How to get more out of your STEAM lessons in class

How to get more pics

How to get more out of your STEAM lessons in class

Have you been engaging your students with STEM or STEAM projects and experiences but wondering how you can better focus the learning? Here are two simple ways you can maximise the learning outcomes for your students and they both begin at the planning phase.

[bctt tweet=”Here are 2 ways you can focus STEAM Learning in areas that really matter!” username=”markherringnz”]

 

Our digital learning specialists work with schools across Australia, New Zealand and Asia and it’s very common for us to see one simple mistake when teachers are using STEAM learning in their classrooms. The trap they fall into is to focus the student learning on the tool or tool-specific skill. For example, if they are using the Sphero SPRK+ to have the students solve a challenge or problem, the learning that the students gain is ‘How to code the Sphero’ or ‘How to build a bridge for the Sphero to cross.’ Is there anything wrong with that? Not necessarily. I’ve written before how these tools can be an incredibly rich learning tool. It’s just that the tools we use in the classroom are quickly outdated and replaced and therefore shouldn’t be the focus for students.

How to get more pic_1

Although, if the teacher starts with considering the ways they can focus students on deeper skills or knowledge, then things that won’t become irrelevant very quickly. Sphero SPRK+ won’t be a technology we perhaps use in the future, and a small bridge made of cardboard is unlikely to help a student in their future career.

Therefore, I suggest that the learning focus for teachers could be around things that will have a long lasting impact and be transferable to multiple scenarios in later life. The question is, what and how do teachers do this? For each of these approaches, we’ll look at some of the things that teachers can do before, during and after the learning experience.

This graphic illustrates how teachers can focus student outcomes on two deeper areas of learning. The first is around Curriculum Learning and the second is on Future Focused Skills, or ‘The 6Cs,’ based on the work of Michael Fullan.

1.Curriculum Integration

This first area of learning, Curriculum Integration, is where the teacher considers the learning outcomes of a variety of curriculum areas, or even perhaps individual areas, and plans the STEAM project from there. They can focus on a specific area to develop and choose the right tool and challenge scenario to help students discover this in collaborative groups.

For example, a teacher may want students to discover and understand mathematical concepts of distance, measurement and orientation. The Sphero SPRK+ could be a perfect tool for this, where the challenge is to navigate the robot through a maze or series of obstacles. Students would code the robot using distinct values of time, measurement units, as well as working with the degrees of an angle.

How to get more pic 2

Before the lesson, a teacher would plan the maze to be achievable and challenging. They would identify which key vocabulary they would like to focus students’ attention on during the activity, as well as structuring the maze with the kinds of angles that would suit the students’ abilities.

During the activity, the teacher could be noting some of the conversations that the students have, with a small notebook or on a whiteboard, to help focus their class reflection afterwards. The teacher could also be encouraging students to take photos of the different kinds of angles the robots are taking and recording these as photos with drawing overtop on an iPad, for example.

To help students focus on the mathematical outcomes at the conclusion of the activity, the teacher could be asking groups to share their conversations about what they’ve learned about angles and distance. They could do this via reflective tools such as the video recording app Flipgrid, or sharing with the class as a whole group.

2. The Six Cs

This approach to deepening student learning with STEAM focusses students on the skills they will need to be fully future ready. The work of Michael Fullan and Andy Hargreaves with ‘The New Pedagogies of Deeper Learning’ outline six attributes that are crucial for future success. These are Communication, Creativity, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Collaboration, Character, and Citizenship. You can see more of their work and how they explain the importance of these attributes here. At Using Technology Better, we believe that to truly get the most out of STEAM Learning, especially where teachers are the main drivers of the project, teachers can begin with one of these Six C areas as a focus for the activity.

[bctt tweet=”Take your STEAM Learning beyond the tool. Here are 2 ways to help you do that.” username=”markherringnz”]

 

How to get more pic 3

An example of this could be the teacher who wishes to develop the collaborative skills of their students. Being intentional about this would involve, again, thinking about the things they do before, during and after the activity.

So, before the activity, the teacher would consider a tool and activity that would enable students to work in collaborative groups and rely on each other simultaneously to succeed. A fantastic ‘low tech’ activity for this could be the ‘Cup Stacking Challenge’, where students have a problem of building a tower of plastic cups, situated inside a 2-metre circle where they can’t enter or touch the cups with anything apart from string and rubber bands. This challenge requires them to create leavers and pulleys and to work with others to manipulate the cups around.

During the activity, the teacher could have the students discuss in pairs and then as a whole class, about the things that make collaboration work. They could collate these skills into a list and use a discussion basis for their reflection. The teacher could then encourage students to choose one of these as a goal to set for the activity.

After the experience, the teacher may guide a reflection where students rate their goal out of five and give reasons for their rating. They could discuss the impact that their success or otherwise had on the whole group and develop some next steps for future challenges.

This approach of focussing students on an aspect of the Six Cs, is very transferrable to whichever STEAM challenge or tool your students are using. It’s also a fantastic way to get more out of these experiences and to develop your students as capable, future-ready citizens for our modern world. Below is a framework for the whole progression.

How to get more pic 4

If you’d like some further training, assistance and support with this, we’d love to hear from you. We partner with schools at the leadership and teacher level with our STEAM Ready Programs . Contact us to ask for more information here about these programs

We also run STEAM Learning workshops all over Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the US. Click here to see our upcoming events, our STEAM #1 or #2 workshops, or let us know if you’re interested in hosting a regional event at your school.


Related Post

Exciting Google Classroom Updates for 2024

Get the most out of Google Classroom and engage your students with these top tips. With BETT 2024 held in London last month, Google for Education announced some changes to Google Classroom that should have teachers and administrators excited as well as reminding us of some of the recent updates towards the end of last

VIEW POST

How well do you use the
Apple Apps Google Workspace Microsoft 365
tools in your workplace?

Find out if you’re working with the tools OR if you’ve got the
tools working for you.

What Industry Are You In?

Using Apple Apps, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365?

What Type of user are you?

🫣 Entry User | 🤹 Skilled User | 👑 Elite User

Take the quiz to find out. 

Privacy Policy

Using Technology Better Privacy Commitment

Introduction

We hold the privacy of your personal information in the highest regard.

Using Technology Better regards customer privacy as an important part of our relationship with our customers. The following privacy policy applies to all Using Technology Better users, and conforms to Internet privacy standards.

This policy will be continuously assessed against new technologies, business practices and our customers’ needs.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact the support team on our Contact Us Page.

Collection of Information

In order to use the Using Technology Better website, we may require information from you in order to provide the best service possible.

All correspondence may also be collected and stored, particularly in regard to sales, support and accounts, including Email.

Any information collected by Using Technology Better is collected via correspondence from you or your company. This may be via the telephone, Email, mail, fax or directly through our website.

Visitors and customers of japan.usingtechnologybetter.com will have their information shared back to DAIWABO INFORMATION SYSTEM CO., LTD. and DIS Service & Solution Co., Ltd.

Use of Collection Information

Any details collected from Using Technology Better customers is required in order to provide you with our

products and/or services, and a high level of customer service.

Correspondence is recorded in order to provide service references, and to assist in our staff development.

Web Site Use Information

Similar to other commercial Web sites, our Web sites utilize a standard technology called “cookies” (see explanation below, “What Are Cookies?”) and web server log files to collect information about how our Web site is used.

Information gathered through cookies and Web server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our Web site, and the Web sites visited just before and just after our Web site.

Storage of Collected Information

The security of your personal information is important to us. When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card numbers) on our website, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL).

When Credit Card details are collected, we simply pass them on in order to be processed as required. We never permanently store complete Credit Card details.

We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it.

If you have any questions about security on our Website, you can email us at <ContactEmail>.

Access to Collected Information

If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may correct, update, delete or deactivate it by emailing us at <ContactEmail>.

Orders

If you purchase a product or service from us, we may request certain personally identifiable information from you.

You may be required to provide contact information such as:

Name

Email

Postal address

Your school or organisation

Financial information (such as credit card number, expiration date, name on card, card billing address).

We use this information for billing purposes and to fill your orders. If we have trouble processing an order, we will use this information to contact you.

Communications

Using Technology Better uses personally identifiable information for essential communications, such as

Emails

Accounts information

Critical service details.

We may also use this information for other purposes, including some promotional Emails.

If at any time a customer wishes not to receive such correspondence, they can request to be removed from any mailing lists by contacting support.

You will be notified when your personal information is collected by any third party that is not our agent/service provider, so you can make an informed choice as to whether or not to share your information with that party.

Third Parties

Using Technology Better may at its discretion use other third parties to provide essential services on our site or for our business processes.

We may share your details as necessary for the third party to provide that service.

These third parties are prohibited from using your personally identifiable information for any other purpose.

Using Technology Better does not share any information with third parties for any unknown or unrelated uses.

What Are Cookies?

A cookie is a very small text document, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier. When you visit a Web site, that site’s computer asks your computer for permission to store this file in a part of your hard drive specifically designated for cookies.

Each Web site can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser’s preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a Web site to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites.

Browsers are usually set to accept cookies. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you may alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies.

If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that some areas of our site will not function as effectively when viewed by the users.

A cookie cannot retrieve any other data from your hard drive or pass on computer viruses.

How Do We Use Information We Collect from Cookies?

As you visit and browse our Web site, the site uses cookies to differentiate you from other users. In some cases, we also use cookies to prevent you from having to log in more than is necessary for security.

Cookies, in conjunction with our Web server’s log files, allow us to calculate the aggregate number of people visiting our Web site and which parts of the site are most popular. This helps us gather feedback to constantly improve our Web site and better serve our clients.

Cookies do not allow us to gather any personal information about you and we do not intentionally store any personal information that your browser provided to us in your cookies.

Legal

We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our Website.

Links

Links on the Using Technology Better site to external entities are not covered within this policy. The terms and conditions set out in this privacy statement only cover the domain name of usingtechnologybetter.com

Changes to Privacy Policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.

We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it periodically. If we make material changes to this policy, we will not use the personal information you have submitted to us under this Privacy Policy in a manner that is materially inconsistent with this Privacy Policy, without your prior consent

Delivery Policy

Most goods are digitally delivered instantly via email.  Our services may be delivered either via an online medium or live in person.

For our online delivery see below.  For services delivered live onsite, please refer to our speaker agreement form which is emailed to you on confirmation of booking.

Refund Policy

We do not offer refunds or returns unless we cannot supply goods or services or the goods or services are not delivered as promised.

Australian law is the governing body for all work, goods and services supplied by Using Technology Better.

Marketing Release

Using Technology Better (UTB) may film, record, and photograph me (the results of which are the “Recordings”). UTB may also incorporate into any production(s) any separate content (e.g., quotes, testimonials, biographical information, profiles, photos, videos, sound recordings, artwork, etc.) I provide to UTB or approve in writing (“Materials”).

1.License

I grant to UTB an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to, in its sole discretion, (i) edit, translate, and modify the Recordings and the Materials, (ii) attribute the Recordings and Materials to me by my name, age, and city and state of residence, (iii) incorporate the Recordings and the Materials into content to promote UTB, its programs, or products (“Content”), and (iv) publicly use, distribute, reproduce, create derivative works from, and perform/display the Content, and any excerpts thereof, in any language.

2. No Compensation.

I grant this permission without any financial or other obligation of any nature.

 

For any issues or concerns please contact us