STEAM+Committee

Possible next step in establishing a STEAM culture.

Next year I would like to return to the flavor in the grant pertaining to making connected classrooms and partnerships. Justin expressed the vision of using projectors and cameras to make classrooms interactive with experts. Justin talked about this being possible in every classroom. I feel making connected classrooms could be the avenue to establishing a STEAM culture (even between the high school and junior high).

The potential for partnerships and information flow from experts is why connected classrooms could establish a STEAM culture. This connectedness requires the use of digital tools which are essential to a STEAM culture. Partnerships with top-tier institutions and and experts are hard to establish so I propose "flipping" the idea of experts and virtual field trips. Let us have our students become the experts and lead virtual field trips by telling digital stories. Let us also form partnerships starting close and then reaching out. With connected classrooms cross-curricular lessons can be facilitated across a team or between two or more of our own classrooms. Our students have expertise to share in all the content areas they are taught. They will also have expertise in the areas covered by the Paxton Patterson Labs and robotics. Students could take what they learned in these areas and labs one step farther and tell the digital story of doing so. Students could also do this with gardens and service projects. When our students and teachers show their moxie with digital tools, then the top-tier institutions and experts just might entertain the idea of forming a partnership. "Flipping" a connected classroom to student centered activities may also be the way to help establish a STEAM culture.

I think three elements are required to use connected classrooms to establish a STEAM culture. Connected classrooms will need general purpose digital tools to put these connections to use. These digital tools will be the "pencil and paper" of the connected classroom leading to a STEAM culture. Laptops, webcams, microphones, and head phones are the general purpose digital tools to start with. Once a digital story is put together a medium for sharing it and interactions related to it is necessary. Setting up this medium used to be complex and expensive, but Google has a versatile solution it calls Connected Classrooms via Google+. Besides digital tools and a medium, a classroom structure is needed to put digital stories together. This structure is project based learning incorporating the design process. Connected classrooms, general purpose digital tools, Connected Classroom via Google+, and project based learning maybe the ticket to establishing a STEAM culture. (These three elements can be used in any classroom for any subject.)

Along with acquiring connected classrooms and digital tools, using Google+ and PBL may be the next focus.

Information I have collected on Connected Classrooms via Google+: https://stem-tpjhs.wikispaces.com/Connected+Classrooms+GOOGLE

Information I have collected on Project Based Learning: https://stem-tpjhs.wikispaces.com/Project+Based+Learning https://stem-tpjhs.wikispaces.com/Problem+Based+Learning