Key points:
STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education prepares students for success beyond high school by helping them develop much-needed lasting skills such as critical thinking and problem solving.
An integrated STEAM education also puts students on the path to success with higher test scores, stronger attendance records, better disciplinary records, and higher participation and graduation rates.
STEAM education is hot at an opportune time: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused learning loss across the board, and a STEAM-focused curriculum that engages students while weaving important 21st century educational principles into lessons of the real world is essential for success.
Let's take a closer look at STEAM education:
What is an example of STEAM education?
Makerspaces are a great example of STEAM learning, allowing students to combine creative and artistic elements into more traditional STEM subjects. School makerspaces have emerged as hubs for creativity, problem solving, collaboration, and more. These skills, often called soft skills but also known as durable skills because of their importance in the workplace, are a focus in 21st century classrooms. Today, school libraries often include maker spaces, and librarians are becoming familiar with the coding, robotics, engineering, and tinkering skills needed to help students bring their ideas to life. Let's look at some facts about STEAM education: Here are 5 resources (digital and non-digital) for school makerspaces that might be worth checking out.
What does STEAM do for education?
As STEM has grown in importance over the past decade, arts education has yet to achieve the same recognition and integration. To provide a rich, robust and inclusive curriculum for young people, STEM must evolve to STEAM. And in many ways, that transition is already occurring as technology and engineering drive the next wave of art and creative expression. You can't have one without the other. As our digital world encompasses new mediums of storytelling in design, audio engineering, music production, digital art and more, new unique skill sets are required to prepare young people for the careers of the future. The principles of STEAM education must be integrated into media production, music production, and graphic design to enable the next wave of innovation and creativity necessary for these important technological changes. STEAM education lesson plans can incorporate many learning principles. Here's why creativity is essential in today's curriculum.
What is STEAM and STEM activity?
Much of STEM and STEAM activity occurs in laboratories. A STEM or STEAM lab is an environment where students, regardless of grade, can come together and actively participate in hands-on STEM and STEAM learning. These educational spaces encourage active learning and problem solving. In these STEM labs, students can develop their science, engineering, and math skills by using technology to create, collaborate, and complete projects, learning and applying knowledge to find new solutions. Imagine a technology-enhanced learning environment where everything is student-centered and supports topic- and project-based learning—that's a STEM lab! And these are just a few examples of STEM and STEAM education. Here are 4 ideas to consider when creating a STEM or STEAM lab.
What is the value of STEAM education?
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics are broad but dynamic subjects that contain countless specific learning concepts. The arts and sciences have traditionally been perceived as different subjects with few commonalities, and STEM programs often omit the conversation arts. But with a STEAM-focused curriculum, students are trained to introduce design, agile thinking, and creative solutions to solve social and scientific problems and make new inventions a reality. What's more, a multi-subject approach to a STEAM education promotes deeper conceptual learning and career self-determination, and prepares young people for interdisciplinary STEAM careers in a rapidly changing workplace. So what is the impact of STEAM education? A STEAM learning approach encourages collaboration to understand and distill new concepts. By integrating the arts, a STEAM-focused curriculum uses tools such as quantitative visualization or fine art imagery to deepen understanding of science, mathematics, and technology. Here's why students will benefit from STEAM learning.
What are the 3 benefits of STEM?
A new study from the University of Missouri, in partnership with Harvard-Smithsonian researchers, shows that when colleges host 'STEM Career Days,' students who attend are much more likely to pursue a career in a STEM-related field. The findings not only highlight the benefits of college recruiters presenting high school students with STEM-related opportunities, but can also help increase and diversify the STEM workforce in the United States. The benefits of STEAM education and STEM learning help students develop much-needed skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, and collaboration. Students learn to cope with challenging situations regardless of the career field they pursue. The benefits of STEM learning are invaluable.
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