By Jerry Valdez
In the vast rural and agricultural San Joaquin area of the Central Valley of California you will find the unique SAM. Academy (Science, Art & Music), a community-based ”maker” program located in downtown Sanger, California. The SAM Academy houses a music studio, a STEM Workshop with ample space for up to 40 students at a time, and a mobile STEM program that travels to schools in isolated rural communities. Programs within this youth-focused non-profit are for free or low-cost, creating opportunities for underserved youth to tinker, make, and explore their world through activities embedded with the arts, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEAM). Bins and boxes of wood, plastics, cardboard, and a large variety of materials are available. Tools adorn the walls, hanging on pegboard, and are also stored in rolling tool chests. Scissors, pencils, pens, rulers, glues, and assorted paper are always available to support the ‘making’ of simple to complex projects. Aquariums and life science artifacts are visible throughout and are part of the learning environment. The music studio is busy every day with students streaming in for voice, piano, guitar, or drum lessons. The art studio has become a high-energy space of creativity and innovation for elementary, middle, and high school youth. The environment and culture of the spaces found within have become so inviting and motivating that children immerse themselves with a passion for learning with each new project, activity, or exhibit. Many have become regular participants, and parents visit often to observe or even work alongside their children. ​

By Juliana Texley
Afterschool Programs Step Up as Key Partners in STEM Education.  
A groundbreaking survey report has documented the clear advantages of afterschool STEM. The report, America after 3 PM:  Full STEM Ahead focuses on four of the nation’s largest youth-serving organizations, 4-H, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Girls Inc., and YMCA, that have recently launched “Imagine Science,” an initiative which aspires to reach millions. The report covers both the expansion of traditional programs and innovative collaborations.​

According to the survey, a majority of children in afterschool programs in these organizations’ programs are offered STEM learning opportunities. Seven in 10 parents (69%) report that their child is offered STEM learning opportunities in their afterschool program, which equates to approximately seven million children who have access to afterschool STEM.

Parents of children from low-income families express higher support for afterschool STEM programs than more affluent parents. Low-income families place a higher emphasis on STEM when selecting their child’s afterschool program.
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With increasing recognition that STEM is a natural fit for afterschool programs, the report also recognizes a broadened base for evaluating the results of those programs. including not just academic, but social goals.
Read more at http://afterschoolalliance.org/AA3PM/STEM.pdf

By Kimberly Olson
Looking to See is a Donors Choose project based on the integration of Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards into my PK-grade 2 Art and Art History curriculum. Specifically, my goal for this project was to move toward the application of specific grade-level science standards in the areas of biomimicry, light & sound, motion and stability, and Earth's systems. In the project, students recognized the similarities between the design process and the science inquiry process through the use of hands-on art materials, experiments, engineering design challenges, and developing prototypes from sketches and block models. We explored materials collected from nature to develop skills in the areas of contour line drawing, texture, and form, to develop diagrams, and to ponder the intricacies of nature-made "architecture" to inspire our own inventions. Students explored our classroom nature lab in support of honing necessary shared observational skills spanning art and science. ​

By Bob Reeker
The National Art Education Association (NAEA), in collaboration with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and the National Science Foundation, hosted its first of four STEAM workshops for educators on April 26-27, 2019, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Twenty-five educators from five states, in the fields of science, higher education, elementary academic classroom, community arts, and visual arts gathered for the two-day training that investigated a series of five units to explore with students. These investigations included paper marblizing, beet paper painting, red/blue/green light variations, animal habitats and coverings, and the use of ultraviolet light.

Attendees received $200 in supplies to use towards STEAM investigations in their learning environments. On-line college credit was also available following the workshop. Dennis Inhulsen, NAEA Chief Learning Officer; Lorinda Rice, Lincoln Public Schools Art Consultant and NAEA Supervision and Administration Division Director, and Bob Reeker, Lincoln Public Schools art specialist and NAEA Western Region Vice President, hosted the event. The Fall, 2019, STEAM Workshop was in the Pacific Region in Provo, Utah, with workshops scheduled spring, 2020, in the Eastern Region and fall, 2020, in the Southeastern Region.

Bob Reeker is the NAEA Western Region Vice President

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The Innovation Collaborative has received an additional National Endowment for the Arts Art Works grant of $10,000 during the 2019-20 school year. With this grant, it will study dissemination methods for sharing its effective practices in K-12 STEAM teacher professional development and classroom practices with the arts, STEM, and humanities fields.

With NEA support, the Collaborative has studied these effective practices for the previous 2 years. Also, with NEA support, the Collaborative, in partnership with the National Writing Project, was able to convene its Research Thought Leaders in DC to initially strategize the underpinning for this work. The Collaborative is now ready to implement these practices on a broader scale. 

To do that, it developed a model for gaining school administrative support and dissemination. It convened in Houston, TX, its Innovation Fellows, the top teachers identified in its first round of research, and partner administrators. The Fellows, who have been developed as teacher leaders, will train their administrators in the Collaborative’s Rubrics, strategies, and thinking skills. Both Fellows and administrators will then help develop strategies to study models of all virtual vs. a hybrid of in-person and virtual professional development dissemination. Fellows and administrators, along with selected other administrators, will begin dissemination on their campuses or in their districts, recruiting other teachers to participate. Through this, the Collaborative will study the most effective methods and strategies for dissemination. In the process, the Collaborative’s research-based Rubrics and strategies will be made available for the arts, STEM, and humanities fields.
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In reflecting on this NEA grant, Collaborative Board Chair Lucinda Presley commented, “We continue to be especially grateful to the National Endowment for the Arts for its support of the Collaborative’s work. It is through NEA support that the Collaborative is able to develop a strong, research-based foundation for the rapidly-growing STEAM movement.” 
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The Collaborative’s Research Thought Leaders help provide the strong foundation upon which the Collaborative’s work rests. Each Thought Leader is nationally and internationally recognized in his/her own field and brings an extensive depth of experience and expertise. They also are adept at working across disciplines.
 
In this issue, we visit with Bob Root-Bernstein, whose research in the arts-sciences and scientific creativity helps underpin the work of the Collaborative. He is a Professor of Physiology at Michigan State University, where he conducts research on autoimmune diseases, the nature of scientific creativity, and arts-sciences. You can learn more about Bob here.
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In a conversation with Lucinda Presley, Collaborative Executive Director, Bob talked about his work and its relationship to the Collaborative.
 
 
Lucinda: Tell us about how your arts-science research developed.
Bob: I’ve been doing research in this field since graduate school in the 1980s. I always have been interested in many things. For example, although I majored in science at Princeton, I also am an artist and a musician. Like my parents, I am a polymath, with interest and expertise in a number of disciplines. I was interested in not just one narrow field, but in how disciplines intersected. I wanted to be a scientist, but I didn’t like the narrowness of the training. So, as a graduate student, I studied and received my doctorate in the history of science, which allowed me to work across disciplines. In my research, I saw that famous scientists such as Pasteur and Darwin also were artists and that it was these artistic skills that very positively impacted their work. For example, Darwin was polymathic, making breakthroughs in geology, geography, biology, and botany, and using photography as a scientific tool. 

Here are some resources where you can learn more about Bob Root-Bernstein’s research.
 
Root-Bernstein RS, Pathak A, Root-Bernstein MM. PART 1. A Review of Studies Demonstrating the Effectiveness of Integrating Arts, Music, Performing, Crafts and Design into Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medical Education, Part 1: Summary of Evidence that Integration Is Professionally Useful and Effective. LEONARDO 2017:  doi: 10.1162/LEON_a_01579
https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/LEON_a_01579
http://sead.viz.tamu.edu/pdf/RRB1.pdf
 
Root-Bernstein RS, Pathak A, Root-Bernstein MM. PART II.  Review of ACD-STEMM Integration, Part 2: Statistically-Validated and Controlled Pedagogical Studies of the Root-Bernstein’s “Tools for Thinking”. LEONARDO 2017: doi: 10.1162/LEON_a_01580
https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/LEON_a_01580
http://sead.viz.tamu.edu/pdf/RRB2.pdf
 
Root-Bernstein RS, Pathak A, Root-Bernstein MM. PART III. Review of ACD-STEMM Integration, Part 3: Statistically-Validated and Controlled Pedagogical Studies of Eleven ACD-Integration Strategies Utilized by STEM Professionals and General Conclusions. LEONARDO 2017: doi:
10.1162/LEON_a_01581  
https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/LEON_a_01581
 http://sead.viz.tamu.edu/pdf/RRB3.pdf
 
Root-Bernstein, R., et al. Arts Foster Scientific Success: Avocations of Nobel, National Academy, Royal Society, and Sigma Xi Members. Article (PDF Available) in Journal of Psychology of Science and Technology 1(2):51-63 · October 2008.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247857346_Arts_Foster_Scientific_Success_Avocations_of_Nobel_National_Academy_Royal_Society_and_Sigma_Xi_Members

​Robert Root-Bernstein STEMM education should get “HACD”. Science 06 Jul 2018: Vol. 361, Issue 6397, pp. 22-23. DOI: 10.1126/science.aat8566
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6397/22.summary

Are you an out-of-school educator who is engaged in STEAM-based teaching?
 
Learning environments can range from after-school programs in community centers or school-sponsored field trips to summer camps or other experiences held outside the formal classroom. This research will look at the intersections of STEM and the arts as well as STEM and the humanities.
 
If you are an out-of-school educator serving early childhood through higher education students, the Collaborative welcomes your participation in this important study. To find out more and to access a brief survey go here. It should take you 15 minutes or less to complete.
 
Upon conclusion of the research study, an archive of validated strategies and tools will be available to help advance and refine STEAM teaching practice that can ensure maximum learning and success by students that ultimately will help promote vital innovative thinking skills. 

Over the last four years, the Innovation Collaborative has engaged in research activities investigating effective practices in integrating the arts with science, technology, engineering, math (STEM), and humanities, focusing on K-12 classroom implementations.

Phase I of the project involved the examination of Arts and STEM integrated lessons, units, and experiences. From this analysis the following themes were identified as most important to effective lessons: providing deep content knowledge in both STEM and Arts fields, connections across content areas, specific criteria for assessment, and collaborations between teachers and between students.
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Phase II of the project involved using the top lessons, units, and experiences that had been identified in Phase I to study the criteria in classroom settings.

Phase III of the project, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, involved providing professional development to the top K-12 teachers identified in Phase I, who then implemented high-quality lessons in their classrooms. This phase measured outcomes for teachers, students, and student products. It also led to the improvement of the rubrics to assess critical and creative thinking and arts integration of these lessons, units, and experiences.

With the continued support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Innovation Collaborative is continuing its K-12 Teacher Professional Development Study of STEAM-based learning and teaching in the 2018-19 academic year. Working with its Innovation Fellows, the top teachers identified in the first round of research in 2017-18, the project is now studying how to further develop teacher leaders and networks. During this second phase of the research, the Fellows selected teacher mentees whom they will help to develop their own STEAM-based teaching strategies. 
 
The mentees assembled in Houston, TX, December 7-9, 2018, for an in-person workshop that focused on the content and methodology that will anchor their work in 2019. The Fellows, who will work with their mentees throughout the year, joined the workshop virtually. Collaborative Executive Director Lucinda Presley led the session. Also participating in the training were the grant’s researcher, Bess Wilson, the grant’s arts specialist, Fellow Juli Salzman from Angleton, TX ISD, and the science specialist, Dodie Resendez from Texas Education Agency Region IV in Houston.

When educators move from traditional instruction to innovation, there are many structural challenges that can slow their progress. It’s not just a matter of teacher enthusiasm. They also need access to materials to support new ideas. The National Science Teachers Association’s (NSTA) four-year old effort to identify and encourage the best in children’s STEM literature was no exception. It would not be enough to recommend a few good books. The initiative was led by Missouri educator Carrie Launius. Among the goals were ways to encourage publishers to recognize how creativity and innovation could be fostered through reading, and to provide materials that met those goals. And, of course, they had to be confident that these books would sell. A well-publicized national competition would go a long way to accomplishing these goals.

Towards that end, in 2014, NSTA, working in partnership with the Children’s Book Council, set out to recognize and encourage the best in STEM process-based literature.  To begin, they had to develop a rubric featuring criteria that didn’t focus on content. The structure of the publishing industry doesn’t easily adapt to new ideas and new genres—especially when their use in the classroom has not yet demonstrated profitability. Trade books that are used to support various school content areas (like science or engineering) are often marketed and sold by specialized sales reps in those areas. Very few teachers use reading to support lessons in mathematics or technology (coding) so there isn’t an easy path to creating that niche. The rubric would have to clearly encourage publications that emphasized creativity and problem-solving “habits of mind.”  

References You Can Use
Here are three great articles for teachers on STEAM, from the National Science Teachers’ Association’s journals, Science Scope and Science for Children: 

​STEAM to Your Classes, by Cheska Robinson 
(Science Scope, September, 2017, Volume 41)    

This column shares recent conversations taken from the NSTA listserv community about current science education topics, including how to add STEAM  to your classroom by using STEAM-based icebreakers and team-building activities on the first day of school; strategies for creating a STEAM-centered classroom makerspace: and how to gradually replace end-of quarter assessments with STEAM  design challenges throughout the school year.  
 
Moving Beyond STEAM:  Art as Expression, by Cassie Quigley, Judy Harrington, and Dani Herro
(Science Scope, July, 2014, Volume 40}
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An overview on how to move STEM to STEAM by adding the arts to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education to  produce powerful and authentic  learning opportunities: Link

STEAM education can be looked at through many lenses, but there is a tendency to view it primarily through the needs of classroom teachers. There is a good reason for this as teachers ultimately make STEAM happen. But STEAM isn’t a lesson. STEAM isn’t usually a class. STEAM is a culture and culture is systemic.

What does that mean exactly? It means that every organization has a culture set by patterns formed by interrelating and interconnected attitudes, goals, norms, and practices. If a culture is not intentionally set, it will develop organically.

An organization’s culture is nurtured by the vision and practice of its leadership. The leaders in a STEAM education program depends on the scope, ranging from a teacher practicing STEAM in their room to a superintendent overseeing a division-wide program. When resources improve, and the impact of the program grows with the scope, the values and practices necessary to grow an effective STEAM program remain similar.

Here are the attributes of a positive STEAM culture:

STEAM is successful when leaders value all the STEAM subjects. In most states, only two of the STEAM disciplines are assessed, but they all have equal value. This belief can be demonstrated in many ways, but an understanding that each of these disciplines has their own standards, body of knowledge, and vocabulary is an important start. It’s also important that the teachers of these subjects are regarded as professionals with valuable contributions.

The findings of the Innovation Collaborative’s early phase of its K-12 Effective Practices research has been published in Roeper Review, an international journal focusing on scholarly articles related to gifted education.
 
The Innovation Collaborative’s K-12 Effective Practices research is a multi-year national project identifying effective practices that promote creative and innovative thinking at the intersections of the arts, sciences, technology, engineering, math, and humanities. This recently-published article analyzes the findings from the early phase of the K-12 research. In that phase, top lessons at these intersections from across the US were identified and the Collaborative’s metrics for effective practices were analyzed.

​This early study also was selected for presentation at the American Education Research Association 2017 annual conference.
 
The K-12 Effective Practices study is led by Innovation Collaborative researcher and founding Board member, Bess Wilson, PhD. Dr. Wilson is associate professor of education at the University of North Florida. She is Chair-Elect for the Research and Evaluation Network for the National Association for Gifted Children. She also is President-elect for the Florida Association for the Gifted and is an associate editor for the Journal of Advanced Academics. Also guiding the study is Innovation Collaborative Executive Director Lucinda Presley. Ms. Presley has been teaching and developing curriculum at these intersections for 25 years and holds a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies. She was recently awarded the adjunct faculty of the year award at the college where she teaches.
 
More information about this K-12 study can be found here.
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The Innovation Collaborative has received an additional Art Works grant of $10,000 to continue its study of K-12 STEAM teacher professional development. This study will build on the NEA-funded teacher professional development pilot study conducted during the 2017-18 academic year. These studies will provide research-based effective practices for K-12 teacher professional development that promote creative and innovative thinking at the intersections of the arts, sciences, technology, engineering, math, and the humanities.
 
Innovation Collaborative Board Chair Lucinda Presley commented, “We continue to be exceedingly grateful to the National Endowment for the Arts for supporting this important work of the Collaborative. Through these NEA-funded studies, we are helping create a solid, research-based foundation for the growing STEAM movement.”
 
This grant is one of $80 million in grants approved by National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu as part of the NEA’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018.  The Art Works category is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts. For more information on projects included in the NEA grant announcement, click here.