Abstract
The GoSTEAM program promotes authentic integration of the arts into PreK-12 computer science, engineering, and invention instruction. STEM and arts teachers come together to form STEAM Innovation Teams in collaboration with university-based coaches and creative Innovators-in-Residence. Starting with a STEAM professional development summer institute and continuing throughout the year, the teams come together to design and implement novel STEAM lessons and initiatives in their schools that integrate learning goals from both the STEM and the art disciplines. This type of transdisciplinary collaboration between colleagues from vastly different fields is new to most teachers and presents unique challenges. A primary goal of the GoSTEAM professional development is therefore to create safe, interdisciplinary spaces where meaningful, cross-disciplinary collaborations can occur. In 2019, this was accomplished through an intensive, 120-hour face-to-face summer professional institute that incorporated many community building activities and collaborative planning sessions. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer institute changed to an online format and faced the challenge of providing teachers with a personally meaningful STEAM experience during a summer of crisis. Results show that the 2020 institute successfully supported the teachers, energized them, and provided them with tools to augment their virtual instruction. This paper describes the program adaptations due to COVID-19.
Highlights
STEAM education, a holistic approach to education that transcends the standard boundaries between disciplinary subjects and integrates the arts to varying degrees into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instruction, has been promoted by many in the education community as a pedagogical strategy that equips students with the skills needed to succeed in a highly complex 21st century workforce (Land, 2013; Quigley and Herro, 2016)
This paper addresses the challenge of how to create, within the online format necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, these interdisciplinary collaborative spaces so that teachers can successfully cross the boundaries between fields to envision and plan STEAM activities that truly integrate the arts into the technical fields of engineering and computer science
We focus on the findings related to institute activities designed to foster Community Building and Collaborative Planning and teachers’ perceptions of their overall experience in the summer institute
Summary
STEAM education, a holistic approach to education that transcends the standard boundaries between disciplinary subjects and integrates the arts to varying degrees into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instruction, has been promoted by many in the education community as a pedagogical strategy that equips students with the skills needed to succeed in a highly complex 21st century workforce (Land, 2013; Quigley and Herro, 2016). According to the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education, STEAM education is defined as “an intentional, collaborative pedagogy for teachers that empowers learners to engage in real-world experiences through the authentic alignment of standards, processes, and practices in science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics” (Huser et al, 2020). As such, introducing STEAM integration within traditional school structures and culture requires a substantial shift in teacher focus, and a breakdown of the normal disciplinary silos that exist in schools
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