Good News Tommy and a playful puppy explore space from a homemade cardboard rocket, surrounded by books, planets and STEM activities as they point toward the Moon.

From the Cosmos to the Classroom: Space & STEM for Kids

March 1, 2023

A cardboard box becomes a rocket ship. The couch becomes Mission Control. A flashlight becomes a distant star.

For a young child fascinated by space, learning can begin long before they understand words like astronomy, engineering or physics.

That may be one of the wonderful things about space: it naturally makes children ask questions.

Why does the Moon follow us? How do rockets get into space? Why don't astronauts fall down? Could people live on Mars?

Those questions aren't interruptions to learning. They can be the beginning of it.

From the Cosmos to the Classroom

STEM—science, technology, engineering and mathematics—can sound like something reserved for older students sitting in laboratories.

But for young children, STEM often looks much more familiar.

Building a tower and figuring out why it falls. Comparing which toy rolls farther down a ramp. Counting blocks. Making shadows with a flashlight. Looking at the Moon. Mixing ingredients. Asking what will happen next.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children encourages families to look for STEM activities that let children actively build, explore, solve problems and talk about what they're discovering.

In other words, you don't necessarily need a science kit to raise a curious little scientist.

Space Gives Kids Something Enormous to Wonder About

Try looking at the night sky with a child.

You probably won't have to deliver a lecture.

Just start with a question:

“What do you notice?”

Then perhaps:

“What do you think is up there?”

“Why do you think the Moon looks different on different nights?”

“If you could build a spaceship, what would it need?”

NAEYC's guidance on supporting children's science learning specifically encourages parents to value children's questions and explore possible answers together. Parents don't have to know everything. Even saying, “I don't know—how could we find out?” can turn a question into an investigation.

Build a Rocket—No Rocket Fuel Required

Here's an easy Storybooksong challenge: give your child a cardboard box and announce that tomorrow it needs to reach the Moon.

Then resist the temptation to tell them how to build it.

Ask questions instead.

Where will the astronaut sit?

How will the rocket take off?

What should we use for controls?

How many people can fit inside?

What happens if something breaks?

Suddenly a cardboard box involves design, measurement, counting, spatial reasoning, problem-solving, language and imagination.

Researchers call one version of this approach guided play: children retain meaningful choice and control while an adult helps steer exploration toward a learning goal.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of guided-play research examined 39 studies involving children roughly ages 1–8. Compared with direct instruction, guided play showed advantages for some outcomes including early mathematics, shape knowledge and task switching; compared with free play, it showed an advantage for spatial vocabulary. Importantly, the researchers did not find advantages across every outcome they examined.

That's an important distinction. Play isn't magic, and one afternoon building a cardboard rocket isn't going to turn a preschooler into an aerospace engineer.

But playful exploration can create opportunities to practice the kinds of thinking that STEM requires.

Sometimes the Best Teaching Tool Is a Question

A more recent study observed 75 parents playing with their preschool children during a building challenge. Researchers examined parents' math, spatial and scientific-inquiry language along with children's STEM talk and self-regulated learning.

They found relationships between the ways parents guided the activity and aspects of children's math and spatial skills, including pathways involving children's own STEM talk and self-regulation.

Because this was a relatively small study and examined associations and statistical pathways, it shouldn't be interpreted as proof that asking a particular question will cause higher STEM achievement.

But it reinforces a wonderfully practical idea:

Talk with children while they explore.

“Why do you think that happened?”

“What could you change?”

“Which one is farther away?”

“What do you predict will happen next?”

“How could we build it differently?”

Sometimes you don't need to give a child the answer. You need to give them a reason to keep looking for one.

Try a Family Space Night

You can turn an ordinary evening into a miniature space adventure.

Step outside and find the Moon. Look for bright stars. Draw what you see. Make up names for imaginary planets. Build a spacecraft from blocks. Use a flashlight and balls of different sizes to play with light and shadows.

Then let imagination take over.

Where is your spacecraft going?

What will you discover?

What would you eat on the journey?

What would your new planet look like?

Young children don't need to understand orbital mechanics to begin thinking like explorers.

And One Day, Space Really Can Become a Career

Today's children are growing up during an extraordinary period of space exploration and technology. The questions they're asking from the backyard today connect to real fields including astronomy, aerospace engineering, computer science, robotics, mathematics, communications and satellite technology.

They may eventually encounter organizations ranging from NASA and universities to private aerospace companies and the United States Space Force.

That doesn't mean a 5-year-old needs to choose a career.

Quite the opposite.

At this age, let them wonder.

Let them build.

Let them pretend.

Let them ask ridiculous questions.

Because occasionally a ridiculous question turns out to be a very good scientific question.

For the Grown-Ups Who Love Space, Too

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But whether your family is wearing a space hoodie, staring through a telescope or sitting inside a cardboard rocket in the living room, the most important part may be the same:

Keep looking up. Keep asking questions. And keep giving children something wonderful to wonder about.

The science behind this: We looked at the research—not just the parenting headlines. The studies and expert sources behind this article are linked throughout so you can see the evidence for yourself.