What is STEAM? You've probably noticed that your children are interested in video games, building or taking things apart, and are curious about how objects work, how things are made in factories, or how they can take care of the environment. All of these interests have a STEAM flavor to them — meaning that when children think through and put these ideas into practice, they're developing skills in science, technology, engineering, and math. STEAM is an acronym that brings together science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics within a single project. When did it emerge? STEAM originated in the United States in the 1990s as a way to introduce students at every educational level to science-related careers, and to encourage girls in particular to see these fields as part of their future education. Why is it important? STEAM in your children's education encourages finding solutions to global and local problems by integrating all five disciplines into a single solution. The goal is for your children to develop thinking skills — to become more critical, more creative, more expressive, and more aware of the resources available to them and how to use them without harming the environment or other people. How can I do STEAM activities? Look around you and reuse materials to create. You don't need expensive kits to build hundreds of projects at home from scratch. Using recycled materials, or things you can ask others for because they no longer need them, is the best option. Spark your creativity. Focus on finding solutions to everyday problems in simple things, and follow your curiosity. Start at home — see if the bathroom soap could use a new dispenser you make yourself, if the towel basket could be made from different materials, or if you could sync your phone with an app to turn the lights on and off. Stay flexible with the activities your children want to try. When they come up with an idea for an individual or family activity, ask what they hope to accomplish with it and support their ideas, as long as no one gets hurt. Listen to your children. Pay attention to what they tell you, how they tell it, who they include in their stories, and remember the details of what they share. This helps them know they can count on you for different activities. Connect with what they enjoy. Show interest in what's currently popular with them and think about the positive aspects of what catches their attention. Talk about the environment. From time to time, ask them what they hope for the environment in the future, or how they picture where they live in 5 or 10 years. Ask questions. Ask open-ended questions to boost their creativity — for example, what could they do to save water, use electricity more wisely, or eat more naturally at home. Do projects together. Building on the previous point, you could set a long-term family plan, like creating a rooftop garden, saving energy, or collecting rainwater. Sometimes these kinds of projects can even involve the community — for example, a project to help all the neighbors sort and dispose of trash properly. Use the devices you already have at home. Pick an app and start using it daily, one that helps you improve at something you're interested in. Then share it with your children — they'll see you engaging with current tools, and you can exchange tips together. One type of activity that can really capture your children's attention is programming and building robots, which can be done online. STEAM can be part of their everyday lives — a simple exercise is to look around and notice how much of what you see involves these five disciplines, and how people went about planning, designing, testing, and evaluating it. Doing these kinds of activities that bring together all five STEAM disciplines strengthens family bonds and supports your children's learning. At our school, your children learn by doing, discovering, and creating solutions for the future. They also experience active learning that integrates different areas of knowledge to help build life skills. The STEAM approach is present in hands-on labs, where knowledge is applied to real-world situations.
