STEAM is an integrated approach to learning which requires an intentional connection between standards, assessments, and lesson/design implementation. STEAM experiences involve two or more standards from Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics being taught AND assessed through each other. Project-based learning with an emphasis on inquiry and collaboration are at the core of the STEAM approach. Our teachers utilize and leverage the arts themselves in our authentic STEAM initiatives.
In all subject and grade level contents, there are six (6) steps in creating a STEAM-Centered classroom. In each step, our teachers work through both content and arts standards to address an essential question.
Step 1: Focus - In this step, our teachers select an essential question to answer or problem to solve. This provides the clear focus and addresses the content standards chose.
Step 2: Detail - During this phase, students search for the elements that are contributing to the problem or question. While observing the correlations to other areas, our students discover key background information, skills, and/or processes that they already know to address the problem.
Step 3: Discover - Student in the discovery phase are conducting active research. Students research content solutions and learn what isn't working with solutions that already exist.
Step 4: Application - This is where the fun happens! After students have dived deep into a problem or question and have analyzed current solutions as well as what still needs addressed, they can begin to create their own solution or composition to the problem. This is where they use the skills, processes and knowledge that were taught in the discovery stage and put them to work.
-Definition from The Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM
