STEAM Education

This book looks at the value of integrating the arts and sciences in the school curriculum. It argues that this will help students further their understanding of analytical concepts through the use of creativity. The authors illustrate how schools can work towards presenting common practices, concepts, and content. Coverage features case studies and lessons learned from classrooms across the United States.

The notion of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) is an emerging discipline unique in its desire to provide a well-rounded approach to education. The chapters of this volume examine STEAM in a variety of settings, from kindergarten to higher education. Readers will learn about the practical considerations involved when introducing the arts and creativity into traditionally left brain processes. This includes best practices for creating and sustaining successful STEAM initiatives in any school, college, or university. For instance, one chapter discusses novel approaches to teach writing with the scientific method in order to help students better present their ideas.

The authors also detail how the arts can engage more diverse learners, including students who are not traditionally interested in STEM subjects. They provide three concrete examples of classroom-tested inquiries: designing a prosthetic arm for a child, making a paleontology investigation, and taking a closer look at the arts within roller coaster engineering.  This book is an invaluable resource for teachers and teacher trainers, university faculty, researchers, and school administrators. It will also be of interest to science, mathematics, engineering, computer science, information technology, arts and design and technology teachers.

• STEAM-based experiences
• STEAM initiatives
• digital humanities
• sociocultural capabilities
• scholarly thought
• engineering design process
• science education
• Arts Integration
• arts education
• STEM
• STEM education
• Design Thinking
• STEAM curriculum
• future education
• creativity in education
• instructional design
• teacher education
• transdisciplinary education
• multidisciplinary education

• Emirates College for Advanced Education, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

  Myint Swe Khine, Shaljan Areepattamannil

Dr Myint Swe Khine is a Professor and Chair of Assessment and Evaluation Centre, Emirates College for Advanced Education, United Arab Emirates and Adjunct Professor at the Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Curtin University, Perth, Australia. He obtained Master degrees from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA and University of Surrey, Guildford, UK, and Doctor of Science Education from Curtin University, Australia. Before joining ECAE, he worked at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He has published widely and edited books on science education. Recent book Visual-spatial Ability in STEM Education: Transforming Research into Practice (2017) is published by Springer in Switzerland.

Dr Shaljan Areepattamannil holds a Ph.D. in Education from Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Curriculum and Instructional Technology at Abu Dhabi Government’s Emirates College for Advanced Education (ECAE). Prior to joining ECAE, Dr Shaljan was a research scientist in the Office of Education Research and an Assistant Professor in the Division of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Previously, he served as a teaching fellow in quantitative methods in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University. His research interests primarily revolve around the role of psychology in STEAM education.

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