# data[].attributes.body
"The US Department of Education reports that the number of STEM/STEAM jobs in the United States will grow by 14% from 2010 to 2020, growth that the BLS terns as “much faster “ than the national average of 5-8 % across all job sectors."

I didn't realize how fast the number of jobs within STEM is growing over the next couple of years. It really shows how important the need for STEAM is in Early childhood education.

# data[].attributes.body
I thought that "A" was an attempt to integrate the Arts back into schools--not for the use of aiding in the lesson plans. I did not know that the intention was to use it for teaching and like showcasing "the artistic and design-related skills and thinking processes to student-learning in STEM".

# data[].attributes.body
I wasn't aware that STEAM attracted more students to the STEM field. STEAM helps make STEM topics more fascinating and not seen as boring "science". It mentions, " low levels of student engagement in STEM", and this is why the arts should be integrated into the curriculum. (STEAM)

# data[].attributes.body
"the most popular college majors are not STEAM related." This quote was surprising because I assumed the most popular college major was business, which can be related to science, art, and math. Also, I have only heard of a need for engineering, not all the aspects of STEAM.

# data[].attributes.body
The ARTS portion of STEM is looked down upon, or may not be as important as the other areas of stem, however, "the arts (including liberal arts, fine arts, music, design-thinking, and language arts) are critical components to innovation, and that the concept is not about giving equal or more time to STEM orarts, but to incorporate, where appropriate, the artistic and design-related skills and thinking processes to student-learning in STEM."

# data[].attributes.body
"According to the latest STEM Index (U.S News and World Report), the racial and gender gaps are actually widening for science and math" (Why the “A” in STEAM Education is Just As Important As Every Other Letter)
I didn't know that the racial and gender gaps for science and math are widening. This means that STEAM should be focused on in more areas in order to close this gap and create equal learning for all students.

# data[].attributes.body
I appreciate the creation of STEAM because as the article "

Why the “A” in STEAM Education is Just As Important As Every Other Letter" mentions many schools started to exclude the arts. I remember when that happened , and many arts related lessons when gotten rid of because, they were seen as frivolous. I like how the article explained arts as creativity and communication, etc. Being creative can be interwoven into STEM.

# data[].attributes.body
"According to the latest STEM Index (U.S News and World Report), the racial and gender gaps are actually widening for science and math. STEM programs simply aren’t doing enough to attract and retain students of color or female learners."
This fact stood out to me because it completely made sense, but I never realized it was a reality. I have always considered myself as an artsy student but never someone who was more interested in Math and Science. I think this is something that is relatable for a lot of females, they have a tendency to turn away from STEM subjects because their focus or interests are more in arts. But luckily schools are realizing this and hopefully this change will allow more females to expand their interests and find something new that they are just as good at.

# data[].attributes.body
I was unaware that jobs in the STEM field are increasing at a drastic rate. I also did not consider that the arts help students to learn how to observe and think about a concept deeply. The arts also help students to grasp spatial concepts that are important for understanding math and science concepts.

# data[].attributes.body
While I was already aware what the acronyms STEM and STEAM stood for, I didn't know to what extent the "a" could be applied.  Since the "a" refers to the subject of arts, I always assumed using drawing, painting and other artistic activities to be the way we incorporate STEM into the classroom.  However, art is about more than this.  It also encompasses liberal arts, fine arts, music, design-thinking, and language arts (Why the "A"� in STEAM Education is Just As Important As Every Other Letter).  Overall, the "a"  should be about using our creativity to express ourselves in the classroom when handling the other subjects of STEAM

# data[].attributes.body
As I finished the first article

"Why the “A” in STEAM Education is Just As Important As Every Other Letter", I noticed this final statement: "Finally, we need to make STEAM study engaging, relevant, and connected to the real world. Not just to make it interesting, but because STEAM really is real-world learning. Now… what about the new argument for adding an “R” (for reading) to STEAM? STREAM, anyone?". STEAM studying is extremely important to the real world, but I agree with the author that some sort of writing and/or language arts should be included. I think that the world is changing and that we should keep up with the times, but I worry that we sometimes focus more on technology and less on other subjects. I think that the idea of "STREAM" is a great concept to include all areas of study.

# data[].attributes.body
While I understood how important STEM/STEAM is in the United States, I did not know the merits of it. One fact I did not know is that STEM/STEAM jobs are in such high demand that the federal government is permitting foreign students that are earning degrees in STEM/STEAM to extend for visa so they are able to stay in the states for 3 years with the requirement that they are "on the job training"