Grow, Create, Innovate With STEM-Powered Art

Outline

1. Introduction (5 minutes)

Content: Overview of the Grow, Create, & Innovate art activities and their alignment with STEM and Arts integrations.
Engagement: Use an interactive poll to gauge participants' familiarity with project-based learning and integrated STEM/Arts activities.
2. Exploring Key Activities (15 minutes)

Content: In-depth look at activities like DNA Modeling, Automata Building, and the Reaction Game, highlighting standards alignment and learning outcomes.
Engagement: Small group discussions with task cards to brainstorm how these activities can be adapted for different grade levels and subjects.
3. Hands-On Demonstration (20 minutes)

Content: Live demonstration of selected activities, showing how to guide students through the learning process.
Engagement: Participants will engage in a hands-on activity using provided kits as a make-and-take, followed by a quick reflection on implementation strategies.
4. Practical Application and Alignment (10 minutes)

Content: Connecting activities to CCSS, NGSS, and ISTE standards, with tips on curriculum integration.
Engagement: Peer-to-peer discussion on aligning these activities with attendees’ existing curricula, followed by sharing key insights.
5. Q&A and Reflection (5 minutes)

Content: Open floor for questions and participant reflections on the session.
Engagement: Use a digital Q&A tool for participants to submit questions anonymously and vote on the most relevant ones.
Engagement Tactics:

Frequent peer-to-peer interactions, device-based activities, and practical demonstrations to keep participants actively involved and practicing new skills.

Supporting research

The Camp Inspired Makey Makey Projects case study showcases an innovative integration of arts, literacy, and digital technologies. Students, guided by their teachers, created interactive 3D dioramas to share their camp experiences. Using Makey Makey technology, they incorporated recorded narratives that played when buttons were pressed, mimicking a museum display. This project not only engaged students in a creative and technical process but also fostered collaboration, resilience, and problem-solving skills while integrating multiple curriculum areas and providing an authentic audience for their work.

Improved Learning Outcomes
Multiple studies have found that integrating arts with STEM can lead to improved learning outcomes:
A quasi-experimental study showed that using arts integration to teach science in upper elementary grades led to better science learning.
Research has demonstrated that arts integration can increase engagement in STEM, improve access for underrepresented groups, and enhance learning outcomes.

Enhanced Systems Thinking
Integrating arts with STEM has been shown to foster systems thinking skills:
Arts integration allows for real and imagined recontextualizations and connections that have the potential to support systems thinking about complex scientific phenomena.
STEAM approaches can help students make distinctions and coordinate across scales of analysis, understand causal links across disparate scales and elements, and grasp underlying functions rather than focusing only on superficial structural features.

Increased Engagement and Equity
STEAM approaches have demonstrated benefits for student engagement and equity:
Arts integration can increase engagement in STEM, improve access for groups underrepresented in STEM, and create a platform for understanding and communicating about social and scientific issues.
The integration pattern of leading with STEAM activities before STEM lessons has shown promise for increasing equity and learning opportunities, particularly for emerging bilingual students.

Support for Creativity and Innovation
Incorporating arts into STEM education can foster creativity and innovation:
STEAM education has been noted as an opportunity to engage students in conversations about culture, equity, and social and environmental justice as they relate to STEM.
Integrating culturally specific art forms may offer affirmation of underrepresented students' cultural aesthetics in STEM.
Practical Implementation
Research has also provided insights into the effective implementation of STEAM approaches:
Studies have shown that leading with STEAM activities before traditional STEM lessons can be particularly effective, especially for emerging bilingual learners.
Successful STEAM integration often involves identifying and designing for both arts and science learning objectives and seeking specific synergies between scientific concepts and arts modalities and practices.

Links:
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2022.915333/full

https://stemeducationjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40594-022-00375-7

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8982989/

https://artsintegration.com/research-and-advocacy/