High-Quality Trade Books and Content Areas

Integrating high-quality children's tradebooks into elementary content areas has long been considered a best-practice (Olness, 2007). When teachers choose to incorporate these texts into content area lessons, they are exposing students to art through the pictures and reaching an array of visual learners. Hoffman, Collins and Schickedanz (2015) state that teachers have difficulty discussing the concepts presented in the books. The goal is to strike a balance between the literacy skills and strategies needed to read the informational text, and the concepts that must be discussed (Hoffman, Collins & Schickedanz, 2015). In order to increase students' understanding, teachers must be able to successfully merge their book selection with a carefully scaffolded lesson plan (Fisher & Frey, 2015). This chapter presents a lesson plan template that assists teachers in planning for integrated instruction.

Musing on Unanswered Questions

Out of a conversation between two long-time colleagues—each a science educator and practicing artist, emerged the question, “What does it mean to STEAMify a lesson, and why would a teacher actually choose to do such a thing, other than, say, for-grant-writing-purposes? Their science selves really liked the idea of a STEAM system, acted upon by forces, both from the outside and from within, and with energy flowing and cycling, all the while transforming grey matter in ways that sustained the teaching/learning process. When it came to their art, however, their dialogue followed pathways grooved by long years of practice and hard work in their respective fields. One author is a seasoned vocalist, trained in the nuances of both individual and group vocal performance as well as the attendant dimensions of music, its composition and phraseology. The other is a painter, poet, and novelist, shaping words, color, and line to tell stories and communicate ideas. What was significant to each was that their artistic habits of mind had shaped their axiology, transforming their ways teaching.

Cases on STEAM Education in Practice

This chapter will reflect on the other chapters within the text and have multiple examples of how to differentiate STEAM lessons. Issues that arise such as professional development around differentiated instruction, the time it takes to differentiate (amount of planning), lack of classroom time to complete projects, and lack of support or collaboration with the special education teacher are discussed.

Engineering and Art

This chapter per the author discusses challenges faced by first year pre-engineering students. Also discussed are several topics taught within the curriculum including: the engineering design process, sketching, measurement, the elements and principles of design, and three-dimensional modeling. The chapter proposes a design project for engineering students that would tie all of these concepts together to provide an additional learning opportunity for students and more relevant practice of skills like isometric sketching, creating three-dimensional computer-aided design models, and measurement. Samples of student work from the project are included.

Constructing a Marshmallow Catapult

This case will present a project-based scenario where students will take the place of an astronaut stranded on Mars. Like the character in the Disney film The Martian, the astronaut only has a small collection of “spare parts” at his disposal to ensure survival. In this scenario, our astronauts meet predators and in an effort to fend them off, they must design and construct a catapult. During this deep dive process the astronauts working in groups of four, will take an inventory of spare parts available, design and draw a plan for building, build the catapult, test the catapult, and then go through a series of revisions, retesting and sharing their redesigns.

A Mathematical Approach to Designing Insulators

How do we keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold? Companies such as Tervis, YETI, and Thermos spend their time researching and designing products around that very question. In this lesson, students will discover, through mathematical modeling, which materials provide the best insulation and be tasked with designing their own insulator. This lesson has been designed at two different levels for students from grade three through high school with an optional extension activity for more advanced students. Students will use technology to explore the rate of change of the temperature of hot water over two minutes using different insulation materials. After this exploration, students will use the data they have collected to determine the best materials for designing their own insulator. This insulator will then be judged based on the ability to keep a hot drink hot and on the aesthetic value.

Bee Pollination

The purpose of the chapter is to provide an exemplar of an inquiry-based unit on pollination for designing and implementing constructivist instructional practices while simultaneously providing outstanding teacher preparation. The unit on pollination was developed by preservice teachers through a partnership between the Monmouth Conservation Foundation and the Monmouth University School of Education. Through collective action, these institutions were able to enhance student learning on a vital part of the science curriculum, provide a rich clinical experience for pre-service teachers, and to familiarize teachers with a more constructivist approach to pre-school science instruction.

Exploring Simple Machines With Creative Movement

This chapter explores the use of creative movement to extend meaning to inquiry-based science investigations. This process embraces the addition of A to STEM to realize the impact of STEAM. The chapter builds on the import of scientific and physical literacy, interdisciplinary learning, and the power of kinesthetic engagement. Students become active collaborative agents within a dynamic model using creative movement to bring meaning to the science of simple machines. We utilize a Working Words into Movement strategy to help students use their past experiences and motor memory to explore, interpret, and engage with as they seek understanding of simple machines. A Midwest urban elementary school provides the context for a unit plan culminating in a dance performance. The foundational ideas presented within this unit can be enacted within any classroom by creative movement (physical education or dance) specialists, science specialists, or classroom generalists. It follows with a presentation of science content on simple machines exploring the disciplinary core idea of force and motion.

Graphic Novels and STEAM

Focusing on the interdisciplinary connections between STEAM education and graphic novels, this chapter first establishes historical and educational contexts for the use of graphic novels in STEAM education. A literature review focusing on the use of graphic novels in a science course as well as how graphic novels have been used in secondary classrooms will be discussed. Literature that is reviewed includes books, articles, and edited volumes. The strategies for implementing graphic novels in STEAM education promote constructivist learning as students are asked to access their intellectual and cultural capital in order to ascertain meaning from given content. Additionally, multimodality and multiliteracies are highlighted throughout the article. Finally, this chapter ends with linking the use of graphic novels in STEAM education to the power of narrative inquiry in educational contexts.

Using Air to Move Paper Airplanes and Balloon Rockets

This is a case in which students build paper airplanes from templates provided by the instructor as well as those which they design themselves. They extend their ideas on flight by using the principles developed in the paper airplane race to power simulated rockets made out of balloons. They consider such variables as materials, mass and design to see which combination of material design and mass are most effective in constructing an airplane or a rocket that flies the fastest and the furthest in a competition. Contestants are rated on team consideration of variables needing to be controlled in order to have a fair assessment of the designs. When the designs are agreed upon and constructed, a race is conducted. The ideas developed in the paper airplane competition are then used to design a rocket carrying a paper airplane capable of flying across the classroom in the fastest time with the most direct route. This is a simulation of the space shuttle flights. The parameters of the races are developed by the participants.