Background on STEAM vs. STEM

Our world is an ever-changing environment, and the technology and tools that surround us seem to change even faster. In the early 2000s, the United States became particularly concerned with the state of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education in our country. Since then, there has been a heavier focus on those disciples. Such a response is largely due to the changing landscape of jobs, becoming more technical and requiring a larger workforce for the emerging digital careers. That is, more jobs are appearing in the technology sector, and are therefore creating a need for better education in the STEM subjects from an early age. However, in recent years, there has been a shift to an argument for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math), for the inclusion of the arts as one of the subjects that need to be focused on. In fact, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) includes the arts and music as part of a “well-rounded education,” which are eligible for receiving funding from the government. Changes in legislation have led to a push for wider adoption of this framework for education, but some educators feel that they do not have the training necessary to implement these new practices. Companies like LEGO Education are creating models and projects that make integrating arts and creativity with STEM practices easy in the classroom.

Arguments for STEAM

Historically, STEM teaching has been in a fairly lecture-heavy setting. Students are tested through written assignments and tests on their purely intellectual understanding of the concepts, rather than an applied understanding of how to use those concepts. When in a job situation, they are far more likely to need to actually use those concepts though. Those who work in these fields have acknowledged that there are some skills such as creativity and collaboration that require more than just the knowledge of the underlying concepts. The tech industry mainly focuses on working in teams to solve some kind of problem. This future requires students to be better prepared in more areas than simple knowledge. The arts are a fantastic medium for these “soft skills,” they are well-equipped to allow students to experiment with their own creativity, and to learn how to work with other students to accomplish a goal. The arts also serve as a good model for a new way of teaching, through less lecture and more practical experience in what is being taught. While there are arts courses focused on the theory, a lot of learning in the arts requires experience, actually getting hands-on and making it happen. The integration of the arts into STEM allows a more useful and holistic approach to learning.

LEGO Model

For longer than most people probably realize, LEGO has been innovating in the education space. They have dedicated a substantially large portion of their profits to their educational programming and have seen some major products as a result. Their most recent product for the education space is LEGO Spike Prime—targeted at middle school students—includes over 500 bricks along with sensors, motors, wires, and a programmable control box to attach to the other pieces. These pieces also come with a set of projects for students to work through and a box that has dedicated compartments for sorting pieces back into their proper place. In order to program, the student utilizes the Spike Prime app, which is compatible with both computers and mobile systems. Spike Prime is only the latest in a long line of LEGO Education products aimed for classroom use. Historically, their products have spanned across all education levels, from young children to college students. Because they gear their products towards an education environment, LEGO allows educators an easy way to build STEAM principles into their curricula. 

What’s Missing

It is not uncommon for the articles that make the argument for STEAM to be coming from a background that seems to yield more towards STEM. Because of the areas that they are coming from, the arts are often framed in STEAM to be in service of the STEM subjects, i.e. how can arts principles be used to further STEM education? Many of the articles seem to value creativity and providing students the room for creative practices and exercising above anything else. While this is indeed part of the arts, it is not an argument for including the arts as a main subject, but instead for less rigid teaching or lecturing for the STEM subjects to allow students more room to grow and experiment on their own. In other words, the argument for including the “A” in STEAM is often more an argument for changing the pedagogical styles for the STEM subjects than it is an argument for the inclusion of the arts as a core subject that requires focus. While there is a lot to learn from how arts are taught, they also have merit on their own, and there appears to be somewhat of a gap in how STEAM is argued for in this respect.

Resources

Agrawal, Vishnu, and Ashish Sureka. “Setting the Foundation for Scientific Inquiry and Computational Thinking in Early Childhood Using Lego Machines and Mechanism Education Kit.” ArXiv:1801.06042 [Physics], December 20, 2017. http://arxiv.org/abs/1801.06042.

Berger, Rod. “LEGO Education Increasing Its Interest In STEAM Learning.” Forbes, November 14, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rodberger/2019/11/14/lego-education-increasing-its-interest-in-steam-learning/.

Boy, Guy A. “From STEM to STEAM: Toward a Human-Centred Education, Creativity & Learning Thinking.” In ECCE ’13, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1145/2501907.2501934.

Choi, Jae-Hyeok, Ho-Meoyng Choi, and Jongseok Park. “Development and Application of STEAM Education Program Using the Lego Mindstorms Robot.” Journal of Science Education 42, no. 1 (2018): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.21796/jse.2018.42.1.1.

Danahy, Ethan, Eric Wang, Jay Brockman, Adam Carberry, Ben Shapiro, and Chris B. Rogers. “LEGO-Based Robotics in Higher Education: 15 Years of Student Creativity.” International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems 11, no. 2 (February 1, 2014): 27. https://doi.org/10.5772/58249.

Ding, Fangyi, Mengqiu Cai, and Shuguang Chen. “Application of STEAM Theory in Robot Teaching.” Atlantis Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.2991/emehss-19.2019.24.

Gawthrop, Peter J., and E. McGookin. “Using LEGO in Control Education,” 2009.

Gura, Mark. “Lego Robotics: STEM Sport of the Mind.” Learning & Leading with Technology 40, no. 1 (August 2012): 12–16.

Heater, Brian. “LEGO Launches the Education Spike STEAM System for Grades 6-8.” TechCrunch (blog). Accessed February 25, 2020. http://social.techcrunch.com/2019/04/02/lego-launches-the-education-spike-steam-system-for-grades-6-8/.

Johnson, Andrea. “Full STEAM Ahead Offers Programming for Kids.” Minotdailynews.Com (blog), February 1, 2020. https://www.minotdailynews.com/news/local-news/2020/02/full-steam-ahead-offers-programming-for-kids/.

Land, Michelle H. “Full STEAM Ahead: The Benefits of Integrating the Arts Into STEM.” Procedia Computer Science, Complex Adaptive Systems, 20 (January 1, 2013): 547–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2013.09.317.

“LEGO® Education and FIRST® Inspire STEAM Learning with New Architecture-Themed LEGO Sets for 2019-2020 FIRST® LEGO® League Season,” April 17, 2019. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190417005754/en/LEGO%C2%AE-Education-FIRST%C2%AE-Inspire-STEAM-Learning-New.

Milgrom-Elcott, Talia. “When STEM Becomes STEAM, We Can Change The Game.” Forbes, November 7, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/taliamilgromelcott/2019/11/07/when-stem-becomes-steam-we-can-change-the-game/.

Piro, Joseph. “Going From STEM to STEAM - Education Week.” Education Week, March 10, 2010. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/03/10/24piro.h29.html.

Shu, Les. “Lego Makes STEAM Education Fun with Spike Prime, a Learning Tool That Combines Lego Bricks with Computer Programming.” Business Insider, January 16, 2020. https://www.businessinsider.com/lego-spike-prime-review.

Tariq, Malik. “Lego Education Launches Spike Prime to Teach Engineering and Robotics to Kids.” Space.com, January 14, 2020. https://www.space.com/lego-education-spike-prime-stem-robotics.html.

“Technology Helps Schools Answer the ‘Why’ of STEAM Learning.” Technology Solutions That Drive Education, January 31, 2020. https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2020/01/technology-helps-schools-answer-why-steam-learning-perfcon.