STEAM
benefits to students and the entire school community are tremendous.
Students and teachers engaged in STEAM
education in Sydney make more real-life connections so that
school is not a place where you go to learn
but instead becomes the entire experience of learning itself. We are
always learning, always growing, always experimenting.
School doesn’t have to be a
place, but rather a frame of mind that uses the Arts as a lever to explosive growth, social-emotional connections, and the foundation for the innovators of tomorrow…today!
1. INVESTIGATE
In
this stage of STEAM, teachers
and students explore a broad range of topics, ideas or
problems in
a particular content area of focus. For
instance, you may begin by focusing on the Great Depression, processes that
artists use, or security concerns at large sporting events.
2.
DISCOVERY
During
the discovery phase, you’ll
create a curriculum schema map about the chosen topic, idea or problem.
Start by placing the chosen broad focus in
the centre of a piece of paper and surrounding it with everything that may
influence, cause,
or result from that particular topic. You’ll begin to see trends, patterns, or areas
you would like to explore more deeply.
3. CONNECT
Once
you have created your curricular schema map,
choose one or two connected areas to your broad topic. For instance,
if my topic was the the Scientific Method, I may choose digital photography
and reflection as two areas that I would like to connect and explore in
relationship to each other based upon an essential question.
4. CREATE
Once
your standards
and assessments are aligned between your chosen content
areas, a lesson can now be developed to guide students in their learning
about the broader topic through the two chosen standards. This process
should be inquiry driven, where students are presented
with a problem or question in which they will need to learn and
use content knowledge to
influence the context of the situation.
5. REFLECT
Once
students have moved through the lesson
and completed their project or assignment, they must be able to have time to reflect
and critique their own work, as well as that of their peers. This can be
done through self-assessments, rubrics, portfolios,
artists statements, or peer reviews.
Similarly, teachers and administrators must also have time to engage in the reflection
process based upon the results of the lesson process and products.
