STEAM-based education is rooted in something children love –—to play. It’s the hands-on learning and real-world application approach that invites students across all grades to be creative, try new things, fail, try again, and discover what it means to follow a plan all the way through. Offering STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) activities and opportunities at the earliest levels of grade school shows students the importance of equality, experimentation, critical thinking, and effective collaboration.
STEAM is truly laying a foundation that helps students excel at a different level. We spoke with several STEAM teachers at elementary schools across Northeast Ohio that identify STEAM as a huge advocate for building strong student relationships, good behavioral habits, and positive educational outcomes.
STEAM is creating positive shifts in student culture, and is helping students envision living their lives with tools and skills that will help them excel in areas they may have thought were once untouchable.
Claiming Your Space
As a STEM teacher at Boulevard and Fairfax elementary schools in Cleveland Heights-University Heights Schools, Molly Fischetti brings a background of working with STEM and young children. Her first job outside of Washington D.C. was at a STEM school with an elaborate program that helped her see what it was like for students to be involved in STEM activities every day.
“STEM brings back the fun and spark in teaching,” she says.
Fischetti has been putting together the curriculum over the last year, with 2023 being only the second year for the STEM program in the schools. She also pulls “amazing ideas” from the district’s robotics program curriculum to complete the STEM experience.
She was asked to design the new maker space for the schools. The students now have a 3D printer, laser cutters (crickets), green screens, iPads, and more to use when creating and innovating.
Fischetti says that the STEM program is showing students how to work together in new ways in her district.
“In my class, [students] know..‘I’m going to work in a team and I’m not always going to get to pick and that’s okay,’” she says. “I think that’s powerful in itself. But also, just the robotics spanning kindergarten through fifth grade, they all know that they use the same program. The one day I had my fourth and fifth grade gifted class come and support the (grades kindergarten through first grades) classes. There’s community there too, because in this space, it really lends itself to kind of collaborate and work together and help each other.”
Mentioning that a lot of student interaction was missed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fischetti strives to bring more of that back into the classroom and have her students develop their teamwork and collaboration skills.
Providing What You Want for Your Students
David Harris, Lake Ridge Academy Lower School Science Coordinator says students study the natural world from the start of their school journey.
“All of these studies yield the results we want for our students: enthusiastic learning, using mathematics and writing to figure out and explain their discoveries, and perhaps the greatest discovery of all — that every day at school is a day to look forward to,” he says.
Harris saw the positive enhancements in student culture and behavior.
“The skills they have been working on become a strong foundation, especially being able to work with others and problem solve,” he says. “The projects and the social complexity may become more complicated, so the challenge is intentionally presented to practice these skills with continued support. These skills also transfer to other aspects of their life.”
Harris says when it comes to STEAM activities, student excitement is intrinsic.
What a Difference STEAM in Preschool Can Make
At Hathaway Brown, students can begin to tackle STEAM activities and explore the idea lab as preschoolers. For example, students made a quilt together by using embroidery machines and piecing together sections of cloth. That means children as young as four years old are learning the mechanics of tools and building a mental construct around completing a long-term project from start to finish.
Leah Jackson, a STEAM teacher with Hathaway Brown for the last nine years and an alumna, helped to create the curriculum for the students in the lower school. Jackson says enrollment in STEAM courses and the interest from students has significantly increased over the years. For one, she finds more Black students enter the class when they see a teacher of color leading the program. Also, Hathaway Brown is keen on mentorship and cross-age education. When younger students see older students using the idea lab or speaking with Jackson about a potential project, they too want in on the fun.
“That mentorship between big girl and little girl or big girl and little boy, in the case of early childhood, I think has really strengthened this program,” Jackson says. “I get a lot more students of color in my program, because they see me, and that’s great. But I think that the thing that is going to sustain the program is for the younger girls to see the older girls and see how excited they are about it and how interested they are. What’s been really special is that a lot of it is about connecting students across grade levels, across divisions, in order to not only help the little ones but to help the big ones too.”
