Amplifying the "A" in STEAM Education

Project Abstract

I have been accepted to speak about my research at the national middle school conference, also known as the AMLE Conference, to present the work in my thesis through speed-learning sessions. This year, only around 14% of applicants were accepted, with submissions coming from in-service teachers all across the country.

In the Fall 2021 semester, I wrote “Amplifying the ‘A’ in STEAM Education. My paper discusses the importance of teachers implementing STEAM education in the classroom. Previously, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (abbreviated as STEM) education was used as a tool to prepare students to excel in career fields that are projected to grow in the near future. However, recently the acronym was changed to STEAM to add “the arts” to the original acronym. It is imperative that the arts are seen as an equal to STEM, as they can complement and enhance the goals STEM is trying to reach. Since not all students possess the same interest, ways of learning, or abilities, it is vital that teachers do the best they can to reach all of their students through their curriculum. Though the task may seem daunting, there are countless ways that the arts seamlessly fits into STEM. In this paper, four middle-school appropriate lessons that merge the disciplines of STEAM are provided. The first lesson combines an aspect of humanities with science. The second lesson combines an aspect of visual art with an aspect of technology. The third lesson combines an aspect of theater with an aspect of engineering. And the fourth lesson combines an aspect of music with an aspect of mathematics.

For the conference, I wrote a lesson plan that combines Music and Science in a speed-learning session. In this session, attendees will chronologically order animal species based on evolution of traits, testing their answers by playing a song with boom whackers. A correctly played song will reveal the answer. Reaching music and science standards, this multi-sensory activity allows students to learn how organisms change over time, as well as check their answers in an ABA music format. This activity can be adapted for elementary through high school.

Conference

Conference name (full, no abbreviations): Annual Conference for Middle Level Education

Dates: Thursday November 3 – Saturday November 5

Sponsoring body: American Middle Level Education

Conference website: https://amle.org/annual/

Funding Type

Travel Grant

Academic College

College of Education & Human Services

Area/Major/Minor

Middle School Education

Degree

Bachelor of Science

Classification

Freshmen

Name

Miguel Gomez

Academic College

College of Education & Human Services

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