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STEAM Learning in the Classroom: 5

Methods for Authentic Experiences
Feb, 22, 2021

How do we become more authentic in the way that we teach as educators?

When we think about implementing STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics) or STEM (science,
technology, engineering and math) in the classroom, our first thought might be to crack open the Chromebooks or swipe
to unlock an iPad.

While hardware is an incredibly useful component to STEAM education and learning, there are so many other ways you
can complement your lesson plan to create an authentic environment for project-based learning experiences.

Authentic learning is a teaching approach which underpins the successful implementation of STEAM pedagogy in your
classroom. It allows students to explore, discuss and construct projects in the context of real-world situations they can
relate to enhancing their STEM, STEAM and coding skills.

The beauty of bringing STEAM learning to your classroom is that there isn’t a single recipe that works for every student
or teacher, as long as you follow a few best practices. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t play with the context of your
curriculum to provoke authentic learning and teach computational thinking across multiple core subjects (not just
computer science!). This week we’ve rounded up five ways you can amp up your curriculum in the classroom while going
full STEAM ahead.

5 Ways to Shake Up Your STEAM Lesson in the Classroom

1. Use the Teach Unplugged Method and Philosophy
There’s so much stimuli in the classroom that anything can become a distraction. When you ask educators what the
biggest distractions in the classroom are, technology and off-topic conversation can often be top of the list. At SAM Labs
we understand the need to give students the space to reflect throughout the STEAM learning experience.

Teaching Unplugged is a method that aims to strip away all forms of external stimuli — not just frivolous technology
usage or chatting — to stimulate an engaging learning environment. Interestingly enough, the model recommends
temporarily removing many distractions or sources of “barriers” between teachers and students.

These barriers include:

Textbooks
Worksheets or activities
Technology
Media Content

The idea is that by priming your students with time away from these outlets that can become easily distracted and
focusing directly on student needs. It gives educators a chance to teach with undivided attention and students the
opportunity to pose thoughtful questions and answers.

This can be a great exercise for kicking off a STEAM lesson in the classroom. Because the STEAM learning approach is
inclusive with all of the subject areas that it covers, it’s likely that most learners in your classroom will find a reason to
want to work on a project. Getting students to pause and think about their strategy is key.

With as little as a whiteboard, you can close the textbooks, pose a scenario and get students engaged in thoughtful
commentary. For more information on Teaching Unplugged, including its benefits and drawbacks, click here. For a list of
unplugged computer science resources, visit CSUnplugged.org.

2. Brainstorm Projects — and then Swap Ideas

Project based Learning! Implementing STEAM in your classroom helps students visualize real world context through
working on projects that provide solutions to everyday problems. Even better, when students work in groups, they build
on their soft skills, like communication, collaboration and social skills.

First, have students work in groups to come up with a project idea. Then, take the challenge one step further by
introducing a twist: after groups have decided on a design, have groups swap projects to work on someone else’s. Give
them 15 minutes to explain to each other what the project should entail.

This is a great method to bring experiential STEAM learning opportunities to your classroom by challenging students to
explain to others what the original design was, what it should accomplish and see their project completed by another
team.

This method does two things:

1. Gives students the opportunity to push their communication and sequencing skills by explaining to another group
what their vision was for their initial project idea.
2. Gives students the decomposition challenge of communicating and collaborating on a brand new challenge set
aside from the original one.

When projects are complete, have students reflect on how the designs aligned or differed based on their original vision,
have them assess whether the time allotted was enough to communicate the vision and have groups explain what
modifications they had to make along the way to make the project successful.

3. Learn Through Conversation

One of the most powerful ways that students can learn is through thoughtful conversation. Learning through
conversation is the idea that students can speak productively in class while the teacher listens. By dividing learners into
groups to talk to one another, this can often result in student-to-student teaching moments. And as a side effect, gives
students who may not have the familiarity or confidence in speaking about something they don’t fully understand the
ability to do so.

What’s beautiful about this model for STEAM in the classroom is that many students struggle with speaking about math,
science and technology. Learning through conversation gives these students the chance to speak to one another about
what they’ve learned and pose questions to one another when something doesn’t make sense.

Some educators may worry that conversation may stray off topic, so the The National Science Foundation recommends
that teachers “center the instruction around the idea that the person doing the talking is the person doing the learning”.
This is important, because educators should try to encourage that every student gets an opportunity to participate.

To learn more about learning through conversation and best practices to ensure success, click here.

The next step is to get students to get students from talking about their project requirements to formatting them in a way
that makes them actionable to a user, and this is where “User Stories” come in.

4. Create User Stories Before Design

By now your students are probably itching to start their STEAM learning projects, which is a good thing! But there’s one
last step that you can take prior to kicking off their designs to help facilitate their success.

In software development, many development teams follow Agile Methodology practices. These practices are meant to
be lean on business resources, accomplishing only what needs to be done on a project to complete builds that work
every check in (colloquially called a “Sprint”).

One of the components of a Sprint is creating “User Stories”. User Stories are written out by a Product Owner to help
developers engineer a project. User Stories may differ in language based on organization, but they all have one thing in
common: an end goal stated from the user’s perspective, usually in the form of a sentence.

Atlassian’s Agile Coach’s User Story template provides the following:

“As a [persona], I [want to], [so that].”

A simple, real world example using components from SAM Labs’ STEAM Kit could look like this:

“As a user, I want the LED light to come on when I cover the light sensor block.”

In the context of a STEAM classroom and curriculum, you could have students practice classification (categorizing) and
brainstorming, prior to their project design, a couple of answers to the following questions:

WHO is this project being designed for? What is their persona? What considerations should be taken for the typical
user we are designing for?
WHAT are the main objectives we want to accomplish with this project?
WHICH objectives are the most important?

Have students begin writing out their User Stories puts them in the shoes of the user who will be engaging with their
project. After they have completed listing out their User Stories, have them order them by priority so the group knows
where to get started first.

This can help students collaborate, communicate and understand how the user will ultimately engage with their project.

Let students know that User Stories can be added at any time! It’s totally normal to realize that a project needs another
User Story halfway through the project in order to accommodate the user or complete the project.

By creating User Stories, students will communicate with one another more effectively, use computational thinking skills
to break down the project into smaller pieces and think critically on how to prioritize.

To learn more about Agile Development and User Story creation, check out this article from Atlassian.

5. Connect Daily Lessons with Each Project

Many educators may feel that they don’t have the time to work daily with students on their STEAM projects in the
classroom. Finding time before and after school, during lunch or once or twice a month for special work block times, may
feel like the most your curriculum can afford.

This can take away from the core concepts being learned by students from the lesson. Teachers need a way to reinforce
the content being taught, and that’s where the method of regular practice come in.

Try to keep the STEAM learning alive in the classroom with daily activities that keep the concepts top-of-mind for
students and inspire their love of learning.

A great example is from SAM Labs’ STEAM Course, where students practice sequencing and algorithms to create a
light source from the wireless SAM blocks to help Little Blocky grow plants. At the same time, a corresponding daily
curriculum activity for students could be watering plants in the classroom and rotating them to make sure they are
receiving enough light.

Comparing these real-life activities to hands on learning tools drives connections between the content and project. It’s up
to you as the educator to find a way to incorporate daily activities, but the sky’s the limit — it only takes a few minutes
each day to inspire your students with a short lesson that keeps their mind on STEAM in the classroom.

More Resources for STEAM Kit Implementations

With STEAM learning, there are so many ways you can inspire and challenge your students. Your classroom can become
a place of thought-provoking conversation, design, creativity and learning. The suggestions mentioned above are just the
tip of the iceberg — we’ve heard so many other great ideas being implemented in classrooms around the world.

Tell us, what’s your unique twist you add to implement STEAM in your classroom? We’d love to hear in the comments
below!

Looking for more resources on all things STEAM? Check out our:

STEAM vs. STEM Learning for K-12: The True Definitions, Differences and Best Practices

Sample STEAM Lessons

SAM Labs’ STEAM Classroom Kit

The Ultimate Edtech Grant Writing Guide and List of Grants 2019-2020

Icons credit: Icons made by Flaticon and Freepik from www.flaticon.com

Eleanor Jacobson
Eleanor is an EdTech writer who’s passionate about changing the world one classroom at a time. When not spreading the news about the
latest in K-12 technology, you’ll find her geeking out about the latest startups or video games and adding to her ’80s toy collection.

! Computational thinking, Implementation, K-12, K-5, K12, Personalized-Learning, Real world application, STEAM, STEM

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