ANAHEIM HS Culinary Arts Online - STEM in the Kitchen

in the kitchen

What is STEM, Why is STEM Important in Schools, Does STEM belong in the Kitchen, STEM in the Kitchen Learning Space, STEM vs STEAM, Where does STEAM stand

what is stem?

STEM is an approach to learning and development that integrates the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

why is stem important in schools?

The continual advances in technology are changing the way students learn, connect and interact every day. Skills developed by students through STEM provide them with the foundation to succeed at school and beyond.

Employer demand for STEM qualifications and skills is high, and will continue to increase in the future. Currently, 75 percent of jobs in the fastest growing industries require workers with STEM skills. To be competitive, the Australian workforce needs people who can adapt to a changing workplace.

STEM empowers individuals with the skills to succeed and adapt to this changing world.

Ensuring students have access to a quality STEM education is essential for keeping the U.S. competitive in the global market. Students are actively encouraged to study STEM through statewide initiatives, many of which encourage women and people of color to enter the predominantly white, male industry.

Many schools also offer incentives to students studying STEM through scholarships and partnerships with cities and states.

does STEM belong in the kitchen?

Food science at the professional level is obviously a popular STEM career field. From the chemists that work to develop new flavors to the technicians that work in food production plants, science is at the root of all aspects of food…but all the same STEM principles are present in the cooking done in the home. This clear connection between STEM and the kitchen can provide the perfect backdrop for introducing youth to the engineering design process in a familiar yet engaging way!

The Engineering Design Process is a six-stage cycle that engineers, and many other STEM professionals, use to solve problems and innovate in their professional careers work. It is also used in many schools and possibly even in the curriculum used in after-school/out-of-school learning programs. This process can be quickly introduced to students through a fun food science-related activity that can foster buy-in through the youth’s pre-existing interest or experience with cooking and food science.

ways that STEM can enter the kitchen learning space

science

There are many ways to incorporate educational information while making food with students. The processes of cooking, baking and other food preparation involves physical and chemical changes that we don’t often think about directly. Ingredients undergo dramatic transformations from their original forms through the processes of freezing, mixing, and heating.

In brief, you can usually tell if a change is physical if the substance is mostly the same as it was before the change, such as defrosting or chopping. If it changes color or smell, for example toasting bread, or forms a gas, like the little bubbles that form when cooking pancakes, that is an indicator that there was a chemical change.

technology

When asked to think of technology in the home, you may be imagining fancy electronic devices. But even simple tools are forms of technology! Scissors, whisks, microwaves, blenders, toasters, etc. are all technological devices used in the kitchen. When cooking or baking together with your students, help them determine what tools help make a task possible or easier.

engineering

Though perhaps less obvious than the other elements of STEM, engineering does have its place in the kitchen and can be used for designing solutions to problems. Cooking is a great place for students to start to understand the importance of skills like problem solving and design thinking.

When baking with students, you can reinforce the importance of following steps in the right order, taking enough time to allow for all of the reactions to happen and that it is not just the ingredients that make up the success of a baked good.

mathematics

If you already cook with your students, you have introduced them to basic math concepts without even intending to! Numbers matter a lot in the kitchen and can make or break your dish. Emphasizing the value of measurements when teaching children how to cook or bake helps them understand the importance of numbers and having mathematical skills. The difference between ¼ cup flour and 1 cup flour can alter a recipe completely!

A good starting point is to get your students familiar with devices like measuring cups, measuring spoons, and measuring pitchers. These tools can also help in learning about addition, subtraction, and fractions! Discussing the difference between metric and imperial measurements also gives a framework for understanding different systems of measurements.

stem vs. steam

You already know what the acronym, STEM, stands for – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Add an “A” for arts, and the acronym becomes STEAM.

At first, including that “A” generated questions and frequent push-back, since STEAM brings together what we generally think of as polar opposites in the curriculum. But STEAM is part of the picture, and it’s worth taking a comparative look at the two programs.

about stem

Both private and public sectors report that U.S. schools are not producing enough graduates with the skills we need to continue leading the world in innovation. Our graduates need more rigorous knowledge of math and science, plus the ability to integrate and apply that knowledge to solve many challenges facing our nation. And they also need a variety of personal attributes and thinking skills.

Our job as K-12 educators is to prepare our students for the world they will enter when they graduate. That’s why STEM programs are being established – to equip students with the specific 21st-century knowledge and skills they need. According to a 2014 study by the America Society for Engineering Education, quality STEM programs need to look like this:

Students actively engaged in solving real-world problems.

Multiple STEM content areas being integrated in meaningful ways.

Inquiry-based and student-centered teaching and learning in progress.

Students using an engineering design process to work toward solutions.

Productive teamwork and communication among students.

Students thinking critically, creatively, and innovatively.

STEM, then, is a specific foundational program designed for a specific purpose – to integrate and apply math, science, and technology to find solutions for real problems, using an engineering design process.

about steam

STEAM is picking up "steam" in many schools and systems, but questions arise: How does including art advance STEM? How can art and STEM truly help each other?

Fine Arts proponents like Ruth Catchen, believe that the arts can serve as an on-ramp to STEM for underrepresented students. She sees arts activities as a way to offer more diverse learning and to increase motivation and the probability of STEM success. In an article on why we need to put the arts in STEM, author Anna Feldman points to art as a way to spark students’ imagination and apply creative thinking and design skills to these STEM projects. She maintains that arts offer great potential to foster creativity and ways of thinking that can unleash STEM innovation.

Roger Essley, artist, educator, and writer, promotes the use of visual tools to help STEM students grasp and share complex ideas. He points out that for centuries scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and inventors have used visual tools to explain their ideas to others and to clarify their own thinking.

where does steam stand?

Including the “A” in STEM certainly offers promise, but how do we include the arts in STEM in an authentic way?

Here are 3 ways to include the arts in STEM:

Design. Art can serve a practical function in STEM. Students can apply art design principles to products they create during a STEM challenge. They can use computer graphics to create logos or stylized designs to include in communications or presentations. Through industrial design, students can improve the appearance, design, and usability of a product. These types of undertakings can also help them gain digital skills and apply technology in authentic ways.

Communication. Art (including the language arts), can play an important role in communicating with other students and with a wider community. For example, during STEM lessons students may sketch their ideas to make them clearer to others. They may use technical or persuasive writing or communicate orally. Language arts teachers can play a strong role in helping STEM students gain the collaboration and communication skills they need for the 21st-century marketplace.

Creative planning. As students brainstorm solutions to an engineering problem, they might be more productive if they adopt a playful, inventive, artistic approach. Calling on their artistic right brain can help them to generate creative and innovative thinking. It can also bring added enthusiasm to the project.

To me, art and STEM seem to make good partners. In fact, since art is already a de facto part of STEM, strategically integrating it into a STEM program can be a sensible move. However, STEM education must maintain its clearly defined form and purpose. It should be driven by real engineering problems and integrate supporting science, mathematics and technology skills, processes, and concepts. Arts must not be used simply as a means of enhancing the lesson, but as a true means of contributing to a STEM challenge.

in conclusion

Technology is driving transformation and innovation in industries such as healthcare, retail and finance. Not only is it taking over repetitive tasks through automation, but it is becoming more human-like than ever. Gartner predicts 80 percent of project management tasks (e.g., data collection, tracking and reporting) will be the job of AI by 2030.

However, there remain certain soft skills a computer simply cannot replicate in the workplace: teamwork, cooperation, creativity and adaptation to change, to name a few. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that the prevalence of automation has created a growing demand for workers with social skills. Having a strong set of soft skills helps employees become more versatile and can open up more opportunities for growth in today’s job market.

This demand for soft skills has led to the creation of new curricula to help prepare those aspiring to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to meet the evolving needs of today’s workforce. The roles within STEM fields have changed and are calling for more well-rounded professionals with backgrounds and skills tied not only to technical studies but also to the arts.

“Proficiency in the arts will be particularly important to engineers and computer scientists in emerging industries, such as themed experiences, gaming, and simulation and training,” explains Ali P. Gordon, Ph.D., an associate professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Central Florida. “Programmers and engineers are increasingly teamed up with artists to co-develop software, products, renderings and more.”

As a result, education professionals have developed the acronym STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math), leading many to assess STEM vs. STEAM, their merits, and their application in the professional sphere.

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