In the domain of the educational industry, there has been a longstanding debate between STEM VS STEAM. These acronyms, representing two distinct educational frameworks, have gained significant attention for their impact on shaping future generations and preparing them for a rapidly evolving world.
What is STEM？ What does STEM stand for?
What is a STEM? What does STEM stand for? The STEM definition is easy. The STEM definition is easy. It is an abbreviation of four disciplines: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In the Asian education system, what STEM stands for is science and engineering, which is the reverse of the literal arts.
In 1986, NSB proposed a set of educational recommendations integrating science (S), mathematics (M), engineering (E), and technology (T), then known simply as SMET, which is regarded as the ancestor of today’s STEM education. Ten years later, in 1996, the National Science Foundation, NSF, made more explicit policy recommendations and changed the acronym SMET to STEM.
In 2006, US President George W. Bush proposed in the “American Competitiveness Plan” that one of the educational goals of the knowledge-based economy era is to cultivate people with STEM qualities and said that STEM education is a key element of competitiveness in a globalized world.
The United States is the source of STEM education, which originates from the hope to use a cross-field combination of theory and practice in education to change the traditional teacher-centered classroom model. Later, early childhood and primary education curricula in the United States incorporated more basic science education.
With the development of science and technology, society needs STEM education to train more STEM talents to become innovative future leaders to promote and discover.
At the same time, the purpose of STEM is to cultivate children’s awareness of active learning, curiosity, problem-solving skills, and critical thinking to prepare them for a changing world.
When did STEM become STEAM?
STEAM was developed in 2006 by Georgette Yakman. Yakman was a master’s student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University’s Integrated Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics Educational program George Yakman’s research found that STEM programs would be too formal and unappealing to children without the creativity and innovation that the arts bring.
STEM VS STEAM
STEM is the concept of training students to rely on hard skills such as numeracy, science, and engineering skills to learn STEM subjects.
STEAM education takes STEM as the starting point, together with Arts, to form an education model of cultivating hard and soft power. Students are encouraged to discuss the four major STEM subjects after learning them, and then express their knowledge in artistic or visual forms, such as dioramas, to let the technology products designed have a certain aesthetic feeling.
STEAM education encourages children to discuss and explore STEM knowledge with each other, and the data is visualized and artistically manipulated (such as dioramas, manual work, etc.) so that children can absorb complex concepts more deeply. When learning STEAM, children will use more hands-on and artistic methods such as charts, models, and group learning. Compared with traditional STEM, STEAM can improve children’s soft skills such as communication, creativity, and imagination.
To make children dream of becoming engineers or architects, they should grasp both artistic thinking and STEM knowledge and combine innovative technology and innovative design to complement each other.
STEM VS STEAM education for kids
STEM education definition means an interdisciplinary, subject-integrated approach to teaching that emphasizes science, technology, engineering, and mathematics at its core, and then extends to include the arts, also known as STEAM education. STEM or STEAM? Internationally, in addition to Taiwan and Hong Kong, STEM is used as a general term for the entire core STEM education.
STEM/STEAM education is different from traditional cramming. Instead of one-way teaching, STEM/STEAM education guides students to think critically, combines cross-disciplinary knowledge and skills, and solves real-world problems. It cultivates the next generation of active learners who love learning.
According to the definition of Professor Zhou Shuhui of Tsinghua University, STEM education means aiming at the problems in life, through the core activities of engineering design, production, and improvement, as the main axis of curriculum and teaching, integrating the use of science and scientific inquiry, mathematics and mathematical thinking, as well as technology and tools in the process to produce products and solve practical problems.
STEM education in the United States pays more attention to cross-field diversity, gender parity in education, and equal educational opportunities for all, including the rich and poor (referring to the article on women in STEM). This approach allows children to find answers to questions through exploration.
From the perspective of a far-sighted international organization, UNESCO has clearly stated in the “Education 2030 Framework for Action” that inclusive, equitable, and quality education and lifelong education for all should be achieved.
The realization of lifelong education depends on the improvement of learning ability, and the improvement of learning ability depends on interest in learning. Compared with the traditional education mode based on knowledge infusion, STEAM education places more importance on cultivating learning interest and opposes the traditional path of “knowledge teaching – knowledge understanding – knowledge memory – knowledge test”. It emphasizes that students participate in the whole learning value chain, learn while observing, operate while learning, experience while operating, explore while experiencing, explores while creating, create while improving, and cultivate children’s interest through auxiliary game teaching, comprehensively and systematically improving children’s learning ability.
What is STEM education?
STEM education is an interdisciplinary, subject-integrated approach with a strong emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics at its core.
STEM is not just education policy, it is a national competitive advantage. From the actions of the United States government, we can see that education policy is closely related to national competition, not just slogans, but relevant ministries must discuss government actions to implement the plan. The America Competes Act is designed to actively promote excellence in science, education, and science, and has clear and pragmatic policy requirements, regardless of political party affiliation.
As early as 2007, after three presidents with different styles and political views, Bush, Obama, and Trump, the country’s sense of direction and vision of competitive advantage stood firm, and policies continued to upgrade and take root downward.
What is STEAM education?
STEAM is an extension of the STEM education concept based on art, also known as STEAM education. STEAM has become a household word in the education community, and it has also become a keyword in the education community.
STEAM education requires students to put their ideas into practice, make prototypes, and further learn in the process of rapid and repeated corrections, such as: E-orchestra allows students to quickly create their music using a variety of instruments, and through repeated listening, constantly modify the shortcomings, in the creation process to learn, apply and consolidate music knowledge.
Team spirit is also an important element of STEAM education. By working with others on projects, students learn how to build team trust, manage healthy conflicts, take responsibility for the team, and lead the team unwaveringly. For example, students can play with others or create music together through e-orchestra, and in the process learn how to work with others and build team spirit.
Trends for STEM/STEAM education
STEM/STEAM will become more and more important in education: More research shows that STEM/STEAM education has a positive impact on education.
Technology in STEM is increasingly prominent: skilled technology is a core life skill. Students need technical hardware and software skills, as well as an understanding of number sense literacy. As part of teacher preparation, more and more programs are trending toward digital management, as well as ways to help educators develop their use of technology in the classroom.
Many organizations and schools are working to provide students with real-world experiences during their time at school.
STEAM VS STEM: which is better?
Since STEM and STEAM education are both educational concepts, and both concepts are good, which one is better? Many parents may have this aspect of confusion. So, is it stem or steam? Which one is better? There is no absolute answer.
But Stemspur suggests that, on the one hand, parents should consider their financial ability, because different educational needs have different financial costs, so parents can do what they can. On the other hand, the object of education is for the child, to choose what education, they have or have to consider the intentions and interests of students. Otherwise, it is hard to let a little girl who likes playing the piano go to the laboratory to play the experiment, even if the experiment is more magical, she will not be happy.
With the progress of science and technology, the development of The Times, and the improvement of parents’ cognitive level, children now no longer simply accept traditional school education, but begin to learn to accept steam or stem education, cultivate logical thinking ability, and improve comprehensive ability.
Even some schools or training institutions will introduce some smart education products, such as the interactive classroom of new education, which not only contains the three major features of immersive multimedia technology, STEAMS interactive courses, and interactive quiz competitions but also several high-tech technologies such as large-scale multi-screen projection, motion capture, and interactive AR/VR. To provide students with an interactive learning space full of fun, to help improve students’ comprehensive ability.
