What is STEAM?You have probably noticed that your children are interested in video games, in putting things together or taking them apart, in how objects work, how things are made in factories, or in ways they can take care of the environment. All these interests have a STEAM flavour; that is, when they think about them and put them into practice, they are developing skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.STEAM, from its initials in English, is an acronym that brings together science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics in a single project (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics).When did it begin?STEAM emerged in the United States in the 1990s as a way of bringing students of all educational levels closer to scientific careers and encouraging girls to see these disciplines as part of their future education.Why is it important?In your children’s education, STEAM encourages the search for solutions to global and local problems by integrating the five disciplines into a single solution. The aim is for your children to develop thinking skills, to become more critical, more creative, more expressive, and more aware of the resources they have and how they can use them without harming the environment or other people.How can I do STEAM activities?Look around you and reuse materials to create. You do not need expensive kits to create hundreds of projects at home from scratch. You can use recycled materials or items you can ask others for because they no longer need them; that is the best option.Awaken your creativity. Keep your attention on finding solutions to everyday problems in simple things; follow your curiosity. Start at home: see whether the bathroom soap could have a new dispenser made by you, whether you can make the towel basket out of different materials, or whether you can sync your phone with an app to turn the lights on and off.Stay flexible about the activities your children want to do. When they have an idea for an individual or family activity, ask what they want to achieve with what they are going to do and support their ideas, as long as they do not hurt themselves or anyone else.Listen to your children. Pay attention to what they tell you, how they tell it, who they include in their stories, and remember the details of everything they say. This will help them know that they can count on you to carry out different activities.Connect with what they like. Take an interest in what is trendy and in the positive aspects of whatever has caught their attention so much.Talk about the environment. From time to time, ask them what they expect from the environment in the future, what they think the place where they live will be like in 5 or 10 years.Ask questions. Ask them open-ended questions to boost their creativity, for example, what they could do to save water, to use electricity more efficiently, to eat more naturally at home, and so on.Do projects together. Building on the previous point, you can have a long-term plan at home to create a rooftop garden, a plan to save energy or to collect rainwater. Sometimes these projects can also involve the community, for example, a project to help all the neighbours dispose of their rubbish properly and with the correct separation.Use the devices you have at home. Choose an app and start using it every day, one that helps you improve in something that interests you. Then share it with your children; they will see that you are engaging with current tools and will be able to share tips.One type of activity that may really catch your children’s attention is programming and building robots, which can be done online. STEAM can be part of their daily lives; something as simple as looking around you and noticing which of the things you see involve these five disciplines and how people planned, designed, tested and evaluated them.Doing this kind of activity that includes the five STEAM disciplines strengthens the family bond and supports your children’s learning.At our school, your children learn by doing, discovering and creating solutions for the future. They also experience active learning that integrates different areas of knowledge and helps them develop life skills. The STEAM approach is present in practical laboratories, where they apply what they know to real-life situations.
