Notes from the Field

The dramatic change in work- and lifestyle caused by our response to COVID has given us new perspective on technology. Most of this quarter’s best professional development is online. This format challenges us to find new ways to share what we learn. Here are some options to begin your exploration of digital teaching resources that provide opportunities for STEAM teaching and learning.

Take the time to read a blog
Darice provides a succinct summary of ten diverse and interesting sites that show a variety of perspectives on STEAM. (Go to Blogs). One unique site from the Royal Society of Chemistry (Go to RSC) includes interesting activities to enhance our appreciation of the natural world.

Go somewhere virtually!
Take a virtual tour of a museum or gallery. The National Gallery of Art offers a walkthrough of fashions across the ages. The guide to the Chicago Field Museum is Sue, the famous T Rex. There are many other great galleries through which you can take a virtual stroll. These can be the core of great STEAM lessons (Go to Galleries).

Explore a lesson
The popular hobby of model railroads involves the mathematics of quantity and scale, engineering, geography, and topography, as well as the sociology of public transportation.  Underpinning the design challenge of trains is also the engineering of bridges, trestles, and tracks. A unique interdisciplinary approach to STEAM through model railroading is described in a model railroad blog: (Go to Model Railroad Blog).
 
National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) offers design challenges for musical instruments (Go to Musical Instruments Design Challenge). It also offers challenges for “Design Bots” (Go to Design Bots Challenge).

Attend virtual conferences
Having withdrawal syndrome from the lack of in-person professional development? Virtual conferences are becoming more common, offering a rich variety of contacts: The U.S. Department of Education conducted a live briefing on STEAM in January, 2020. It can be seen here: (Go to U. S. Dept. of Education STEAM Briefing). (See a summary in the blog here).  The presentation sparked some lively comments and criticisms. Review them here: (Go to Comments).
 
OLC Innovate, a conference designed to challenge teaching and learning paradigms and reimagine learner experiences has been moved from July 21-24 in Chicago to an online format (Go to OLC Innovate).