In unprecedented times, the global community is calling for greater knowledge and engagement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to support the decision making and practices of the general community. COVID-19 has highlighted this pressing need and inviting a ‘new normal’. But STEM is not the core business of early childhood. What role can the early childhood education research community take? This paper reports on a cultural-historical study that investigated how a Conceptual PlayWorld changed the traditional Froebelian play areas to support girls’ play and motives in STEM. The question guiding that study was how could a Conceptual PlayWorld overcome the problems previously identified in the literature on girls’ inclusion in STEM activities in preschools. In our educational experiment we implemented a Conceptual PlayWorld over 12 weeks (123 hour of digital video observations), with a focus on role-playing ‘as if’ engineers and scientists (five 4-year-olds and eight 5-year-olds). The outcomes show how a Conceptual PlayWorld created new kinds of 21century learning areas. Spaces traditionally difficult for girls to enter, were transformed and afforded completely new ways of playing, shown to be inclusive of girls, and disrupted gendered interactions and divergence.

在空前的时代，全球社会呼吁在科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）中增加知识和参与，以支持整个社区的决策和实践。COVID-19强调了这一紧迫的需求并邀请了“新常态”。但是，STEM并不是幼儿的核心业务。幼儿教育研究界可以扮演什么角色？本文报道了一项文化历史研究，该研究调查了概念游戏世界如何改变传统的Froebelian游戏区，以支持STEM中女孩的游戏和动机。指导该研究的问题是，概念游戏世界如何克服先前在文献中发现的关于女孩被纳入幼儿班的STEM活动中的问题。在我们的教育实验中，我们在12周（123小时的数字视频观察）中实施了概念游戏世界，重点是像工程师和科学家一样扮演角色（5岁4岁，8岁5岁） 。结果显示了概念游戏世界是如何创建21世纪学习领域的新类型的。传统上女孩难以进入的空间被改造并提供了全新的玩耍方式，其中包括女孩在内，并扰乱了性别互动和分歧。