WHAT IS STEAM?
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Most of us have heard of the acronym STEM that is related to the initials in English of these four key areas: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The coining of the term STEM is generally attributed to the National Science Foundation in the USA in the 1990s.
Since then, educational projects, as well as industry and government initiatives that use and promote STEM, have arisen all over the world to try and address challenges in education, industry and in daily life, with a multidisciplinary approach. Some years later, the concept of STEAM began to be conceptualized, (again believed to be from the USA), by linking traditional STEM subjects with art, the arts, and creative thinking. As such the A in STEAM is from the English Art or Arts, and can include any area of the arts, humanities and design.
STEAM has evolved around the world as a method to improve science, technology and mathematics education, and as an approach to designing more holistic learning models to teach creative and critical thinking, support project based learning, and develop a more participatory and collaborative education system.
In this STEAM-H project our main focus is on increasing inclusion in education, with a multidisciplinary approach to provide more meaningful learning experiences for and with the students, and facilitate the integration of students who might feel excluded from or extremely challenged by STEM subjects for a variety of reasons.
This handbook is our collective eort to provide a simple, DIY guide to explain how and why to integrate STEAM into your classroom, in 5 easy steps. We hope you try it and enjoy it!
THE BENEFITS OF A STEAM APPROACH
There are as many benets to STEAM approaches, as there are approaches to STEAM around the world!
The overall aspiration is to facilitate better understanding in, and empowerment of, the learner. But the specic purpose of STEAM approaches is very much dependent on the context. As such every organisation, educator and learner will apply the approach and experience the benets in dierent ways.
"We believe that using a STEAM approach and teaching kids to think both critically and creatively is key to the development of a society which understands and is fully engaged with the world around it, the resources on which they depend, and in planning and creating a better future."
STEAM Education Ltd
"The benefits of a STEAM approach are connected with the need to refresh the learning process to the new reality of society and students. One evidence: Society is characterised by the speed of changes One Need: It is necessary for schools to participate in this change One Consequence: Changes on the educational community to adapt to this permanent transformation One change: The role of the teachers is to help students to 'learn to learn', to help them to build their own knowledge. One way: New ways of learning, teaching and management need to be organized and implemented. STEAM approach is a way to manage this change. "
Enric Ortega, La Comarcal
"In the real world STEM, Arts and Humanities are all connected! Science and art have something very important in common: they both seek to reduce something infinitely complex to something simpler. History is replete with stories of where art and science converge and intersect, encircle each other and occupy the same space at the same time. They represent the reciprocal relationship of these two routes towards self- knowledge along which we navigate – of art underpinning science and science enriching art. They can be considered signposts to connections between these parallel roads. Roads which once were one, and which are converging once more."
From ‘Why Science Needs Art - From Historical to Modern Day Perspectives’ By Richard Roche Sean Commins, Francesca Farina, ISBN 9781138959224. Richard is a Neuroscientist working in National University of Ireland, Maynooth and collaborating with STEAM Education
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