(by Abigail Liu, Communications Coordinator at Mustard Seed School)
How the wild, collaborative idea of three teachers became classroom innovation in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math.
When Fourth Grade teacher Melissa McCallihan described STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) time to me, I couldn’t quite grasp it. As a child I learned in classrooms with desks in straight rows and students arranged alphabetically by last name. Students working in multi-grade groups to explore a subject matter? Moving freely between three classrooms and three teachers? Studying science, technology, engineering, arts, and math all at once?
I visited the Fourth Grade classroom during STEAM to see for myself. A group of three boys worked near the entrance of the classroom. Two of them drew plans on a piece of white poster board, then stopped to discuss the design. Another student balanced a piece of wood over a block, trying to bring the design to life. “What are you doing?” I asked.
“We’re making a contraption that uses a seesaw to make a rock launch a rocket ship. There is going to be confetti coming out.”
“Really?” I said. “Sounds like a lot of fun. Why are they letting you do this in school?”
“We’re building a simple machine that demonstrates one of Newton’s laws. You know, an object in motion stays in motion until acted upon by a force.”
A fourth student returned to the group. He had been across the hall, consulting with the art teacher, Clara Buckley. She helped him identify the materials that he needed and set him up with a C-clamp and a saw. The members of the group stopped what they were doing to revisit their process and design and run some tests.
Future designers and engineers stood before me, and they weren’t just these four boys. They were all of students in the Fourth and Fifth Grade. In three rooms, pockets of multi-grade groups worked together. They sought teachers as experts to provide help, as needed. A group of girls reworked their design on a sandwich-making machine. Another group invented a contraption that included a windmill to show that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The room buzzed with focused activity.
“At the beginning of the year, we taught students the engineering design process (EDP): ask, imagine, plan, create, refine. We continually point them to it and hold them accountable to the process and their plan.” said McCallihan.
“We gave them other tools as well,” noted Buckley. “Before we could jump into the content of STEAM, we introduced the art materials and techniques like clay and 3-D construction. We covered internet research and non-internet research. We taught them how to keep science journals and the rules for using the lab.”
At the beginning of STEAM time, the teachers introduce a mini lesson, for example, on Newton’s Laws. They then ask a provoking question or issue a challenge for the week like build a simple machine that demonstrates one of Newton’s laws. The question or challenge provides structure, but the approach is determined by each group of students. Teachers have a strong knowledge base of the content matter. However, they often find that students delve deeper, motivated by academic choice.
“‘Oh, I didn’t know that!’ You’ll hear that all the time, especially at the end of the unit when students present their work and findings to the entire ⅘ class,” said McCallihan. “Often, we teachers get to learn alongside our students.”
“The benefit of the multi-grade environment is that students learn not only from the teachers, but from each other, too. They collaborate. They learn time management,” said Fifth Grade teacher Lauren Spurgin, “It is an incredible opportunity.”
STEAM does not take the place of subject instruction like math and art. Rather, it gives students a venue to apply what they have learned during the instructional time on those subjects.
How did STEAM come about? McCallihan, Spurgin, and Buckley met to brainstorm. They wanted to bring more 21st Century Skills into their classrooms and build upon the experience students have in the Shared Space, the arts extension program of classroom learning in the Lower School.
“We had this crazy idea,” says McCallihan. “We brought it to our Director, Kathy Hanson, and she found research and gave us the support to create STEAM.”
Ask, imagine, plan, create, refine. These teachers model what they teach even as they develop STEAM. Their excitement is infectious. Come and see for yourself. You might just be surprised at what you learn.
