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As a dual language teacher, I have to teach all the core subjects in two languages. The one element that I love the most about this program is that every student in my classroom is a second language learner at some point of every school day. This allows for each student to be dominant in their own language and be a peer mentor to his or her classmates who are learning a second language.
The pacing I have to have in order to stay at the same pace as my grade level colleagues, is rigorous to say the least. As a result I don't really have much time to integrate the fine arts into my curriculum. I use songs often to help students learn and remember different concepts but that is the extent of it.
The A in STEAM to me, means really the fine arts because language arts is something we do every day, all day long. When I think of the A in STEAM, I think of the creative process to produce or build models, or to have a creative experience like making music or creating a piece of art. In order for me to do that, I would have to be knowledgeable of the learning standards for arts and music. This is the part that makes me very uncomfortable about the A in STEAM.

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A stands for the Arts in STEAM. It was added to the core STEM subjects as creativity is an integral part in the way scientists, mathematicians, engineers and technology developers, problem solve and innovate. Some might argue that the Arts is the most important feature of the STEAM framework as it facilitates the integration of all of its components. The skills students develop through the arts are in high demand as they include critical thinking and creative problem solving skills.

The Arts in STEAM refer to the different areas of the arts which include:
Fine Arts - with a focus on aesthetics
Language Arts - for communication skills
Physical Arts - such as dance and sports
Manual Arts - physical skills and the manipulation of objects, including architecture and landscape design.
Liberal Arts - academic subjects that include philosophy, ethics, civics, sociology and history, among others.

Language Arts are another important feature of the STEAM framework as they develop communication skills that are instrumental to the development of our students.

With the addition of the Arts as part of STEAM, the student personality and individuality is at the core of the STEAM framework. STEAM is people-centric rather than subject-centric, according to viewsonic.com. STEAM allows students to become better and stronger scientists and engineers, by learning how to think and problem-solve creatively.

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I used to be very uncomfortable with the T for Technology in STEAM. However, after the COVID shutdown that forced us to re-invent the way in which we teach, I am no longer that uncomfortable or scared of Technology. I feel that I can learn whatever platform I have to work with.
As a classroom teacher in the primary world, I have to teach all subjects except for the special areas of Music, Art, and Physical Education. Incorporating the Arts related to the Fine Arts, Physical Arts and Manual Arts into my current first grade, Dual Language classroom is what I am most uncomfortable about the STEAM framework.
While Language Arts and Liberal Arts are part of the Arts in STEAM and I teach my students to communicate in two languages, it is the Fine, Physical and Manual Arts that I mostly associate with the A in STEAM. These are the Arts that I don't feel comfortable or knowledgeable enough to incorporate into my classroom as part of a STEAM approach.
This is the reason I selected the "A" in STEAM.

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Quote by Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple:

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Quote by Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple:

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“It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough – that it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our hearts sing.”

I found this quote inspiring and included it in my Padlet because it comes from Steve jobs, who was extremely successful in the technology field. While he built the biggest technology company in our country, he also recognized the importance of the role the arts and humanities play within technology.

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How I can incorporate the Arts into a science unit, example 1:

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How I can incorporate the Arts into a science unit, example 1:

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I can incorporate the Language Arts to our Science unit Our sun and Night Sky. There are some lessons that focus on the constellations and the stories human have created around the groups of stars.
One idea I have for incorporating the STEAM approach to this lesson is to have students create their own constellations. For this part of the activity they will make their own constellation shape using star stickers on dark blue construction paper. They will name their constellation and create a story around their constellation character. For this writing portion, we can focus on the story elements we have been studying as part of our ELA curriculum:
Character(s)
Setting
Plot with beginning, middle and end
Students can then publish their stories and we can have an author's celebration as a culminating event to this lesson.

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How I can incorporate the Arts into a science unit, example 2:

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How I can incorporate the Arts into a science unit, example 2:

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I can incorporate the performing arts (Fine Arts) to our Science unit Light, Sound and Energy. This unit includes a few lessons on sound energy.
One idea I have for incorporating the STEAM approach to this lesson is to have students create their own musical instruments. I would provide different materials in the MakerSpace for them to plan, design and build a variety of instruments such as pan flutes and harmonicas that can produce different tones and notes, as well as a variety of percussion instruments for rhythm. Once the students create their instruments, I would collaborate with our music teacher to have them work on creating a song they can perform together as a musical group.

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How I can incorporate the Arts into a science unit, example 3:

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How I can incorporate the Arts into a science unit, example 3:

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I can incorporate the Manual Arts into our Science unit Our Sun and Night Sky, on lessons that focus on the phases of the moon.
For these lessons, one idea I have for incorporating the STEAM approach to this lesson, is for students to plan, design and create models of the Lunar cycle. Student would have to demonstrate their understanding of the fact that the Moon does not change shape, but the part we are able to see is what changes because of the Moons position in relation to the Earth. For this activity, students would work in the MakerSpace with a variety of materials for them create, design and build their models. Students can share their models and talk about the process the followed to create them on a FlipGrid video.

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Example 1 of how others are incorporating A into science

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Example 1 of how others are incorporating A into science

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I found these beautiful and artistic ideas for our Light, Sound and Communication unit which has a focus on the energy we get from the Sun. I particularly liked idea 5 on the link. In this project, students collect leaves and flowers to create a collage. They cover the surface of their leaves an flowers on fabric paint as they place each on their collage. Then they let their work sit in the sun for a few hours until the paint dries. While drying under the sun, the leaves and flowers absorb the wet pigment and leave an imprint of their shapes on the fabric.

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Circuit Bugs are one of our most popular original STEM activities here at STEAM Powered Family. We love how people all over the world have been building these adorable little bugs! So we figured it was time to build on our love of Circuit Bugs and create a new STEM activity - Circuit Flowers!

Circuit Flowers STEAM Activity
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links
When I created the Circuit Bug activity I wanted to develop a fun STEM twist on the typical crafting type projects. After my first little creation came to life, I was smitten. They were so darn cute! And my craft avoiding kids were actually excited to build and create. It was such a win, I couldn't wait to share it with the all my readers.

MY LATEST VIDEOS

And you loved Circuit Bugs as much as we do! Circuit Bugs continues to be a very popular activity in homes, schools and public programs. It is exciting to hear from people around the world that are loving our STEM bugs. Seeing your creations is always a highlight! So make sure you tag us on your builds on social media or linking to us here.

Since creating Circuit Bugs, we have also created Circuit-trees, Potato Circuits, Squishy Circuits, an Olympic Torch Circuit, plus we love our Creation Crate builds.

With all the circuit building love, we figured it was time to revisit our circuits and come up with something new for our readers to build. Since it is still crazy cold here, we are dreaming about spring and the arrival of flowers! It may still be months away until we get real flowers, but we can bring some flowers to life with a simple circuit building activity.

What You Need To Build Circuit Flowers

Since we have a circuit tinker center, it was easy to gather up everything we needed.

Coffee filters
Washable markers
Plates
Water
Water dropper or syringe
LEDs
Wire
Clothespin
CR2032 coin battery
Scissors
Electrical tape (green)
Mini solo cup or mini clay pot
Pipecleaners

HOW TO BUILD CIRCUIT FLOWERS

Building Circuit Flowers is actually slightly easier than Circuit Bugs. If you have a younger group, or students that are struggling with fine motor, this might be an easier build for them. The flowers might also appeal to girls more, and we are always trying to get more girls interested in STEM!

Chromatography Science To Create Art

This activity definitely falls into a full STEAM activity. The first step is to make your beautifully coloured papers using a technique called chromatography. This process works the best if you use secondary and tertiary colours, as they will separate as they spread, creating gorgeous patterns on your paper.

Start by flattening a coffee filter on a plate or other easy to clean surface. Using a washable marker draw a thick lined circle about half way between the middle and edge. You can use one colour, alternate colours, or even create a few circles (leave a wide space in between). There are no rules, except to ensure lots of white space is left to allow spreading of the colours.

Now add about a teaspoon of water to the middle of the coffee filter. As the water moves through the paper it will spread the colours out, and depending on your colours, may cause them to separate. You should end up with a beautiful water coloured papers.

Let dry completely.

Circuit Time - From Bugs to Flowers

If you have made our Circuit Bugs, you should be familiar with the process in building out our circuit.

First step - we always test the LED! The last thing you want to do is build your flower only to discover your LED doesn't work. Simply slip your coin battery between the legs of the LED. If it doesn't work, turn the battery around. If it still doesn't work you need a different LED.

Cut your wires and strip the ends. You need two wires, approximately 8 inches in length. Strip about half an inch from each end to expose the wire. These are your contact points with your battery and LED.

Take your coffee filter paper and grab it in the middle, roll and bunch it to gather it up and form your flower. You should have a small "stalk".

Push the legs of the LED bulb through the paper just off to the side of the stalk in your paper.

Now wrap one wire tightly around the first leg. Repeat with the other wire around the second leg.

Slide the legs of the LED onto the end of your clothespin, so one leg is on each side. Tape into place. Now tape your stalk to the other clothespin end. This is to help secure everything.

Wrap the wires around your clothespin, then separate the wires, and wrap them individually around each side as you get down to the clamping end of your clothespin. You want to end your wrap with the stripped part of your wire on the inside of the clothespin.

Now slide your battery into the clothespin so it makes contact with the wires. If it doesn't work, turn your battery around.

Your Flower Has Come To Life!

Finishing Your Circuit Flower

You can wrap the clothespin with green pipecleaners to finish it off so it looks nice. We found these adorable miniature red solo cups that made the perfect pots for our bouquets. You could also use real, miniature, clay pots.

To turn on your flowers, simply open the clothespin and insert the battery. To turn them off, remove the battery. Do not leave turned on for long periods of time. With a little care, your circuit creations can last a long time. My Circuit Bugs still light up even years after first creating them!

Even without the lights this bouquet is so beautiful!

But then turn on the lights and WOW!

Circuit Flowers are fantastic for Mother's Day, Spring STEM, a botanical unit study, girls in STEM and more. Happy circuit building!

THIS ACTIVITY IS PART OF THE 28 DAYS OF STEM AND STEAM ACTIVITIES PROMOTION. CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO FIND LOTS OF INSPIRING ACTIVITIES FOR YOUR CLASSROOM!

MORE FROM STEAM POWERED FAMILY

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How To Build A Circuit Flower - Circuits For Kids

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With the popularity of our Circuit Bugs STEM Activity it was time to come up with something new, something with a little extra art. Introducing Circuit Flowers! Explore chromatography, diffusion, engineering and circuit building with this hands on STEAM activity. Great for mothers' day, spring, girls in STEM, and more!

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Example 2 of how others are incorporating A into science

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Example 2 of how others are incorporating A into science

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One of the most popular ways to incorporate the Arts into a STEAM activity is by creating models. In this link I found a variety of STEAM projects that focus on space project. A few focus on models that represent the Lunar cycle and the phases of the moon.

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The moon is a fascinating subject for kids. Most kids love thinking about what the moon is like and why it changes shape throughout the month. Capture the natural curiosity of kids with these moon STEM activities!

This complete moon thematic unit focuses on activities for science, STEM, literacy, math, books about the moon, and moon crafts for kids. Kids will love completing the activities in this moon theme as well as the other STEM thematic units we have.

The activities in this moon STEM theme are designed for kids in elementary school, but many of the activities can also be modified for use in preschool or even at the toddler level. And some of the more advanced moon STEM projects can be adapted for middle school.

Kids will love learning about the moon with these hands-on projects and crafts!

Moon STEM Activities for Kids

Try these ideas to create a complete moon theme in your classroom, homeschool, daycare, or at home for fun!

Moon STEM Engineering Projects

These moon STEM challenges focus on the engineering and technology side of moon science.
Build a lunar buggy Moon lander STEM challenge Make a solar eclipse
Moon Experiments for Kids

Kids will love these moon science experiments.

How Moon Craters are Formed

Clay Moon Craters

How the Moon Gives Light
Moon rock experiment Fizzing moon rocks
Moon Phases STEM Activities

These moon STEM activities are all about moon phases.

Phases of the Moon Viewer

Phases of the Moon Journal
Glow in the Dark Moon Phases Mobile
Moon Math Projects

These moon math projects bring the math part of STEM to life for kids!

Moon Crater Math

Moon Math Game
Astronaut 10-Frames
Moon Crater Counting

Moon Crafts for Kids

Kids will love making these science moon crafts!

Puffy Paint Moon
DIY Moon Sand 3D Styrofoam Moon Sparkling Moon Dough
Glow in the Dark Moon Phases Mobile

Aluminum Foil Moon

Books About the Moon

These are some of our favorite books for learning about the moon.

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Moon STEM Activities to Learn About the Moon

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The moon is a fascinating subject for kids. Most kids love thinking about what the moon is like and why it changes shape throughout the month. Capture the natural curiosity of kids with these moon STEM activities! This complete moon thematic unit focuses on activities for science, STEM, literacy, math, books about the moon, and moon crafts for kids.

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The arts in STEAM education is arguably the most significant feature of the framework. STEAM education, as a concept, emerged from the existing STEM initiative, which was originally designed to emphasize the academic subjects that teach the most important life skills, while also encouraging more integrated lessons. The key difference between STEM and STEAM education is that the latter recognizes the importance of the arts, whereas the former did not. Read on to learn more about why the arts are so vital to a rounded education or visit our education solutions page for more insights into improving student outcomes.
The idea behind STEAM education is to place a focus on five key areas - science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics - while also encouraging the teaching of those fields to be more engaging and integrated. The idea grew out of a concept known as STEM education, with the key difference being the inclusion of the 'A' for the arts.

In truth, as we will cover in the next section, the arts is actually a major addition to this concept, because it is a broad field, which includes a wide range of different subjects. In this article, we will explain in more detail what the arts is, the importance of the arts, and how it can be viewed within a STEAM context.

What is the Arts?

The arts is a collective term, which is used to describe a range of different subject areas that are broadly considered to be artistic or otherwise creative in their nature. When the STEAM concept was originally created, the arts were divided into a number of sub-categories by Georgette Yakman, and these can be briefly summarized as follows:

Fine Arts - The areas that are commonly covered by traditional art classes and based primarily on aesthetics, with examples including drawing, painting, sculpting, and photography.

Language Arts - Arts that revolve around the use of language and which are concerned with communication, with some key examples including English, foreign languages, sign language, and creative writing.

Physical Arts - Subjects and topics focused on physical activity, such as dance and sport.

Manual Arts - Art-based subjects that are centered around physical skills and the manipulation of objects, with some of the main examples including architecture and landscape design.

Liberal Arts - The broadest of the five sub-categories, covering some of the more typically academic subjects, with examples like philosophy, ethics, sociology, history, politics, civics, and theology.

The Importance of the Arts

It is worth taking the time to understand the importance of the arts in providing students with a rounded education. The subjects contained within this field are able to teach people the value of creativity, innovation, communication, and contemplation. In addition, the arts can help to provide individuals with a greater appreciation for culture.

The skills developed through the arts are often in high demand within the workforce, where creative solutions to problems may be needed and where different perspectives can be useful. The language arts are also vital for communication and, in the case of things like sign language, can help to provide people with greater accessibility.

In many fields, artistry can be the difference between standing out from competitors or not, and this means those with skills in this area can be enormously beneficial for businesses and other organizations. Ingenuity is also needed across the board, and the skills and confidence to come up with ingenious ideas are often developed through the arts.

The Arts in STEAM Education

While the importance of the arts is clear, one of the big focuses of STEAM education is to facilitate integration. A good way to view this is via a quote from the late CEO and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, who said the following:
"It is in Apple's DNA that technology alone is not enough - that it's technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our hearts sing."
This quote essentially explains STEAM in action. Photography is another good example of an area where the arts clearly crosses over with the field of technology. After all, modern photography relies not only on a camera for capturing the images but also often on a computer and the right monitor for photo editing purposes. Much of photography is also concerned with images of the natural world, and this has a potential link to science and, in particular, biology.

Meanwhile, the manual arts are all about manipulating objects, and this has obvious cross-over potential with engineering, while lessons focused on technical drawing are a good way to combine the arts with mathematics. Once the links between the STEAM fields are understood, teaching in a more integrated way becomes much easier.

Final Thoughts

STEAM education highlights the arts as one of its five fields and its inclusion is important. After all, the arts can help learners to develop the kind of creativity, ingenuity, communication, and performance skills that will assist them throughout their education, but also with employment opportunities too.

As a field, the arts is extremely broad and diverse, covering everything from painting and photography to dance, history, and architecture. This does, however, help teachers looking to integrate elements of the arts into their lessons.

In this series on STEAM education, we have now covered an introduction to the STEAM framework as well as the importance of science, technology, engineering, and the arts. Please feel free to also visit the ViewSonic education solutions page to read more about creating engaging lessons.

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The Importance of The Arts in STEAM Education - ViewSonic Library

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The arts in STEAM education is arguably the most significant feature of the framework. STEAM education, as a concept, emerged from the existing STEM initiative, which was originally designed to emphasize the academic subjects that teach the most important life skills, while also encouraging more integrated lessons.

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On Wednesday, June 17, Future Tense-a partnership of , New America, and Arizona State University-will host an evening event in Washington, D.C., on designing the 21st century. For more information and to RSVP, visit the New America website.
Imagine a high school dance class in session. You might envision an open studio, pupils all in a row, lined up to practice their pliés and jetés at the command of their instructor. Not so much at Boston Arts Academy, where art is "central to learning." For one class project, a BAA dance student prototypes her own " electroluminescent costume," which uses electrical currents to light up the fabric. She creates the costume from sketch to reality, complete with working circuits, and all with the help of the school's modeling software and a 3-D printer.

That's STEAM in action. "STEAM" takes the standard STEM formulation (science, technology, engineering, and math) and adds an A for arts. And, well, it seems to be gaining steam. In May alone, 27 school districts and programs in Pennsylvania were awarded $530,000 specifically for the development of STEAM programs and facilities, and VH1's Save the Music Foundation held a high-profile event to promote STEAM.

As STEAM has become increasingly prominent, some have argued that the general addition of an "arts" component distracts from the focus on the hard sciences. Lloyd M. Bentsen IV, a researcher with National Center for Policy Analysis, says STEM already suffers from a major problem with student engagement, and the focus on changing STEM to STEAM would distract from the issue.

Others argue that there needs to be separation between the arts and sciences to prevent anything taking away from the focus on STEM education. This perspective is fueled in part by the fear that the United States is falling behind in the STEM fields- government and private money is being poured into grants, scholarships, and job placement programs specifically tailored to STEM engagement and placing students in STEM careers in the U.S. (Some recent reports suggest that the ratio of STEM grads to STEM jobs is actually not a huge problem-there are other issues at play.)

But the STEAM movement isn't about spending 20 percent less time on science, technology, engineering, and math to make room for art. It's about sparking students' imagination and helping students innovate through hands-on STEM projects. And perhaps most importantly, it's about applying creative thinking and design skills to these STEM projects so that students can imagine a variety of ways to use STEM skills into adulthood.

As an A student with a love of drawing and crafting, I spent my K-12 years being told art was a nice hobby. Art skills had nothing to do with science or math success, and engineering was something you went into only if you did well in math and science first. Succeeding in STEM subjects, which weren't called STEM at that point, seemed more important. When I was in high school in D.C., there was never much choice between taking studio art and calculus-if you were clever, you took the latter, knowing that anything with art in the title was sure to be useless to your career and college aspirations. "Design" was never an offered subject, much less a subtopic for discussion, and I never considered it as a career path, because I had no idea it was a career path.

It wasn't until after college, when I found myself creatively dissatisfied and wondering why I majored in economics, that I came upon a continuing education class called Product Design. That class experience was something totally novel to me. Every class meeting was about problem solving, collaborating, and generating ideas. It was about using a variety of skills and subjects to invent products. We used math without thinking about the numbers, from scaling to modeling products to meticulously drafting prototypes with precise angles and measurements. " Design thinking " became my way of approaching everything that year-I couldn't go to happy hour without asking my friends what they thought went into creating the bar stools they sat upon. I was, in short, a little insufferable. I became fascinated with that way of seeing the world, of owning a creative process while using technical skills. The notion of using a design process stuck with me as I segued into math teaching and tutoring, in which I began designing curriculums for students with different learning issues. Taking that first design class led me to not only teach better, but eventually pursue education as a career.

Arguing that the arts and science should and could remain totally separate misses the point. This is not about cultivating more artists or diluting STEM-it's about creating STEM students who think creatively and remain engaged in their learning. True, not everyone will want to or should go into STEM, but the point is to reach those who would contribute in STEM fields but may be turned off by a difficult math class, a boring biology teacher, or not seeing people like them represented in those fields. How many potential scientists are we missing because we continue to push the same STEM curriculum even as money pours in from STEM grants? How many who aren't part of the "priesthood" of scientists still deserve to be given another chance to be successful in STEM?

STEAM critics are right in a way-there is a major student engagement problem. But it is mostly in terms of diversity in the STEM fields. This is the very problem being addressed by STEAM. Anne Jolly argues in Education Week that STEAM uses the arts as an "on-ramp to STEM for underrepresented students." STEAM uses design methods to approach STEM subjects creatively and make them real-world-relevant to all students, not just those already interested.

Schools are catching on. At STEAM labs like the one at the Boston Arts Academy, students and teachers are wholeheartedly embracing the marriage of arts and STEM, and not just in dance seminars. The BAA lab is essentially a "fab lab," MIT jargon for a makerspace, which is itself jargon for a community-centered hot spot with digital fabrication capabilities such as 3-D printing. Students there learn everything from basic electrical engineering to industrial design and architecture skills, ultimately becoming designers of their own impressively high-tech finished products. They not only design and produce electronic textiles, they draft, model, and print 3-D product prototypes and digitally render visual murals to be shared and experienced via smart TVs, projectors, tablets, and more. Geometry students code with Scratch to produce digital animations and create mathematical lighting plans for staging in a black-box theater. Visual-art students use everything from laser cutters to customized desktop 3-D printers to circuit boards, designing projects " with functionality such as special effects, sensors and other electronics."

As you can see, students learning with STEAM often use 3-D printers and other high-tech "maker" materials that are hardly traditional art supplies. What the movement really does, rather than simply add art, is work on developing high-order design and engineering skills while allowing students to innovate, invent, and succeed on their terms. It forces students to produce original work using STEM but gives them the choice of how to do so and what to produce, which makes all the difference.

Rather than focus on rote memorization or mastery of separate topics, STEAM uses project-based teaching to holistically foster students' skills in creativity, design thinking, tech literacy, collaboration, and problem solving. This sets students up for success in STEM, especially for those who might not seem to be naturally gifted in technical areas.

Ultimately, STEAM is people-centric, not subject-centric; it puts student personality and individuality at the forefront. With STEAM, the pressure is off to become a scientist or engineer-you can be a designer, digital artist, coder, art director, and scientist and engineer all at the same time. STEAM says we can be better engineers by learning how to think artistically, and we can re-engage artists with science by letting them see how STEM can work in the arts. It's infinitely more exciting, especially in an increasingly interdisciplinary and digital world. In STEAM, creativity is the central tenet. It not only revives and modernizes STEM, it actually addresses, through real-world projects, why the STEM subjects should matter to everyone. And that's how we should all be learning.

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Why We Need to Put the Arts Into STEM Education

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On Wednesday, June 17, Future Tense-a partnership of , New America, and Arizona State University-will host an evening event in Washington, D.C., on designing the 21st century. For more information and to RSVP, visit the New America website . Imagine a high school dance class in session.