Every week, we’re relentlessly sifting through the musings of EdTech experts and helping educators discover and consume the most relevant and engaging STEM content. We post these findings on our Twitter page and sometimes our Facebook account as well. If you follow us on Twitter (solve that if you don’t), you might be aware that we tweet a lot. Rest assured, however, that it is not mindless nonsense to fill up our feed with a certain amount of posts each week. We are committed to using this platform to truly help teachers better their approaches to educating as well as establishing new connections on a regular basis. In any case, the following sections will give you a glimpse into what were the five most popular topics based on impressions to appear on our Twitter feed in the last week.
STEAM for Young Learners
With such a broad title, this article could offer a great deal of possibilities and help a number of educators learn a couple new things about integrating STEAM learning. It was posted on Huffington Post back in April 2017, but its essence still resonated with our followers in late 2018. The post begins with a quote from Albert Einstein, which reads “The important thing is to never stop questioning.” This really resonates with us and with our commitment to help educators provide educational experiences that evoke curiosity while students are actively engaged—whether they’re using technology or not. Through STEAM education, students generally find themselves empowered to do much more and the restraints on their creativity are largely removed. Especially for younger students, this is a fantastic way to get them more comfortable with exploration, productive failure, and solving problems in new ways.
The article begins with a flashback to the teaching career of the author. She first started teaching back in the 1970s and was always taught to incorporate elements of different subjects into teaching in order to help students make connections among all of the different ideas they were learning. If the children were learning about buildings, for example, they would build some with blocks, measure their height, and think like they were carpenters or architects. At the same time, language and literacy development revolved around vocabulary they would use as part of their current project, so names of tools or shapes of structures, for example. She said they would also talk about other things associated with the construction of new buildings—the jobs that would be created, the amount of money it would cost, and how this building fit into the modern world. This is a fine way of creating real-world connections through early learning, but an approach that is seldom used any longer.
She goes on to say that she is disappointed that modern instructional methods have gotten away from using this hands-on approach. If educators are going to move away from it, however, she says she is happy that this usually means they are focusing on fostering STEAM skills in students. This is similar to the approach she used to employ and she thinks that interconnecting content, incorporating thinking, and leaving room for play can be just as beneficial for students in today’s classrooms. She also defines STEAM as science and technology interpreted through the actual design of something using engineering and the arts—a very insightful way to look at things in our opinion. According to her, science is a way of thinking, technology is a way of doing, engineering is a way of building, art is a way of creating, and math is a way of measuring. Not only is this a simple way to articulate STEAM for young students, it’s fantastic to put into practice, too!
Afterschool Coding Programs Position Kids to Be Future Leaders
For this post, we’re happy that it was so well-received because the title alone conveys a couple of the most important elements of 21st century education in our opinion. Coding is set to become one of—if not the most important—skills students are going to need in order to be successful in the future. They are also going to need soft skills, however, and leadership is certainly one of them. Tying in with the whole active learning and 21st century education combination, afterschool coding clubs help kids practice not only working through problems but working with others to solve them. Those who possess strong computer science skills will be the most valuable in tomorrow’s job market with computer science professionals among the most in-demand positions at the moment. This has led to the necessity of students developing computer science skills as early as possible and, since schools can’t always fit computer science into their curricula, they’re turning to afterschool clubs in order to expose kids to the experiences they need.
The post was shared by EdTech for Beginners earlier this month and the author seems to agree with a lot of what we already believe. Many teachers share the belief that coding is a fundamental skill for today’s students, but there are those who would still rather do things the old-fashioned way. As the author reiterates, many of the computer science skills students are going to need are still not being taught in enough of today’s classrooms. This is why parents and those educators who cannot deny their importance have created afterschool clubs for students to practice programming whenever possible. Whether kids are practicing programming techniques using an online platform or physically coding with tools like robots, it’s these clubs and experiences that could be the root of a lot of their future success. This is when kids learn new skills through research-based inquiry and play.
Continuing further into the post, the author states that learning coding is best done in a self-paced way and, since there are a lot of different options, it’s best for teachers and students to discover which works best for them. Many of the different robotics tools have curriculum associated with them and allow students to learn different programming languages. For example, they can learn JavaScript techniques with BOLT or learn about Python by coding with Edison. Plus, depending on the size of the afterschool club, teachers could be there to offer one-on-one support for students who may be struggling to grasp everything they need to know. Whether it’s every day or maybe just once or twice a week or month, these kinds of coding clubs have shown to be a great supplement to in-class academics and something that school’s continue to turn to if they cannot fit coding into the school day.
A Closer Look at How Art Fits into STEM
At Eduporium, littleBits is one of our most valued and successful partners. They’re also great on social media. This next article was one we shared from their blog as they took a closer look at the importance of art when talking about STEAM education. For at least the last few years, littleBits has made it their mission to make sure educators remember the ‘A’ in STEAM, to get girls more involved in engineering, and to inspire more students to pursue inventing overall. They began the post by stating that STEM curricula are becoming increasingly important, especially in middle and high school as dictated by the economy. They even go as far as to say that STEM is indispensable in solving most of the world’s current problems. Since that same economy also demands creativity, critical thinking, and clear communication, many educators are making the push to bring the arts to more of a focus when discussing 21st century education and that is where STEAM learning comes into play.
These days, STEAM is gaining more support than in years past, including by some pretty prominent organizations, like the National Science Foundation and US Dept. of Education. Educators are realizing that some of the world’s most successful artists have also been some of its best critical thinkers and are using this premise to ignite student creativity in STEM by using art as a catalyst. With that being said, there are plenty of ways in which educators can incorporate art into their STEM teaching. Perhaps the best way to begin is to identify the aspects of art that best align with the STEM concepts that are being taught. It goes on to say that it’s hard to imagine the scaling of any field in today’s economy without the presence of technology and this includes art. Today’s artists are graphic designers, cartoonists, and animators, using technology to create their masterpieces. And, with STEAM in the curriculum, students are more apt to grow into self-starters and dynamic thinkers, perfect for what the future will demand.
STEAM learning is best done through exploration and plenty of educational technology, especially littleBits, is perfect for advancing key 21st century concepts. The best STEAM learning happens when teachers keep their instruction to a minimum and allow students to drive their own learning. Through STEAM, students are encouraged to try new methods of problem solving and discovery while focusing on real-world problem solving in a collaborative environment. This also helps them connect the most important concepts across various disciplines and affect learning outcomes in a positive way. To check out the entire article on the littleBits site, visit their blog and to explore littleBits and other STEAM tools on our store, click below!
Boosting Confidence to Get More Girls into STEM
It is a common belief that one of the main reasons girls shy away from pursuing STEM is because they are not interested in it. A more accurate way to look at it, however, is that there are girls who are interested in STEM, but shy away from it because they lack a certain confidence they feel is necessary in that world. In our fourth-best performing post of last week, we shared an article from Computing in which this very topic was addressed. As a progressive, 21st century education company, we believe that all students need to be involved with STEM from very early on in their lives. Of course, this includes girls. So, it’s not much of a surprise that this article resonated well with our audience as the author shared her passion for getting more girls involved in STEM. The article begins by stating that just 15 percent of the STEM workforce in the UK (where this particular article was published from) is made up of women. Increasing this number is a good place to start.
What’s even more alarming is that they also cited data that found that just 11 percent of women between 18-24 years old felt ready for the STEM demands of the modern economy. We’re guessing this number is not too far off from what it’s like in America, either. The results of the study also suggested that these girls have the intelligence and ability to take up a STEM path, insinuating that they shied away because of a lack of confidence. In order to boost STEM confidence in girls across the country and around the world, they need to be able to experience STEM learning in a comfortable environment. This is part of the reason why Girls Who Code and Black Girls Code have sprouted up and become so popular. They offer girls the chance to experience STEM with other girls—eliminating some of the societal pressures that arise for whatever reason. They need these experiences to be created out of STEM subjects, however, in order to start building that much-needed confidence.
The article also provides some legitimate examples for how to increase girls’ interest in STEM starting at a young age. One of those ideas is to surround them with strong role models, which can definitely make a difference in their potential future careers. They should also provide support the whole time these girls are in school whether they need help with accomplishing something or they’re starting to second guess if STEM is for them. It all leads back to closing the confidence gap girls have when it comes to STEM—something the author believes (and we agree) needs to be narrowed. If there is a relationship between female confidence in STEM abilities and female participation in STEM, it is imperative that they be inspired at every intersection. Hands-on experiences and a proper balance of guidance can be crucial in helping girls gain the confidence they need to take part in STEM and solidify the next generation of female leaders.
The Effectiveness of Afterschool STEM
If you ask us, there’s nothing wrong with kids getting their exposure to STEM opportunities before, during, or after school. We know that the reality is that many students are unable to experience coding challenges during the school day because their schools do not have the resources or the time to work coding into the curriculum. They still need to develop coding skills in order to be put in the best possible position for the future, however. That is why informal, afterschool activities can be so beneficial for students. Presumably, they’re not going to be spending a ton of time at these meetings—just enough, in fact, to begin building the skills they need. In the fifth and final popular post from last week, we’re going to take a look at how afterschool coding clubs can help kids develop key STEM skills in a slightly less rigorous environment.
The article was posted by EdTech 4 Beginners and offers an insightful look at how practice with coding can position students for later success. One of the key points they made is that the atmosphere of afterschool coding clubs is different because there is less pressure on kids when they’re not in an academic setting. They can feel free to try new things, make mistakes, and collaborate with their friends on new kinds of projects. Even if teachers prefer to focus on STEM areas other than coding, they can certainly take advantage of afterschool to teach a whole bunch of 21st century skills. This is also a great time for kids to experience more collaboration, critical thinking, and hands-on problem solving. Heck, they don’t even need technology. Students can solve problems with real-world implications by mapping out certain scenarios or creating designs with simple materials.
All in all, whether students are gaining their coding experience during the school day or after the final bell, it’s just important that they are gaining it. All evidence points to coding being such an incredibly important skill to possess for the future, obviously making learning it on a regular basis just as important. A couple of decades ago, we never thought almost everybody’s job would revolve around using a computer. Now, it’s weird to think that some jobs don’t require one. There is a very good chance that, in the next couple of decades (or sooner), the same will be true about coding. That’s why we don’t care when and how students get to try coding—just as long as they do. If you’re looking for some ways to bring coding into classroom, be sure to check out the Robotics and Coding section of our store for all kinds of tools that incorporate all types of coding. And, check out our social media channels to catch all of the latest content that we share!
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