In 2016, the STEM Education Research Centre (SERC) was awarded $5.6 million by the Australian Government to create the Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) Program and run a Pilot. 

For the 2018 ELSA Pilot, SERC designed and developed a suite of play-based digital apps, including 4 children’s apps, an app for educators and an app for families and more than 100 classroom activities for children to engage in – ensuring a healthy balance between digital play and physical play. This program encourages children to engage with play-based activities in their centre and outside in the natural environment before and after using the apps.

Each app engages children in a different STEM skill. The program’s 16 apps are grouped into bundles – Patterns and Relationships, Location and Arrangement, Representations, and Investigations. The app also includes over 30 lesson plans created by SERC’s team of education specialists.

With the success of the 2018 ELSA pilot, in 2020, SERC was funded to run ELSA as a research project to establish its impact on children’s STEM learning and spatial reasoning. Then, in 2021, the ELSA Program was made available to all preschools and Foundation Year classes around Australia on a commercial basis. 

Due to the success of ELSA, SERC received Federal Budget funds to develop ELSA F–2 starting in 2021. The ELSA: STEM in Schools Program provides the opportunity for young children to explore an online, play-based learning environment, delivered through a series of digital tools that are rich in STEM concepts. 

In 2024, resources will be provided to 114 schools across Australia for children in Foundation Year, Year 1 and Year 2. Of these 114 schools, 7 are in the ACT.