What is STEAM Eductaion?

What is integrative STEM (I-STEM)

An integrative STEM (I-STEM) educational approach provides an engaged, student-centered setting by which educators choose an engineering task grounded in a real-world scenario and pull core content from multiple disciplines to develop challenges for student learning. The goal is to provide students with design opportunities, using engineering design techniques as the driving force tolink science and mathematical concepts to real world scenarios, using and producing technologies with multiple potential solutions (Purzer & Quintana-Cifuentes, 2019). There are multiple approaches to integrated STEM education, all of which allow for a deep dive into content areas promoting critical thinking and problem-solving skills. “The kinds of real-world problems that students are asked to solve invite both learning and applying concepts from multiple STEM disciplines” (Committee on Educator Capacity Building in K-12 Engineering Education et al., 2020, p.57).

Dr. Ashley Gess states I-STEM is "an approach to teaching where the teacher intentionally plans for students to apply the content and practices of Mathematics
and Science through the engineering design process with outcomes in either engineering or engineering technologies" (Gess, Personal Communication, October 30, 2024).

What is integrative STEAM (I-STEAM)

Integrative STEAM (I-STEAM) is meant to enhance STEAM education by intentionally presenting the content and practices of mathematics and science in the context of technology, engineering, and artistic design. (Gess, 2015).

STEM & STEAM Practices and Principals

STEM and STEAM: What's the Difference?

STEM - The term STEM refers to the four separate and distinct content areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. According to the National Science Foundation (NSF) the purpose of STEM education is "to achieve excellence in U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education at all levels and in all settings (both formal and informal) in order to support the development of a diverse and well-prepared workforce of scientists, technicians, engineers, mathematicians and educators and a well-informed citizenry that have access to the ideas and tools of science and engineering. The purpose of these activities is to enhance the quality of life of all citizens and the health, prosperity, welfare and security of the nation (NSF, 2024, Razi & Zhou, 2022). The NSF further identified 4 goals of STEM Education. In a nutshell, STEM focuses on hard skills to produce STEM-literate citizens.

STEAM - The STEAM approach uses 2 or more content areas that promote student creativity, collaboration, and collective being through “transdisciplinary consciousness and conscience” (Belbase et al., 2021, p.2920). To develop leaders, innovators, scientists, engineers, educators, and entrepreneurs, the use of a STEAM approach teaches students to take risks while engaged in experiential learning and developing problem-solving skills. Creating an “understanding of the arts and other STEM fields with both emotional appeal and cognitive feel” (Belbase et. al, 2021, p. 2935) is a critical factor in providing a STEAM education that is integrative, intentional, anchored in design and includes the arts as an equal (Gess, 2017).

STEAM vs. I-STEAM

What's the difference?

STEAM refers to the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics in education, while integrative STEAM (I-STEAM) emphasizes an intentional, integrative, design-based approach that requires the arts be used to create a solution (Gess, 2017, Razi & Zhou, 2022).

The term integration versus integrative is key to understanding the difference in approaches. The -ive ending is indicitative of the need for students to be actively involved in creating meaning.

Page References

About EDU | NSF - National Science Foundation. Retrieved November 4, 2024, from https://www.nsf.gov/edu/about.jsp#:~:text=The%20mission%20of%20EDU%20is,%2C%20technicians%2C%20engineers%2C%20mathematicians%20and

Belbase, S., Mainali, B. R., Kasemsukpipat, W., Tairab, H., Gochoo, M., & Jarrah, A. (2022).

At the dawn of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM)

education: prospects, priorities, processes, and problems. International Journal of

Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 53(11), 2919–2955.

https://doi.org/10.1080/0020739X.2021.1922943

Committee on Educator Capacity Building in K-12 Engineering Education, Board on Science Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Academy of Engineering, & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2020). Building Capacity for Teaching Engineering in K-12 Education. National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25612

Gess, A. (2017). STEAM education: Separating fact from fiction. Technology and Engineering Teacher, 77(3), 39-41.

Gess, A. (2024) . The design process: optional synchronous session #2. In A. Gess (2024)

EDTE 751: STEAM instructional design optional synchronous session #2 (pp. 2). Univresity of South Carolina.

Purzer, S., & Quintana-Cifuentes, J. P. (2019). Integrating engineering in K-12 science education: Spelling out the pedagogical, epistemological, and methodological arguments. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research, 1(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43031-019-0010-0

Razi, A., & Zhou, G. (2022). STEM, iSTEM, and STEAM: What is next? International Journal of Technology in Education, 5(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.46328/ijte.119