the ELSA Program only.
• No photos, videos, names or other identifying material collected as part of the program will be used for publicity without further consent from a child’s parent or legal guardian.
• If a parent or legal guardian does not consent to the collection of their child’s personal information, their child will not be able to participate in the ELSA Program.

To find out more about how ELSA will manage children’s personal information, please visit our SPLAT-maths Terms and Conditions page (the company running ELSA).

To correct any personal information or make a complaint about a breach of an Information Privacy Principle, you may contact the ELSA team via team@elsa.edu.au or call 1800 931 042.

Any issues you raise will be treated in-confidence in accordance with relevant laws and investigated fully, and you will be informed of the outcome.

If you are sharing the Educator app with other educators in your ELSA centre / school and that educator is looking after separate classes to you, please sign out after you have finished using the app. This helps ensure that children can access their profiles when using the ELSA children’s apps.

To sign out of the Educator app, tap on the Support tab, then select Account Settings. Here you will see your mobile phone number. Then tap Sign Out to complete the process.