Our students often lack the cognitive and language skills needed to ask questions; communicate experiences, observations, and ideas; or make predictions. In some cases, our students lack natural motivation or curiosity. The objective is to expose our students to hands-on STEM activities in order to facilitate their natural curiosity and to facilitate our students’ desire to be interested in “What will happen next” (make predictions).Â
STEAM is about discovery. Our students participate in STEAM by engaging in hands on activities such as drawing; painting; and constructing towers with blocks, manipulatives or other objects; and giving language to what they are seeing/observing. They build, create, and problem-solve together. They use technology (i.e. smartboards, mimios, tablets etc.) as tools to learn, solve problems, and gain information. These hands on activities encourage exploration, and promote our students natural abilities as scientists and engineers. They communicate throughout the day about what they see, feel, smell, taste, or hear and are encouraged to document their observations though art, recording their voices, or the use of assistive technology.Â