Written by Laura Harradine

Pre-service teacher studying Bachelor of Education from University of Southern Queensland majoring in English and Agricultural Science 

On day two of the Queensland Museum’s Creative Lab workshop the fun continued with a challenge for the participants to apply their knowledge directly to a unit of work.

We were given the theme “I still call Australia home” and were told that we could design and present a unit any way we liked, as long as it was relevant to that theme. Groups were made of people whom hadn’t worked together previously, and presentations were critiqued by a panel of industry and project leaders.

The activity had two surprising outcomes for me. First, it elicited conversation not just about the topic and what we were going to present as a group (a given, as we were all keen to show what we had learned); but also, how could we as teachers from different disciplines, levels of experience and from different contexts work together to successfully create an intuitive integration of STEAM to achieve practical learning outcomes? This was a discussion that resulted in much food for thought.

The second most surprising outcome was the diversity of answers and solutions to our challenge. Watching other group presentations really hit home how innovative and resourceful STEM teachers can be when we are told to “let loose” on our creativity, and freed from constraints which are unsupportive of cross-disciplinary units.  Industry and real-world applications, innovative structured tasks and learning experiences, Australian perspectives and inquiry learning were some of the standout features from some of the presentations- as well as the inspiring  integration of topics and skills from beyond a single learning area.

After the first day of inspirational activities that showed us new dimensions of incorporating the A into STEM, I was left asking myself: How can teachers overcome the many challenges associated with integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths in our schools? After a second day of learning and collaboration with other educators, the answer is now clear.

Achieving successful integration of STEAM starts with teachers working together, continuing to challenge ourselves and the status quo, sharing and collaborating; and on the front line in our classrooms, implementing as much STEAM as we can on a daily basis.

We know that students “could be better encouraged to be involved in science”, and that students often look to their science teachers for inspiration in their science learning (Health of Australian Science report, 2012)

Let’s work together to ensure that our students call STEM home – and what better way to include and inspire students than to turn STEM into STEAM.

Step Up‘s involvement in the Queensland Museum’s Creative Lab program has enabled Laura Harradine and other pre-service teachers to participate in these workshops.