For the first few months of my research and involvement in the whole homeschool thing I kept hearing the term "STEAM". It was driving me nuts. There were whole websites devoted to this thing called STEAM but oddly, it did take a while for me to find a definition Note to STEAM providers... put a definition on your websites please! Yes, STEAM may seem a simple and almost ridiculously basic thing to those who have been around the homeschool traps for a bit... Like... Duh! But when you're a homeschooling newby there are SOOO many things you don't know, and it's the simple things that people don't think to tell you about. I'm also really crap at remembering to google these things, so it probably takes me longer to catch on! LOL So I finally figured it out and now I'm breaking it down and putting it our there for those, who, like me, are wading through brand new terminology and concepts and trying to piece it all together. In my words, STEAM is the term for lessons which are leveraging project-based learning across multiple core disciplines/subjects. In my (eventual) googling I discovered some variations, but here's the mnemonic for you: S = Science
T = Technology E = Engineering A = Arts M = Mathematics BINGO!!! I can't explain how excited I was to find out there are interesting, fun and functional classes backed by plenty of evidence-based studies, designed to make learning INTERGRATED and ENTERTAINING... and which have real world applications! I suddenly knew exactly what I was going to do with my homeschool curriculum (which is shaping up to be a lightly structured child-led one). One STEAM class per term in each child's unique interest stream would solve all my guilt and fear about not giving them a quality education... AND... leverage money, time, learning, learning values and more! For my purposes, when choosing paid classes for my kids to relieve my homeschooling budget, and to make sure we were getting as many subjects covered in the one class, I decided to swap out Engineering for ENGLISH... you'd be hard pressed to find an interactive class of any kind that doesn't involved English! STEAM backed up my philosophy that learning should take place in all settings at all times and that some activities or projects were able to be structured to offer learning across multiple domains... like the real world! Most jobs in the world require you to have a handle on your core subjects. I LOVE that the STEAM subjects require integrated learning - this has always made sense to me. Why separate out subjects when the world requires you to use them in a seamless woven interaction? My children are like chalk and cheese. Since taking them out of State School I have been watching their interests, their strengths and challenges, observing the way they move through the world, their passions... and I found the perfect two formal STEAM classes for them! Wilby has begun ROBOTICS with an awesome real-world Robotics Engineer, and Maya is doing FINE ART at the Noosa Regional Gallery with a celebrated artist. Both children are producing actual real life working products whilst covering every core subject required by the Education Department. I've also integrated our own STEAM projects at home using my own work history and knowledge in business. They're learning how to build their own websites and creating a product for a homeschool market in a few months. More about these in other blogs. BOOM! I'm so gratified to know that STEAM subjects are preparing my children, well ahead of the curve, to follow their passions, be capable and intelligent individuals with a skill set to die for! And they don't have to wait until leaving school to do it! --- For more info, download this great PDF I found by www.steamedu.com which explains it in detail. Murdoch University in Perth, Australia also has some great research underway which you can explore here. Peace out! Kristy xx
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