Using a STEAM Approach

Mr. Lieberman believes that STEAM approach matters because it improves thinking skills by increasing creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking. He appreciates its real world application and the aspect of trial and error to reduce fear of failure in students. Mr. Lieberman approaches STEAM by implementing a flipped class by presenting a problem and asking students to solve it, which make class more student oriented. For example, he would show a video of a phenomenon, and have the student figure it out and explain by observing. Mr. Lieberman believes a teacher’s role is to guide students and facilitate learning. However, his class is not without challenges. He finds that STEAM methods are very time-consuming and having a large-class size makes it hard to implement. In addition, he needs to prepare students for regents and probably applies the STEAM approach in 10% of class time. Mr. Lieberman feels STEAM is a luxury and he also find it challenging to accommodate students with various experiences and backgrounds, and sometimes inadequate previous knowledge in STEAM approach.

Mr. Brenes believes that the STEAM approach is important because math is abstract and STEAM approach makes it more relatable to students. However, he is sometimes concerned that the way he presents is not always relatable or interesting to every student. Since this high school is health focused, Ms. Brenes tries to use examples related to the health theme. Mr. Brenes includes a small project in every unit he teaches with real-life scenarios and also utilizes apps, but finds it difficult to accommodate different student interest in his Algebra II class, and using apps in class sometimes results in student distraction being on the computer or phone. Mr. Brenes thinks that the STEAM approach is more suitable for project-based schools. He does wish to implement some project-based lessons, but feels that he needs training and think it requires more time and collaboration with other teachers.