STEM to STEAM: “A” Is Not Just For Art

STEM to STEAM: “A” Is Not Just For Art

By Frank Rudnesky, Ed.D., Peter Davis, and Frank Pileiro

The President made STEM education a priority. The Whitehouse.gov website indicates that the Obama Administration is committed to the education of our students in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). In 2009, the President challenged prominent CEOs in the the private sector to influence future education in this area through expertise and monetary donations. One of the President’s goals was to educate 100,000 effective educators over a decade. Additionally, the Administration created the STEM Master Teacher Corp to further the expertise of existing teachers that included STEM in their curricular area.

A decade ago, technology integration and project based assessment became as ubiquitous as tires on a car.  In our school, we did a tremendous amount of research that included a legitimate review of the literature as well as our own action research. We designed a comprehensive technology professional development plan that included professional development before the acquisition of equipment. We discovered what many schools did at the time: project-based learning and technology integration were a perfect fit (Rudnesky, 2009).

Additionally, there are many teaching tools. Lessons and units must still be well thought out. Learning objectives and pedagogy must still be incorporated in the lessons to make them effective. These lessons enabled students to discover real-world solutions to real-world problems. In earlier grades, students may not have the math and science expertise but they do have the creativity to think that anything is possible. As the students get older, they have the skills across the board to create some phenomenal solutions.

According to Paul (2014) women are poorly represented in the STEM career fields. By adding the “A” (arts and humanities) to STEM, STEAM will create a natural fit to attract more women and minorities. Additionally, this will appeal to more students in general by offering more opportunities for college majors that will translate into a much larger job pool of qualified applicants. For example, students that are passionate about visual art will realize the potential offerings in the design phase of multiple problem-solving activities. In our school, students have opportunities to add the “A” in many problem-solving and project-based assessments. These may include but not limited to: car design, product design, STEAM Fair, Inventions Contest, renewable energy projects, mosaic portraits, public speaking, performing arts, engineering, architecture, and many cross-curricular opportunities.

Our teachers have revealed through observation and quality of productivity that creating these types of lessons increases the students’ imagination over time. Likewise, brainstorming and problem-solving with a partner or in a group has improved outcomes. Every teacher agrees that students learn best when they are inspired and engaged. The Association of American Colleges and Universities (2013) surveyed 318 employers and found that 93% of those employers favor a candidate’s capacity to think critically, solve complex problems, and communicate clearly as  more important than a college major.

STEAM offers opportunities for collaboration among educators and students. This school year, we formed a STEAM Professional Learning Community (PLC), our own action research concluded what our research and a review of the literature told us twelve years ago: barriers to STEAM include time and isolation. The times to collaborate and plan are factors in teachers working with other teachers and students (Rudnesky, 2004).

With more online collaboration, we have begun to eliminate some of these obstructions. With the advent of Google Docs and Google Classrooms, teachers have naturally moved to more of a blended classroom. This promotes less structure with more direction that allows students to take calculated, creative risks.

Formative assessment is made through teacher observations of the students’ performance. Students are encouraged to share their own observations of projects to reinforce the collaborative focus in the process of learning. Supportive classroom environments encourage students to initiate discussion and demonstration.  Students are empowered to think for themselves, and teachers are careful to demonstrate that they are interested in students’ original ideas.

The STEAM classroom and STEAM school is not a new methodology, however, a new buzz is being created. For some of the latest research go to http://stemtosteam.org/. We found this site linked to The Rhode Island School of Design. This school seems to be one of the early adopters that are able to define what we (Belhaven Middle School) have been doing for over a decade.

The San Diego Unified School District has a comprehensive program for their elementary grades. Under the direction of Dr. Linda Gohlke, the district offers tips to incorporate STEAM curriculum using performing and visual arts along with public speaking. Tips include fifth graders engaged in abstract and representational art to better understand atoms and molecules.

About ten years ago, our school (Belhaven Middle School) designed a cross-curricular unit for the entire seventh grade. The unit coincided with a medieval social studies unit that collaborated across the whole curriculum including the related arts cycle of visual art, vocal music, physical education, and industrial technology.   The only thing missing was the jargon. At that time, we did not identify the “A”, however, the unit did include aesthetics, visual art, performing arts, and humanities.

Today, it is hard to tell if schools are shifting to the STEAM model or catching up with identifying the model. One argument is that some educators do not believe that the “art” component is already being represented in the STEM model (Williams, 2013). Other educators believe it has always been there but not identified in the acronym. We would have to agree with the later since we were doing it for a number of years. We also agree that the “A” needs more emphasis for everyone to become aware of the college and career options.

The STEAM approach to a curricular unit will lend itself to other components of creating the “whole child.” For instance, our eighth grade unit on renewable energy infuses character education and leadership theory. Students render ideas with the environment and ethics in mind. Then the students design and build a “working” model.

Our students use Google SketchUp for a design-modeling program, a MakerBot 3D printer, and some wise words from Thomas Edison “to invent, you need a good imagination and a pile junk”, to develop life changing innovations producing one to thirty volts.  

STEAM compliments both sides of the brain. By incorporating all components into a lesson, unit, or project, STEAM education will naturally differentiate instruction. It appeals to learning styles, interests, and learning capacity. This creates more ideas from the students, and it allows them more creative input.

Although most students would not make the association, STEAM pioneers include: Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs (Apple), Marissa Mayer (CEO of Yahoo), and Dong-Hoon Chang (Samsung). These well-known visionaries have paved the way for many more innovators by inspiring new visions in our classrooms across the country with the onset of STEAM integration.

While the new Common Core may allow for a different approach to problem-solving, the over-testing that comes with it may stifle productivity for this type of creativity. This over-testing and under-teaching does not lend itself to President Obama’s commitment to cross-curricular infusion. At press time, forty-four states have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) but according to PARCC online, only nine states plus the District of Columbia (at the time this article was written) are participating in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) assessment.

As we move forward, we are offering a STEAM Career Fair for our students and community in early spring. This will not only educate our students and parents to college and career opportunities but the fair will get the students excited to examine the endless possibilities of STEAM in the classrooms. Students will rotate all day. As you can see in See Figure 1, we are having a keynote, mini presentations, career booths, workshops, exhibits, and family challenges (problem-solving).  We booked educators, engineers, artists, musicians, medical personnel, and Google employees. 

At the end of the school year, our seventh graders are required to participate in our STEAM Fair (formerly the Science Fair). Students can work in groups under parameters that fit the criteria for judging. Judges access mini movies of the students’ progression by scanning a QR code. This directs the judges to a secure video site. Students are available from questioning.

The STEAM Career Fair and the STEAM Fair are culminations but by no means the pinnacle of our vision. We want to achieve project-based, problem-solving units of instruction that allow our teachers and students to collaborate and think using higher level questioning creating cross-curricular units of instruction that solve real problems. We want students to have opportunities to find their passion while offering them viable college and career choices. We want to inspire the inspire-ers. I know we can do it.

References

Retrieved December 31, 2014 from: http://www.parcconline.org/parcc-states

Retrieved December 12, 2014. http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/k-12/educate-innovate                                                                                                                                         Miller, A. PBL and STEAM Education: A Natural Fit,  Retrieved December 1, 2014, http://www.edutopia.org/blog/pbl-and-steam-natural-fit-andrew-miller

Paul, Annie Murphy September 15, 2014, Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/15/how-to-get-girls-more-interested-in-stem-subjects/

Rudnesky, F. (2004) Facilitating changes in perception and classroom strategy through mentoring: a case study of technology and its integration with classroom instruction, dissertation, 25.

Rudnesky, F. (2009) From vision to classroom, Principal Leadership, Retrieved June 10, 2014 from: http://www.principals.org/portals/0/content/46804.pdf

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (2013)

Saraniero, P. Retrieved June 30, 2014 from: https://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/how-to/growing-from-stem-to-steam

Williams, L. February 2013 retrieved July 31, 2014 from: http://www.districtadministration.com/article/should-stem-become-steam

http://stemtosteam.org/

Car researched, designed, built and raced by a seventh grade student

Workout shaker that generates power designed and built by an eighth grade student.

FrankRudnesky@linwoodschools.org

Belhaven Middle School

51 Belhaven Ave.

Linwood, NJ 08221

609.926.6700

Tech Advantage Principal, presenter, speaker, author of books and journal articles

Peter Davis- teacher Belhaven Middle School. Atlantic County Teacher of the Year 2014

PeteDavis@linwoodschools.org

Frank Pileiro- Technologist- Linwood Public Schools. Presenter, evaluator of tech products

frankpileiro@linwoodschools.org