What is Children Study Their World (CSW)?

CSW is an early childhood curriculum for 4-year-olds, based on principles of project-based inquiry and driven by evidence-based practices that build teacher capacity and support successful implementation. It consists of eight interdisciplinary, content-rich projects that build upon children’s knowledge and increase in complexity. Each project supports children’s common understanding of a topic and nurtures their innate sense of curiosity and discovery about their world. CSW was created by the Center for Early Childhood Education and Intervention at the University of Maryland. Funding for CSW was provided through a grant from the Maryland State Department of Education.

What makes CSW unique?

CSW is an electronic curriculum, published in iBooks form for use on the iPad. It includes embedded online resources, such as videos and songs, as well as links to online resources and ideas that teachers can use to support children’s questions and challenge their thinking. By using an iPad, teachers have instant access to Internet resources, can quickly document children’s work with photos or video, can access the Maryland Early Learning Assessment, and have the entire curriculum at their fingertips! In each project of CSW, children ask questions, guide planning, explore and discover, and share their learning. Teachers model curiosity, observe children’s level of understanding, and help them represent what they learned in different ways.

Learn more about CSW at https://education.umd.edu/cdw.

Please stay tuned for more information on the implementation of Maryland’s Children the Study the World Curriculum!