In a world where technological advances are the order of the day, all sectors have to find ways to integrate and adjust to new trends. In the midst of this, it is necessary to train professionals who correctly manage Information and Communication Technologies to successfully assume the challenges that arise.
It is in this framework that the term appears. STEM, which comes from English and broken down contains Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematicss. In reality it is nothing from the 21st century, what has been achieved is to integrate everything in the same program, starting from basic education to the university level.
The question is, What is STEM education and what are the advantages it offers? This course is made so that you know the importance of advancing in educational methods, especially in careers related to science.
What is STEM education?
STEM education comprehensively brings together the learning of subjects related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This seeks to train children in these specialties with the mission of responding to the demand for qualified professionals in scientific and technological areas. It is also a form of learning through problem solving, looking for innovative answers to the concerns that arise.
For it to work properly, it is necessary for teachers to change the evaluation methods, focusing more on collaborative processes and not on individual performances and skills. There are many countries that have adopted this educational model -which they claim- promotes a stable economy, guaranteeing that society is safer. Likewise, it is pursued that children of school age awaken the vocation for scientific careers.
Fundamentals of STEM Education
The STEM education aims to eliminate the barriers between the four disciplines that compose itintegrating a coherent teaching model for training in the areas of science.
Some of its main fundamentals are the following:
- constructivism: It is based on giving the student the tools to build their procedures and manage to solve a problem in an interactive, participatory and dynamic way.
- Universal Design for Learning: It seeks to use different teaching methods to adapt to the needs of each student. The three keys that it handles are participation, representation and expression.
- Interdisciplinary approach: It allows assimilating knowledge from different specialties as a whole and not separately.
- Practical application: It is not only based on theoretical teaching, but also on how to solve problems that arise in everyday life.
History and evolution of STEM education
The foundations for this educational model began to be laid in 1980. when Seymound Papert built one of the first programming toys for children. Already in the 90s, the National Science Foundation took the term to begin the massification in many countries of the world.
By 2010 it began to be included in the global educational curriculumstarting in the United States to complement the focus of science and technology in the classroom, especially since there was a drop in demand to continue with these studies at a higher level.
STEM evolution has allowed its way into the curricula of primary and secondary education to promote scientific research, developing skills that allow creating and designing in a more optimal way. In 2011, further progress was made in the evolution when the integration of art was proposed, from which moment it becomes STEAMwhich helped foster the creativity of the students by increasing critical thinking.
Advantages of the science, technology, engineering, mathematics and art model
The popularity of this method of education It continues to increase and more and more countries are interested in promoting it.
Although you have obstacles to overcome, now look at the advantages of using STEAM:
- Develop creativity: the combination of ideas and innovations helps boost artificial intelligence.
- Promote experiments: students can take risks to create technological advances in the labs while they learn.
- Promote the use of technology: students are prepared to adopt new media, without having any fear or uncertainty.
- Encourage teamwork: The union of skills of all the members helps them to collaborate with each other and achieve great results.
- Stimulates scientific thinking: Students are able to analyze social phenomena using advanced methods to solve problems that arise.
Can STEM be applied at home?
The answer is yes. There are various projects for the little ones that can be done at home motivating participation in STEM or STEAM education. Thus they will learn to develop their creativity and ingenuity while they are involved in science, mathematics, technology, engineering and art. Dozens of projects can be found on the internet. One of them is based on build a volcano with erupting lava, using items you have at home.
Another is the making a wind meter with disposable cups or a third option are motorized dancers using AA batteries. Secondly, some of the additional activities you can do They are riddles with science and history questions, make use of educational board games, watch documentaries and then share opinions as well as agree to read the same book and draw conclusions at the end.
How to create STEAM lessons for our children?
It is important that your children learn skills that will be useful to them in the future, but above all encourage the development of their creativity. Now, the question remains, how can STEAM education lessons be included?
Next you have several actions that you can perform:
- Invite them to work as a team: You have to assign them a task that they must solve in a group, in which each one uses their abilities to contribute to the result. Everyone should know their functions and at the end indicate the contributions they made.
- Make use of the tools you have: Investigate and inquire on websites and get the support that companies give to promote this comprehensive education.
- Try to make the subjects feel important: kids need to understand how what they are learning helps them deal with normal situations. By understanding problems, they use their minds and look for ways to innovate.
- Use mistakes to learn: STEAM education gives the opportunity to carry out trial and error, with a supposed failure, different solutions to problems are achieved.
- Research incorporates: the student has to feel that he needs to learn more, for this he must explore and inquire, managing to develop his own thinking and critical sense.
- Maximize creativity: there is no need to be afraid of new experiments and neither of adding content to STEM education and adding the “A” of art, becoming STEAM.
Role of the teacher in STEAM education. How important is it?
STEAM education strategies they seek that the main protagonist is the studentFor this they must work together with their teachers so that the experience is enriching. It is not only about teaching content, but also about contributing to the development of skills and competencies in students.
From this it is concluded that the main function of a teacher in a classroom in which STEAM is used is Be a guide in the presentation of projects and then, when the fieldwork starts, you should be able to feel the feedback of what your students are doing. In this case, you are also getting learning.
But it is also necessary, and of vital importance, that the teacher stops being passive. You have to study, research and inquire to keep up with the latest trends in science and technology. Based on this, you must create work environments that encourage and facilitate communication.
Finally, the teacher must be able to explain the procedure to carry out a project, respond to doubts and concerns that arise and handle situations that may arise in the group. To do this, it analyzes in depth the needs of its students and defines the best way to fill the information gaps. In short, so that there can be a good functioning of STEM education a change of mentality is needed both teachers and students.
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