Going Full #STEAM Ahead: Why #Kids Should be Embracing both #Science and #Art
STEM has been an educational “buzz word” for the past few years. An interdisciplinary approach to teaching, STEM based curriculum focuses on a mixed bag four disciplines- science, technology, engineering and mathematics. STEM focused education has resurfaced over the past decade as a way to stop the steep decline in students choosing STEM based careers in both the U.S. and Canada.
For decades, the U.S. has been trying to up its output of STEM professionals, however, the number of students in STEM fields like engineering have fallen to single digits. According to a 2013 survey by CBC News, fifty percent of Canadian high school students are dropping math and science courses needed for STEM careers. Such a drop not only hurts a country’s growth in technology and science but also its economy.
STEAM, not STEM
One way that schools and other educational programs can help combat this trend is through a STEAM based approach. Like STEM, STEAM embraces science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Its improvement: arts are added. Through lessons, projects and toys that embrace the arts, students are able to incorporate creative thinking and design skills along with science and technology. STEAM is the improved version of STEM since it is truly multi-disciplinary.
Embracing STEAM-based Learning
The switch STEAM has helped teachers who could never figure out how to incorporate STEM disciplines into the classroom in a meaningful way. Art can be the key to influencing kids’ interest in STEM through hands-on activities. This is especially true for “right-brained” students who are artistic and creative. Teachers love STEAM because it is a well-rounded, whole brain approach to making male-dominated subjects such as engineering interesting to girls.
Parents and students also like STEAM and their reasons are similar: STEAM makes learning more fun and more approachable. The art aspect can make a project seem less overwhelming or scary and influence both students and their parents to give science and math based projects a try. Even parents who don’t know much about technology can get involved with STEAM based activities because a familiar concept (art) is present.
STEAM-based Toys
In fact, STEAM is a more familiar idea than most parents would imagine. More and more, it is becoming the hot area for not only parents and kids, but also toymakers. Many of the toys we know and love from our childhood were mechanical and art based. It’s likely that you played with STEAM toys when you were a kid!
Example: The Lite-Brite. On the market since 1967, the Lite-Brite was a STEAM toy long before it was cool to be one. Children can make colorful pictures using a simple light box, a black picture background, and plastic pegs. Insert plastic pegs into the box and voila! A technology-based picture is born. Another STEAM-based legend- the Etch-a-Sketch. Even though it’s a simple toy made of a surface with metal particles, magnets, and a couple of dials, the Etch-a-Sketch is a STEAM dream since kids can combine creativity with mechanical drawing. So, in actuality, STEAM isn’t a new concept. It is one that is making a reoccurrence. Some stores like Target and Toys R US are even dedicating whole sections to the ever-growing area of STEAM!
The key here is to embrace the combination of science, technology, engineering, art, and math so that students can excel, young children can embrace STEM early on and parents can become involved the exploration process, full STEAM ahead!
