Wonder took center stage. The main act? An unlikely duet of science and music, brought together in an interdisciplinary project to spark preschoolers' imaginations and inspire future teachers.
Professors Tina Vo of the College of Education and Amy Brown of the College of Fine Arts created the hands-on learning experience for the children at the Lynn Bennett Early Childhood Education Center. The class assignment took place during the preschool's Week of the Young Child, part of the National Association for the Education of Young Children's annual celebration highlighting the importance of early learning.
The pair brought together undergraduate students from their respective courses: Vo’s Music for Classroom Teachers and Brown’s elementary education science methods course to show future teachers how music, science, and play can combine to create engaging learning experiences. The partnership, developed over several years, reflects the faculty members’ shared commitment to interdisciplinary teaching and preparing students for real classroom experiences. It also encouraged students to blur the lines between subjects, seeing music and science as complementary rather than separate disciplines.
“When undergraduate students ask questions and make connections between their college content areas, they start to see how everything works together,” Brown said.
The undergraduate students are connecting the dots, and through this cross-campus cooperative assignment, facilitating similar “aha” moments for the young learners. Laughter filled the room as children ducked beneath a colorful parachute before rushing to discover what came next.
From Classroom Theory to Real-World Practice
Vo and Brown put their students to work brainstorming and designing exploratory activities fit for preschool-aged learners, including short, hands-on experiences to encourage movement, creativity, and discovery. The assignment challenged students to think beyond traditional instruction and instead create positive, informal learning experiences that integrated multiple subject areas.
One of the challenges of helping preservice students prepare to enter the classroom is getting them to understand that teaching isn’t about lecturing. “It’s about creating positive experiences that build confidence through exploration,” Tina explained.
Preschool classrooms are the ideal place for this type of learning because children naturally explore without worrying whether they're "doing it right." That openness gives future teachers permission to experiment alongside them. "The entire goal of this is to have our preservice teachers think about content integration while providing a positive experience for young learners," Brown added.
Inside the preschool, children rotated through interactive stations featuring parachutes, homemade maracas, and other tactile musical tools. One activity paired animal puppets with “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” to explore sound and categorization, while another invited children to count using drum sticks and beats.
Anything Can Happen With Little Learners
For Brown, the Nevada Week of the Young Child event highlighted the importance of giving preservice teachers opportunities to work directly with children. "This gives our students a chance to see what teaching and learning looks like in real time," Brown said. As children responded in unexpected ways, future teachers had to adapt activities on the spot, serving as a key takeaway that flexibility is just as important as lesson planning.
Preschoolers are notoriously unpredictable. It’s part of the fun and beauty of early childhood education. Young learners approach activities with imagination and openness, often using materials in completely unexpected ways. Rather than viewing those moments as disruptions, Brown and Vo see them as opportunities for authentic learning.
The Lynn Bennett Early Childhood Education Center serves as both a preschool for children and a teaching and research site where education students and faculty can translate classroom learning into practice. Through partnerships like this one, future teachers gain practical experience designing engaging lessons before leading classrooms of their own.
“Play is really the foundation,” Brown said. “Our students explore, discover, and learn through adapting to the unexpected.”
At its heart, putting coursework into practice at the preschool underscores larger College of Education and UNLV and CSUN Preschool values: using the site to prepare future educators to think creatively, welcoming collaboration across disciplines, and tapping into the value the entire UNLV community can bring to the learning process. For Brown and Vo, that's the lesson they hope their students carry into their own classrooms — that meaningful learning doesn't happen in isolated subjects, but through curiosity, creativity, and the freedom to explore.
