The White House and the US Secretary of Education, John King, are hosting a STEM Starts Early! Symposium on Thursday, April 21 in order to highlight best practices at the intersection of early childhood education and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). The event is co-hosted by the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and InvestInUs.org.

ReadyRosie‘s founder and CEO, Emily Roden, has been invited to participate in the symposium and work with other educational leaders from around the nation to discuss how to best advance STEM learning in early childhood.

During the symposium, the White House will feature a new partnership between ReadyRosie and the Children’s Museum of Houston. The partnership seeks to “Pair Up” in-person STEM experiences for families with video-based mobile technology to enhance and extend authentic STEM early childhood experiences in primarily at-risk communities.

Regardless of income-age-education-background, parents want their children to be successful learners, to reach their potential. Early learning experiences, often inquiry-based, are key to this success. Parents want to help, but don’t know how. Or sometimes they have good ideas, but lack the confidence they are doing the “right” thing. Everyday family interactions at home and beyond can often be modified in small ways for big effect. These everyday STEM learning moments and small projects for families with children birth through elementary school age are what the new ReadyRosie-Children’s Museum of Houston “paired-up for parents” partnership is all about.

ReadyRosie STEM video models have been matched with Children’s Museum of Houston’s STEM project-based learning challenges, advancing family learning experiences to the next level. All pair-ups are based on standards and assessment data focused on furthering learning outcomes, with usage tracking through ReadyRosie facilitating rapid refinements. In May, the Children’s Museum of Houston will co-host a family learning event celebration with 15 of these pair-ups at one elementary school for ~100 families. As soon as this initial pair-up pilot is complete, we’ll expand the model and move on to our next big idea of developing Ready Rosie video models using Children’s Museum of Houston’s STEM exhibits.

ReadyRosie and the Children’s Museum of Houston developed their partnership in large part due to the collaborative work of Houston Early Matters under the leadership of Veronica Chapa.

The White House symposium will be streamed live on White House Live from 9am to 10:15am ET.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

ReadyRosie

Emily Roden, Founder/Owner

eroden@readyrosie.com

940-300-7084

Children’s Museum of Houston

Henry Yau, Director of Public Relations

hyau@cmhouston.org