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Why don’t you start by telling us a little bit about what STEAM is?
At NIU STEAM, we think about STEAM as more than just science, technology, engineering, art and math. It’s really about creating a learning environment that’s hands on, experiential, that connects to the content areas through driving questions, inquiry and exploration.
To do this, we apply sound instructional strategies that create engaged learning environments – learning environments where the teachers and students are working together, where the students are taking more of the cognitive load and the lead in learning, and where they’re learning through productive struggle, community connections and authentic problem solving.
How can STEAM learning help educators reach their school improvement goals?
The STEAM learning lens is all about, how do you create personalized learning experiences that meet the students where they are? How can you design learning experiences that provide a low floor of entry so all students can access the content, but also a high ceiling where they can go in the direction that meets their needs and interests? So a STEAM approach can be an additional tool to design a classroom that is truly engaging for students.
Can you say more about how STEAM hands-on lessons work?
Hands on lessons involve students building, creating, experimenting and exploring. The students are doing science or creating prototypes of their own designs. We design hands-on STEAM learning experiences that are centered on driving questions – so we always begin with the question and get students motivated to find the answers or solutions to problems.
It can sometimes seem overwhelming to teachers to introduce hands-on or project-based learning. Do you have recommendations for manageable ways to bring STEAM learning into the classroom?
STEAM is not about starting from scratch. It’s really about looking at what you’re already doing and finding those areas where small modifications or small ways to reframe things can change the learning environment to be more student driven, less teacher driven. How could it be more hands on or connected to an authentic problem? What are ways you could connect the learning to future careers or maybe connect to other content areas? At the conference, educators will learn about some more specific ways to do this at different grade levels!
Why are you excited that this conference is bringing STEAM and MTSS together?
We’re all focused on the shared goal of student success – and we have different strategies that we bring to the table. Anything we can do to expand our toolkit of strategies is good for students! |
