Picking up STEAM

by Sean Ruck?

This article originally appeared in Bulletin Magazine, September/October 2022 issue

WHILE THEY MAY SEEM LIKE NEWER CONCEPTS, STEM and STEAM have been around – at least in spirit – for a long time. One of their notable predecessors was created more than a century ago when legislators passed the Vocational Education Act of 1917. The act was meant to deliver technical and career training for students in an effort to combat the growing specter of unemployment being powered by industrialization and automation. It provided federal funding to support the education efforts in those fields. It wasn’t until decades later that slightly alien acronym was created by the National Science Foundation by using four academic disciplines – science, math, engineering and technology to create the odd-sounding SMET. A slight reconfiguration occurred soon after leading to the familiar STEM that’s been a buzzword for the last decade. Meanwhile, STEAM, which adds “art” to the initial four disciplines, followed shortly thereafter.??

Today, both STEM and STEAM are alive and well. There are advocates and practitioners for each, and schools across the country have programs focused on one or the other, or a mix of the two.??

PSBA’s Bulletin spoke with three educators who are well-acquainted with the two education practices to tease out a better understanding of the differences between them and why art was added to the mix – as it turns out, the addition or subtraction of a letter means quite a lot more than just a difference in an acronym.??

Earning an “A”?

Elizabeth Watson is the principal of STEAM for the Western Wayne School District (Wayne County) and as of March 2020, a Pennsylvania STEM ambassador. Her role, which did not exist prior to her stepping into it, began in August 2019. Directly prior to accepting the position, she served as middle school assistant principal for the district.??

Watson said the foundation for her STEAM role had its start in 2018 when the district’s curriculum director worked with teachers to procure a PAsmart Grant to support STEAM programming. But it wasn’t a given that it would be full STEAM ahead.?

“There was conversation when I was preparing to accept the position about whether it should be called a STEM or STEAM position and I advocated for it to be a STEAM position because I think the heart of STEM or STEAM needs to be fleshed out with context and real-world phenomena and applicability,” she said. “And I think the best ways to do that are to make as many connections as possible through things kids enjoy and that they can see the direct correlations between,” Watson said.??

She gave the example of teaching mechanics in isolation versus teaching it through kinesthetic lessons tied to physical education class, or square dancing in music class or other options to build a program on a web of interconnection. “The stronger the concepts are, the more transferable the base information and ideas and skill sets become,” she said.??

Prep and field work?

Emily Sanders has been the director of academics and innovation for the New Castle Area School District. She was brought on in 2014. “The superintendent at the time wanted to make STEAM a priority for the district, so I was challenged, in a sense, to do the research to figure out our direction down that pathway,” Sanders said.??

Sanders’ first two years were largely focused on research. She says she visited regional schools to familiarize herself with their STEM and STEAM programs. She also traveled to places like Carnegie Melon University, children’s museums and more. “We brought it back to the team and we had things we liked, things we wanted to modify,” she said. “By 2015 and 2016 as we neared implementing the program, we wrote some grants and got a STEAM Catalyst Grant. I think it was for around $20,000.”??

With funding secured, Sanders says efforts turned to finding a space. The decision was made to start the program in the high school and work the program down through the grades. At the high school, they renovated the basement. “We were lucky the uses of the basement were very minimal — an ISS room, tutoring lab, empty computer lab and we had our tech ed classes, and a storage room,” she said.??

The school board committed to the program and helped match some of the funding to supply the equipment and the curriculum. Additionally, the district hired two STEAM teachers – one as a replacement for a retirement and the other an added position. “We also partnered with Project Lead the Way to get our teachers trained. It is costly, but I think it was definitely worth it,” Sanders said.??

The work resulted in the creation of a fabrications lab or “fab lab,” labs for engineering and robotics, an open project-based makerspace, and a technology gaming or computer science room to serve students in grades 6-12.?

The district had an open house in 2016 to unveil the spaces. “We wanted to show the community, the rest of the teaching staff, the school board members ... what was going on. Because it was still very new. There was a lack of awareness I’d say, so we wanted to give people a chance to get familiar with what we were doing,” Sanders said.??

She was surprised to find the biggest pushback was about the colors of the walls in the new spaces. Again, leaning on the research and field reconnaissance, inspiration was gathered from Carnegie Science Center, Google and other well-known areas of innovation. Still, the bright colors were not a hit – at least at first – for the custodial staff or even the teaching staff. That anecdote is why Sanders named a STEAM presentation she created, “Our Walls Used to be White.”??

Educating the educators?

Joyce Huser is the fine arts education consultant for the state of Kansas through the Kansas department of education. She’s also a stalwart champion of STEAM. While she recognizes value in STEM, she holds that the addition of “art” found in STEAM brings a higher level or richness to the educational experience for students and for educators. But she says there are challenges to surmount before STEAM programs can really hit their stride and deliver their full potential.??

She says unless districts can be exposed to and develop the mindset to see the value of STEAM education, it can be difficult for them to see it as anything more than adding art as an extra subject. “STEAM is really a mindset where the entire school faculty needs to come together. It’s possible for school boards to understand it too, but in order to do that, they need to be exposed to it. Every school needs to determine the type of program or format to follow in order for the kids to get the education they need and to meet state regulations,” Huser said.??

In her state, she’s seen a number of schools taking the STEM route and also many taking the STEAM path. She believes the decision may come down to which methodology the decision-makers or influencers in those districts were exposed to and learned about earliest.??

A story of innovation?

While STEM education can help bring a good amount of skills and abilities into the mix for students, including attributes that can lead to steady, well-paying careers, for STEAM advocates, there’s a key ingredient STEM is missing and it’s one that figures into American mythology, but there’s plenty of truth involved too.??

If you’ve ever heard the phrase “American ingenuity,” then you can guess where the value of STEAM sits. It’s useful for Americans to learn science, technology, engineering and mathematics in order to be successful in their lives and for the country to remain a leader on the world stage. But what’s historically set us apart is our creative approaches to problem solving. It’s not about thinking outside the box – it’s about pushing the box totally out of the picture and reengineering, technologically innovating, chasing unique theories and using the scientific process to confirm or disprove them.?

For decades, those crafting education policies looked beyond borders at the test scores in countries with strict regimented systems and decided to compete. “But those test scores are not always showing the full picture,” said Huser. “There’s a pendulum that swings in education. Each time it swings, there’s more richness. The more teachers are exposed to newer or different ways to help kids prepare for the future, the more they’ll have in their basket to help.” And STEAM adds to that basket by bringing the strength of ingenuity and creativity back to the forefront.??

Added value?

STEAM can also take the place of classes the parents of today’s students may remember from their time in school. Shop classes like wood and metal shop have been shifting toward more the exception than the norm over the years, and it’s the same with full-fledged home economics courses. Some of that shift has been due to budget cuts and some has been due to the difficulty in finding qualified teachers to replace staff who retire or resign.?

In some cases, students who want those types of educational experiences are heading to career and technical education centers. But at Sanders’ district, every student gets some STEAM experience since the district’s graduation requirements include a semester in a STEAM course during high school. “We have about 460 students enrolled in a course teaching different parts of STEAM and STEM,” Sanders said.?

And STEAM and STEM are breaking gender barriers. Whereas traditional shop classes trended toward boys, some of the same skills are offered via STEAM and girls are taking the opportunity to learn them. “We recently had 85 female students in grades 4 through 8 by choice sign up to be part of a girls STEM club to compete in the Northeast PA Girls STEM competition,” Watson said.?

Huser brings it back to STEAM’s essence. “It takes the concepts – let’s say science and math – and uses them to do something to solve a problem. A lot of times traditionally, teachers give the answers, because they’re proud of what they know,” she said. “But that doesn’t help the student. Most likely, they’ll learn 20% of that. If they take the knowledge and get the hands-on experience though, it’s much better. That’s what STEAM is, letting them delve into the problems. And if they do that in the future, they’ll have lifelong useful techniques.”??