STEAM is an education approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics as access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue and critical thinking. The end results are students who take thoughtful risks, engage in experiential learning, persist in problem-solving, embrace collaboration and work through the creative process. These are the learners of the 21st century.
P25 are amongst the learners of the 21st century! Every Thursdays the boys excitedly rush to the STEAM lab eager to find out or continue with a project! It has been amazing to watch each one of them gravitate to certain STEAM activities and has given me an opportunity as a teacher to observe and explore learning styles and strengths.
We began with coding with a robot named Cubetto– the Coding Robot. Cubetto is a playful wooden robot that has allowed students to use instruction blocks (forward, left, right and function) on an interface board to create a sequence, encouraging computational thinking. Using Duplo we have explored, recognised, named and understood different emotions by building characters with double sided face bricks. Students enjoyed copying the faces and recognising different and opposite emotions. Through Lego Duplo, P25 have also investigated what it means to be a part of a community using the Community People Set to build different people and occupations, exploring important topics, such as gender, age, relationships and the unique roles and responsibilities of people in the community.
The latest highlight was a project using icy pole sticks. Students selected from a range of objects to build, including a swing, picnic set, truck, car, bunk beds, house and hammock. Students began by selecting the object they wanted to build, counting and organising how many icy pole sticks they would need and then planning their build. It was great to see the boys being hands on with the hot glue gun, following a plan, taking risks and trying their own ‘way’ , testing their object and problem solving modifications that would make their objects function better. ICT Leading Teacher Eva has done an amazing job in setting up the room and planning engaging and interesting tasks.
