STEM is not Maker Craft. End.
This blog post is written entirely from my experiences and my beliefs. It is not referenced with anything but 2 years worth of intensive and passionate personal exploration of what STEM Education is. Read on, but know this is written from personal opinion and passion.
Stem is not Maker Craft. It is not paddle pops sticks, marshmallows, pasta and cardboard. It may involve these at some point, but it is not what we find when we search the internet and pick the first pretty picture.
STEM is not a 1 hour activity to fill a Friday afternoon. It may be part of an ongoing project in which an allocated timeframe is used to dig deeply and engage in learning.
STEM is not a specialised time to withdraw kids and make stuff. It’ just not this. Ever
STEM is not coding for an hour a week. Coding is an integral part of it, but you just can’t call it STEM if that’s all you’re doing.
STEM is not a task that fulfils one outcome from our over populated syllabi. It takes more than one outcome to come plate a STEM project.
STEM is not ticking a box on a ‘future focussed’ learning strategy on a school plan. It’s a purposeful change in practice that needs to be adopted over time, and with strategic intent.
Now that I have got that off my chest, let me tell you what I think STEM is.
If I were to write a definition of STEM Learning, it would include words like:
- Integrated
- Technology
- Science
- Technology
- Maths
- Technology
- Real projects
- Technology
- Community
- Technology
- Authentic
- Technology
- Problems
- Technology
- Reflection
- Technology
I think it’s pretty fair to say that to me STEM must include, depending on which side of the curriculum you sit, Computational Thinking or Digital Technologies learning. That’s what the ‘T’ is for.
Sticking some paper together and making it colourful? Hanging a bucket from a string? Using LEGO to make a maze? Nup. That’s just the ‘E’. Sure, it’s a great way to develop design thinking or engineering skills in students. Sure, it may hit a smidgen of maths or science, but really, a 1 hour activity can’t possibly be developing full STEM skills in students.
Finding problems that exists in the classroom, school or community surrounding the school, integrating learning through multiple focus areas of the syllabus, applying lower order explicit teaching and learning to solve a bigger problem through project creation that includes design thinking flow and computational thinking, that’s STEM Learning. Easy, huh?
It’s not easy. It’s not quick. It’s not a formula, and I truly believe that no one has the perfect solution for teaching integrated STEM. We are all still learning what this could possibly mean for future student skills.
I feel from deep down in my educator-gut that true STEM includes some uncomfortable and boundary shifting technology integration.
The balance is difficult, unnatural for many or us, and downright confronting as well, but we owe it to our students to give it a go… give real, problem focused, technology infused, integrated STEM a go… then reflect, modify and give it a go again, and again, and again, and again… then share with the world how it works best for you. I’m pretty sure it won’t be about maker craft.
I’ve said my piece, I’m off to write my next STEM units.
Photo by Jelleke Vanooteghem on Unsplash.
