The STEAM Effect
The "STEAM Effect"
Speaking from personal experience, I have seen many times what I call the “STEAM Effect”. The lessons in our curriculum are inherently scalable and our instructors are highly-effective teachers, so we can bring on board brand new children and push even our veteran students to the next level. If you follow a child’s progress at Full STEAM Ahead over a couple years, you will notice the growth - and it’s breathtaking.
A few examples of The "STEAM Effect" in action:
Teacher: The goal is to code a robot to do the dance you just choreographed.
Veteran STEAM Student: I’ll do you one better. Hold my juice box.
...45 minutes later….
Veteran Student: Hey, check this out.
:::shows a video she has coded where she digitally drew 3 different characters and coded their bodies to perform the moves around the screen, exactly as it was choreographed:::
Veteran Student: Oh, and here’s an interactive dance floor I’ve wired with a circuit board so that I can initiate the coded dance with my body.
No. Big. Deal. These are elementary age children! They are SO capable if we just teach them well and let them run. In a world obsessed with data, we have decided instead to watch, listen, guide, and pay attention to the kids. We see their tremendous growth time and time again. Each of these skills was learned in isolation over time, but the nature of the Full STEAM Environment allows and encourages kids to creatively bridge this skills in new and novel ways.
Then there’s the high school student who grew up with STEAM and now works for us part-time...
During a drone camp, one of our drones crashed and wasn't working. Faulty drone connection? He says to
me, “No problem Mrs. Shore, I’ll be right back. I’ll run home and solder it.” Twenty minutes later, it’s done.
Pencil sharpener doesn’t work? “I’ve got an idea. Give me a few.” Twenty minutes later, he hands me a fully functional pencil sharpener, which he has opened, re-wired, added a new activation button, and reassembled. He then explains to the campers what he did. They sit there wide-eyed and ask when they’re going to learn about circuits.
“Later this week,” I tell them.
This is everything we’ve been aiming for from the beginning. Idea-generation, perseverance, fearless problem-solving, and self-guided learning. These are the traits we have built our curriculum around.
Children and teachers alike need breathing room to just enjoy learning, happily, in their own time, with no stress. We see the growth and success in our students everyday. It’s especially evident in the kids that have been with us for years. These children are accomplishing such high-level tasks, developing skills that will serve them for their entire lives, growing their confidence, solving problems without fear of failure, learning grit and perseverance, and learning to be truly creative and innovative.
We are so blessed for the opportunity to guide these children and feel confident in the future of our world because these kids will soon be leading the way.
- Hilary Shore, Co-Founder, Full STEAM Ahead
