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If you're a parent, you've probably heard the term "STEAM education." You've also probably wondered what it is and what you should be doing about it. So, here's what you need to know.
What is STEAM education?
STEAM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. It's an evolution of STEM, which rose to prominence in the early 2000s, amid concerns that students in the US were lagging behind other countries in STEM-related disciplines. As those concerns coincided with a boom in jobs in STEM industries, educators, economists, politicians, and parents alike called for a renewed focus on STEM subjects.
The addition of the "A" in STEAM gained momentum later. John Maeda, the former president of the Rhode Island School of Design, was one of its earliest and most vocal champions.
In an op-ed on the topic for the George Lucas Educational Foundation, Maeda wrote, "Innovation happens when convergent thinkers, those who march straight ahead toward their goal, combine forces with divergent thinkers — those who professionally wander, who are comfortable being uncomfortable, and who look for what is real."
Creativity has always been important to STEM, but the "A" formalizes it and adds another layer, because STEAM isn't just about the individual subjects represented by the acronym — it's about how those subjects intersect and support each other. For example, what's the relationship between design and engineering, or photography and biology? And how can we use art to teach math (and vice-versa)? The idea is to get kids to think about these things in different ways.
In other words, as the Office of Head Start's Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center notes, "STEAM is about asking questions and trying to figure out how things work, not about what facts you know."
The benefits of STEAM
Much of the discussion around STEAM education relates to how it sets up kids for a prosperous future career. After all, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, STEM-related jobs are above the national average in both growth and wages.
But there are more immediate benefits to STEAM learning, too. The hands-on nature of STEAM curriculum builds important skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and observation, which are crucial — no matter what kids want to be when they grow up.
"Teachers are preparing students for jobs that don't even exist yet. If we don't know the coding language they are going to be using in 15 years, we need to teach them to be fluid and think critically," Amy Brown, who has a masters in education, wrote in an article for EdTech. "The whole idea with STEM is that students need to figure out solutions to problems. They need to be the ones who are using critical-thinking skills and innovation."
When to start STEAM
Here's the good news: It's never too early to start teaching your child about STEAM. And here's the better news: "Teaching," in this case, doesn't mean setting up chemistry experiments in your kitchen or quizzing your toddler on the Pythagorean theorem.
Kids begin learning about science, technology, engineering, arts, and math almost as soon as they're born, just by interacting with the world around them. They're not mastering the advanced concepts we've come to associate with those subjects, of course, but they are building and using STEAM skills that will help them later.
Even playing with blocks or drawing a picture promotes STEAM learning. And you can reinforce those lessons by asking questions, encouraging exploration, and indulging their natural curiosity.
How to support STEAM learning
The National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning has a whole presentation on how to encourage STEAM learning, even in babies and toddlers. The key, they say, is to provide "scaffolding" around a child's interests and everyday experiences. You can do this by prompting kids to make observations — like, "This rock is heavier than that rock" — and posing open-ended questions. You might ask, for example, "What do you think will happen if I drop this ball?"
As children get older, you can introduce other concepts.
"We do a variety of STEAM stuff at home," Erica Domingo, a mother of two, told Mom.com. "I teach my kids about currency, like coins, which we also use to learn counting. And when my 5-year-old's teacher sent home lima beans, we did a science experiment where we watered them with different things — coffee, water, juice — and my son made hypotheses about which would grow fastest/slowest and then charted the actual growth."
Nature is indeed a great way for kids to learn STEAM. The National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning suggests letting your child observe plants and insects or asking them to describe or count clouds in the sky. You can also encourage them to investigate the wind, shadows from the sun, or other weather patterns.
