Welcome to STEAM!
What an awesome start to the year. I’m very excited to be running our brand new program called STEAM this year!
STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. There is a lot of research suggesting that integrating these subjects, especially adding a creative component with art, is beneficial for students and makes sense for the way kids learn. STEAM lessons are usually hands-on and exploratory and are designed to instil an inquiry based design thinking cycle within the children. STEAM education prepares students for the real world, where professionals often use multiple disciplines (an engineer might also use a lot of mathematics or a programmer might find creative approaches helpful to solving a problem.)
Each week the students will be given a challenge and will need to work both independently and in teams to work through and solve the problem in as many ways as they can. Some challenges will be worked on over 2 to 3 weeks and students are encouraged to discuss their learning with you at home to further their thinking.
We have started the year with the ‘Design Your Dream Car’ competition run by Toyota. We are then moving into group based challenges where working together to design, create and build a solution is the focus.
Damian Hayes
STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. There is a lot of research suggesting that integrating these subjects, especially adding a creative component with art, is beneficial for students and makes sense for the way kids learn. STEAM lessons are usually hands-on and exploratory and are designed to instil an inquiry based design thinking cycle within the children. STEAM education prepares students for the real world, where professionals often use multiple disciplines (an engineer might also use a lot of mathematics or a programmer might find creative approaches helpful to solving a problem.)
Each week the students will be given a challenge and will need to work both independently and in teams to work through and solve the problem in as many ways as they can. Some challenges will be worked on over 2 to 3 weeks and students are encouraged to discuss their learning with you at home to further their thinking.
We have started the year with the ‘Design Your Dream Car’ competition run by Toyota. We are then moving into group based challenges where working together to design, create and build a solution is the focus.
Damian Hayes
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