Elfenbaum teamed up with Dafna Presnell, the director of the Stephen S. Wise Early Education Program, and the two women developed the program for the Los Angeles preschool.

Photo: A discovery center in a kindergarten classroom at Zion Chapel Elementary School in Jack, Ala. that is piloting The Creative Curriculum for Kindergarten.—Courtesy Teaching Strategies.

In the early 2000s, we tested a new curriculum on more than 200 students. Here’s what we found when we met the students again, two decades later.

The new curricula include EiE for Kindergarten and Wee Engineer, the latter for preschool-aged students. Wee Engineer is designed to ease students aged 3 and up "into the worlds of science and ...