Professional Development Division

Since 1972, The Children's Center at Caltech (CCC) has been offering high quality child care and education for children ages six month to six years. In 2000, our research lead us to adopt STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curricula as a focus of our early childhood program. As leaders in STEM Early Childhood education, we launched ECSTEM in 2011, and host an annual conference bringing together educators, policy makers, researchers and other vested community stakeholders to address the needs of our youngest citizens.

Due to the overwhelming demand for tours of our facilities, and requests for professional growth workshops, we have formed a Professional Development Division (PDD) that arranges tours, on-site visits and workshops at the CCC.

Spring Workshops at The Children's Center at Caltech

Ecosystems and Habitats

Join us as we investigate the study of ecosystems and habitats from a 4-5 year old perspective. With a focus on living organisms and non-living factors, we will explore the ecological environmental areas in which they interact as a system. Other areas of learning include: nests, ponds, gardens, insectariums, vivariums, and aquariums.

Saturday, March 25th, 2023 (9-12pm) Presenter: Cindy Antuna, Lead Teacher Location: The Children's Center at Caltech

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Storytelling As Seen Through the Lens of STEM

Storytelling is a wonderful tool that is full of potential when used intentionally in the early childhood classroom. This workshop, to be held at the newly constructed Growing Place Lab School site, will highlight the importance of children's storybooks as a common learning resource with many possibilities to support Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning. This workshop will help you get the most out of storytelling as we share books, resources, materials and ideas that can be implemented in your own classroom to make storytelling meaningful!

Saturday, April 22nd, 2023 (9-12pm)
Presenter: Susan Wood, Executive Director

Location: Growing Place, Lab School

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Scale and Structure

In this workshop, we will investigate scale and structure with toddlers. You'll see examples of how our future engineers explored how things are constructed and examine properties such as size, stability, and more. We will provide you with examples of age appropriate activities to extend your own experiences with scale and structure and support your curriculum development.

Saturday, May 13th, 2023 (9-12pm) Presenter: Marlene Garcia, Lead Teacher Location: The Children's Center at Caltech

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If interested in an Educator Tour of The Children's Center at Caltech, please call the office at 626.395.6860 to schedule your visit, then please fill out the educator tour form and mail to us at the address below.

For questions regarding Educator Tours or the PDD Workshop Series, please call 626.395.6860 or email ecstem@caltech.edu

Please complete the registration form and mail along with payment to: The Children's Center at Caltech, 1200 E. California Blvd. MC 1-133, Pasadena, CA 91125; Attention: PDD