The Experience, Represent, Apply (ERA) heuristic is an innovation of the Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) project. It provided educators with an approach that embeds digital technologies in play-based learning in such a way that the focus of the learning remains on the child and not on the device. This paper reports on the experiences of early…

The symposium provides an overview of the Early Years STEM Australia (ELSA) program. The conceptual underpinnings of the program are framed within STEM practices, rather than traditional thinking concerning the integration of discipline content knowledge. We will argue that our focus on practices is more aligned with the play-based and intentional…