Before talking about the importance of STEAM education, everyone should know what STEAM actually is? Everyone is familiar with STEM. It is one of the fastest-growing industries in the U.S economy. The acronym STEM comes from combining the initials from Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The whole idea centers around the industries related to these four careers. After STEM succeeded in making rapid economic growth, it gradually became a part of the education structure. STEM education is good, but it lacks something really important; that is why STE(A)M education debuted, adding the element (Art) in the mix.
The whole idea behind STEAM is making a concept that betters the integration of all of these subjects. Take it as Arts and Engineering presents Science and Technology, while Mathematics is a part of all of these subjects. While STEM is a great concept, it is not ideal for being a part of the education framework. STEAM comes with creativity and applications that two years old can practice in their life. That is why, as long as you talk about preparing the future generation, STEAM education is ideal.
Importance of STEAM Education
With the help of STEAM Education, the economy rose as well as the job market. The jobs kept on increasing, and people started following various careers. But all of it didn’t change anything in the education framework. Students who learned the old subjects without any creativity kept developing outdated skills. For small kids going to schools, the STEM in education curriculum is hard to follow because it is not interesting or creative. And that is where the STEAM comes in as it develops an interest in the mind of children. So, they learn with interest, and after they graduate from college, they have the skills needed to be a part of this modern society.
The biggest problem with our old education structure is that it is not adaptive. The world is facing a lot of problems that our education systems don’t even cover. STEAM teaches children how to tackle these problems in the future. If you want to be successful in the current society, you need four major skills. You need to be creative, and you need to be good at problem-solving. You also need to be good at collaborating with others to find the solution, with communication skills to relay your solution to others.
As we all know, the basic purpose of STEAM is to prepare the future generation. It comes with five different subjects to cover up every field of education. When you take five of these subjects together, it makes a creative combo for children to study without getting bored. And with various subjects, they can make any career choice by specializing in any of these subjects. The best part about STEAM is that it makes students practice their full mental potential, that is why when children learn various and creative subjects, they realize their personal strengths and strengthen their weakness through repetitive learning.
Subject Dimensions of STEAM Education
It is better to break it down and discuss the benefits of its five components to know about the benefits of STEAM education.
1. Science
It is the most important part of every education structure. The word science alone covers various subjects like physics, biology, and chemistry. All science subjects are the basis for major careers. If you don’t follow a career related to science, you will still see it playing a big part in what you do. Science is important because it provides evidence and helps students develop complex thinking. So that in the future, after students enter into their professional life, they can find solutions to any problem using logic and evidence. Science also helps understand the relation of other STEAM subjects.
2. Technology
Learning technology is a must for every student. Every type of business and industry uses technology. You don’t find a company without IT support or any business running without data and archives. All of these things fall under the technology subject. The best part about STEAM is that technology works in integration with other subjects to provide a solution. It works with science for cybersecurity. It works with arts for various designs and a lot of great products. It works with mathematics to give a better understanding of data science. NO matter how you look at it, teaching technology is necessary for students.
3. Engineering
When it comes to education, engineering is the prime choice of many students. It is the practical application of all scientific principles. Engineering is all about making products and machines related to science and mathematics. It is perfect for teaching students about the integration between other STEAM subjects. The basic necessities for life such as vehicles, electronics are all the products of engineering. In STEAM, students learn about this amazing subject from a small age. It makes them develop the needed skills to be a good engineer.
4. Arts
Before STEAM, arts were not considered an important part of the education structure. Arts covers a variety of subjects, and many of these subjects were not taken as a professional career in the past. Now arts are showing their importance in various industries as well as in the education framework. It makes anything interesting and creative. Without arts, you can’t get your product in the desired form you want even if you engineer it perfectly. That is why the addition of arts in STEM is the only thing making it possible for students to start learning this concept at a small age.
5. Mathematics
It is the glue that binds all of the other four subjects together. You can see math in science and technology. Engineering is impossible without mathematic applications, while making design in arts without math is a tough challenge. No matter how you look at it, mathematic supports all other subjects. STEAM helps students understand the importance of this subject in life. This particular subject is hard to learn for many students, and that is where the STEAM comes in. It helps students learn the subject with creativity by raising their interest.
Implementing STEAM Education
The concept of STEAM education centers around students learning at a small age. First, let’s talk about STEAM in schools. Many schools are adopting it in their curriculum, and it is not hard to do it. Any teacher can do it with simple guidelines, giving creative projects to the students where they can exercise their minds with interest.
Parents can easily incorporate STEAM education to their children at home. They can use the things their kids do daily to make them learn the basic concepts of STEAM. To do that, parents should equip themselves with STEAM pedagogy, and interpret it to their kids using daily activities or simply through games.
Conclusion
STEAM education is what kids nowadays need to keep up with the advancing society, it teaches major study fields that cover almost every subject. If you want your kids to have an edge in this competitive society, educating them using the correct method while they are young is important. Which is through STEAM Education, your child can learn and acquire 21st Century Competencies with the major subjects and various applications.
If you are interested to find out more on STEAM Education, you can contact us at hello@epc-education.com, or fill up this contact form.
EPC Education is a provider of ENGINEERING PLUS CODING and computational & design thinking programmes for students in Singapore, China, Taiwan and Bangladesh.
Founded in 2014, we have since established ourselves among parents, students, schools and government bodies like MOE and IMDA as providers of CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING especially for the Code For Fun programme and simple coding programmes using tablets.
Our unique and fun EPC STEAM programmes are designed to ensure students enjoy the learning process while picking up ESSENTIAL CODING AND COMPUTATIONAL THINKING SKILLS necessary to harness technology to the fullest using easy to understand practices with links to REAL-WORLD APPLICATIONS.
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