What is STEM?
At its most basic, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Alternatively, STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math. But STEM education is far more than just sticking those subject titles together. It’s a philosophy of education that embraces teaching skills and subjects in a way that resembles real life.
How is STEM Education Important?
The key component of STEM and STEAM is integration. Instead of teaching disciplines in independent subject areas, there is a greater focus on interdisciplinary learning. With STEM we are teaching skills the way they will be used in the workforce, and the real world. Rarely does a job require only one skill set like math. Picture an architect, they use science, math, engineering and technology to do their jobs.
In Glencoats Primary, we provide meaningful opportunities for children to apply a range of skills to create, build, design, solve problems and so on for a range of purposes. The children are actively involved in working cooperatively, discussing ideas, sharing hypotheses, making predictions and recording results!
STEM and STEAM are not new, they are simply ways of understanding and applying an integrated form of learning that resembles real life. Instead of teaching math as separate from science, they can be taught together in a way that shows how the knowledge from those two fields compliment and support each other.
In Glencoats, the areas of sciences, technologies, maths and art can be taught discreetly and teachers use progressive knowledge and skills planners to inform their teaching. However, these areas are often taught through STEM activities which enable children to use a wide variety of skills in relevant contexts.
