STEM AND STEAM

STEM and STEAM are focused on teaching children skills the real-world uses. From pre-school through grade school, through the middle grades, and eventually into high school, STEM and STEAM instruction helps children grow into innovative adults who have outstanding critical thinking and problem solving skills. Read on for more information on these types of education, the differences between STEM, STEAM, and STREAM, and how each of them may affect your child.

It might seem obvious, but there are parallels between STEM and STEAM, thanks to the shared promotion of science-based learning. While differences between STEM and STEAM are fairly minor, a major discrepancy lies in their acceptance of arts-based learning.

Those who support STEAM recognize the power of the arts to stretch the boundaries of STEM instruction and applications. You can make a case for the emergence of STEAM as the extension of STEM by the recognition that the arts are the critical cogs in multidisciplinary education.

STEAM is focused on igniting imagination and creativity through art in ways that are natural fits for STEM education. Adding arts to STEM and STEAM for a crafted STEAM is all about including creative thinking and applying the arts in real-world situations. By defining arts as languages, social sciences, and humanities, STEAM fosters the importance of creative thinking in approaching STEM projects.

While STEM is focused on the hard science skills, STEAM uses both the hard and the soft skills in solving problems. Whereas STEM is typically thought to be focused only on scientific concepts, STEAM does the same, emphasizing problem-based, question-based teaching methods that are typically used in the creative process. STEAM is an integration of arts into STEM, because it is believed that the skills of creativity, along with art-based knowledge, such as history, writing, and design, can help STEM employees come up with better, innovative solutions to problems. Advocates for STEAM say adding arts and design to the equation gives STEM curricula a more global perspective. For educators, it is now a greater imperative for the concepts of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) to integrate with art (STEM) in the wider curriculum.

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A tug-of-war is now brewing between advocates for STEM education (science, technology, engineering and maths) and advocates of STEAM lessons that incorporate art into the mix. Both educators and practitioners involved in STEM-related fields are advocating the inclusion of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) into K-12 curricula. Instead, many schools have asked STEM teachers to become STEAM teachers and incorporate the arts into their existing curricula.

STEAM is taught with an intention of infusing arts in to math, science, engineering, and technology from the start, in order to provide students with a holistic perspective and amplify their learning. Because STEAM is an approach, teachers must know how to align curriculum standards, create integrated assessments, design lessons that make sure that both art and STEM are taught in a way that is authentic, and concrete strategies to employ with students. Just as with STEM, in order for STEAM to take place, students must also receive direct instruction on arts skills and processes.

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STEAM is simply STEM taken a step further, with extra emphasis given to developing students soft skills and tying the arts and sciences together. STEM and STEAM are not new, STEM and STEAM are just ways to understand and apply a built-in form of learning resembling real-life.