The experience with this class has opened up my eyes to the fact that literacy in STEAM is much broader than just reading and writing. In addition to visual, spatial, gestural, digital, and collaborative experiences, students can gain deeper knowledge through many other ways to learn. For example, I have used analysis of curricula, observations from field studies, the Maker Challenge, the Isles of Ilkmaar project, and my own multimodal lesson plan to explore various strategies for making learning both relevant and more accessible to students. These are some of the ways in which my experiences reflect what I have learned during this semester and how they may impact my thoughts about being a future educator.

As an educator who will teach biology in the future, I would like to develop my own lessons so that they contain many modes of learning (i.e., models, movement, discussions, hands-on investigations, etc.) and not rely solely upon texts. I intend to create learning environments where students can utilize multiple senses to grasp scientific ideas. Additionally, I desire to be inclusive of all learners when it comes to creating opportunities for participation and demonstrating one's comprehension.

One way that I commit myself to do is to revise curriculum lessons to add additional multimodal learning opportunities. Throughout this course we engaged in curricular analyses/lesson plans that demonstrated to me that small modifications (such as adding models, gestures, visuals, or collaborative elements) could be made to curriculum-based lessons to increase their accessibility and engagement for students. My own lesson plan was developed from this perspective and I look forward to continuing to develop learning experiences that meet the needs of all students.