Full STEAM Ahead

Now let's hop over to 2016. Georgette Yakman developed an educational framework called STEAM. It was the pillars of STEM with Arts mixed in. Her STEAM framework is a way for all five pillars to interrelate with each other.

The connection is obvious for anyone who has ever worked in any traditional STEM career. Everyone from software engineers and aerospace technicians to biotechnical engineers, professional mathematicians, and laboratory scientists knows that building great things and solving real problems requires a measure of creativity. More and more, professional artists themselves are incorporating technological tools and scientific processes to their art.

Often the acronyms in STEM is thought of as a focus on one core class or an increased focus on any individual letter in the acronym, however, STEM is about connecting science, technology, engineering and math.

If we are learning STEM, we are also learning the arts. For children who may not be motivated by the math, the science, or even the technology, art may be the creative piece that gives them the spark they need to truly engage.