How STEM Programs Help Kids Develop the 6C's

If you’re thinking about enrolling your child in any type of a STEM program, you may be wondering how it can benefit them besides teaching them the skills they are being taught. STEM programs have far-reaching benefits in many areas that kids can use well after they finish their program. Let’s take a look at how STEM programs help kids develop the 6C’s.

Critical Thinking

Whether your child is taking a class in robotics, coding, or Minecraft at MakerKids, they will have to use critical thinking to get the job done. How are they going to program a robot to work? How are they going to make Minecraft a more awesome game to play? These are questions that need to be answered using critical thinking skills.

Curiosity

To be a maker, you need to be curious about how things work. Many kids are inquisitive by nature, but STEM programs help to take that curiosity to a new level. They learn to question the why behind how things work and come up with new ways to do things. At MakerKids, children can make their ideas come to life with enough creativity and hard work.

Communication & Managing Information

While making your own ideas come to life is important, so is learning to work with others and communicating. When kids are in STEM programs, they develop social skills that include talking with other kids about their projects and about how to make them better. Sometimes a classmate may have an idea that one child may have never thought of, but would make their project that much better. These are the types of skills that STEM programs can help children develop.

Collaboration

Working together means not only talking about ideas but learning how to respect others’ ideas and work towards a common goal. Many projects require more than one bright mind. Learning how to mesh everyone’s ideas together and work as a team is vital to making STEM projects and other projects a success.

Cultural & Global Citizenship

When kids join a STEM program they will likely encounter children from other ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. Learning how to work with them and respect their cultures is a value that is learned through these programs. For some children, this may be their first and only encounter with children from other cultures. By learning to work with them, they also learn the importance of acceptance.

Character

STEM programs help to build character because children learn what it means to succeed as well as fail. Although parents don’t like to see their children fail, it’s an important part of growing up and helps to build character. When a program or code doesn’t go as planned, kids must learn how to pick themselves up and make it work. This resilience is an important character-building trait.

If you want to help your child develop “the 6c’s”, enroll them in a MakerKids program. Whether you choose coding, robotics, or Minecraft, your child will learn these important traits and carry them on into their everyday activities. Call us today at 1-844-MAKERKIDS or visit us online to see our variety of programs.