STEM/STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and the Arts
Here you'll find articles and resources for STEM+Arts education, also known as STEAM. Topics include science, technology, engineering, math and arts education and range from research reports to feature articles to profiles of makerspaces to news about new STEAM and STEAM initiatives in schools.
A study published in January 2023 by the University of Southern California (USC) in the journal “Frontiers in Psychology” on the impact of music education showed that middle school students gained not only cognitive benefits, but a greater sense of wellbeing in the five key areas of Positive Youth Development (PYD). The study’s findings come at a time when California voters have recently approved Proposition 28, to increase funding for arts and music education in the state’s public schools.
College and career readiness company YouScience has released its “Post Graduation Readiness Report Part II,” which reveals that while 44% of female high school students showed aptitude for careers in architecture and engineering, they showed 0% interest in them when interest-based, instead of aptitude-based, tools were used to gauge student talents, abilities, and pathways.
The Discovery Education Science Techbook’s high school biology course, designed to align with state standards, “offers a unique and engaging three-dimensional learning experience that aligns with S.C. College & Career-Ready Science Standards” through both print and digital editions, providing classroom flexibility for educators seeking to grow student engagement.
The KidWind Project will partner with Flinn Scientific for the third year in a row to offer K–12 students a chance to compete in the 2023 Simulation Challenge. Contestants will use Flinn Scientific’s WhiteBox Learning STEM to virtually construct and test wind turbines and wind farms. Registration and the competition are open now through March 1, with challenge completion due April 1.
During the final weeks of 2022, THE Journal asked scores of ed tech leaders about their wishes and worries for 2023. Cybersecurity and teacher resources were the most common topics addressed in the responses — many of which include specific ideas for new policies and practices for K–12 education in the United States.
Todd Ryckman of Cypher Learning joins THEJournal.com editor Kristal Kuykendall for a discussion about the competency-based education movement, what it looks like in school districts that have been implementing CBE over the past five years, and how Cypher Learning’s NEO LMS empowers educators and students, regardless of whether their school uses the traditional or “modern” instructional model or more of a CBE approach.
With a $250,000 grant from the Tides Foundation Unity Charitable Fund, Rotu Entertainment has created the Harmony Program in a year-long initiative to travel to under-resourced K–12 schools across the United States to help implement music education.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has contracted with Second Avenue Learning to launch EquIP HQ, a free K–12 platform for teachers and students to learn how to invent solutions to real-world problems using STEM and STEAM skills. The grade-level, standards-based program takes learners through design, prototypes, tests, improvements, and the intellectual property rights patent process.
One state leads the nation on the number of students participating in robotics competitions, and it’s probably not the state you’d guess. Indiana’s robotics initiative reaches about 20,000 students each year, with higher levels of diversity than STEM fields usually see — and all that on an annual budget of under $200K.
THEJournal.com editor and podcast host Kristal Kuykendall visits with REC Foundation CEO Dan Mantz, who explains the foundation’s recent adjustments to its mission and vision, the addition of curriculum and competitions for drones and automation, and all the ways that the REC Foundation programs are helping prepare the workforce of tomorrow.