Ideally, every classroom lesson plan and all learning experiences would be designed to foster greater equity for every student in every school building. The fact is, however, that each student is unique. Some need personalized guidance and others, in the same class, might do better with independent exploration. All, however, need school officials to keep equity in mind.
What started out as a cool and unique chance for students to develop key skills while trying out new technology has grown into a legitimate teaching and learning approach. Now, with applications in all sorts of today’s STEM and CTE disciplines, educators are discovering how teaching with various drones can help prepare students for the future in a variety of industries.
So many factors go into how education leaders ensure students are ready for the real world and, often, it involves STEM. Factors like technology, the economy, emerging careers, and the state of the workforce each continue to affect how teachers introduce students to STEM. And, as of now, there isn’t much indication that the elements fueling STEM education will slow.
The esports industry, beyond the high school and college levels, has been popularized via a number of different outlets. One of those is certainly live streaming top matches on platforms like YouTube or Twitch. And, while this excitement may seem unnecessary to casual observers, there are actually millions of people who follow these gamers, including the next generation.
You probably know by now that we are huge advocates of makerspaces in K–12 schools. The added freedom for creating, hands-on experimentation, and exploration that they provide for students helps them learn in so many new ways. Now, many educators have even gone as far as to create their own makerspace curriculum after seeing all the benefits for students.
While we don’t want to place too much pressure on any educators starting new STEM programs, there are some key suggestions we can provide. The first of those is to decide on and define the direction of the STEM program, including its identity, purposes, and objectives, which often means that the learning experiences should reflect real-world problem solving.
In addition to key STEM skills that students will likely need, they are going to need strong soft skills, like communication, collaboration, and listening, too. As such, the social-emotional aspect to teaching exposes kids to the process through which they acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for managing emotions and building relationships.
One of the most common terms associated with AR and VR—especially in education—is immersive. Using VR systems, students can truly plunge into any number of immersive worlds but, beyond that, VR content is incredibly impactful for teaching students about some of today’s most intriguing real-world industries while also helping them gain practical experience at times.
STEM includes a massive area of content and subjects, making it possible for educational leaders to implement any number of strategies, technology tools, and ideas for creating STEM learning that’s suited for their particular students. And, one of those areas is early childhood STEAM—the relevant, hands-on learning experiences that students can have early in their lives.
For the bulk of 2020 and 2021, learning—and STEAM lessons—happened largely online and, though many children are digital natives, navigating this era of education created plenty of new and unique challenges. Now, as we strive to ensure hands-on STEAM experiences are always accessible, kids can code almost anywhere with these tools, which is key for the summer.
