By Juliana Texley, Collaborative Board member and former NSTA President

Is there a divide between science and imagination? Common conceptions of science as non-imaginative persist, but research suggests the critical role of imagination, both in the practice of STEM and in shaping learners' perceptions of themselves. Leaders at the Museum of Science, Boston, are exploring the intersections of imagination, STEM, and education practice in ways that are actionable for museum professionals. Their project will consider how research on imaginative thinking, and perspectives on the role of imagination in STEM practice and STEM education, can be systematically applied to support STEM learning in museum contexts.
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A grant from the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) will support this project. This NSF division “seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments; provide multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences; advance innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments; and develop understandings of deeper learning by participants”. Research in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, child development, and education suggest ways that imagination can be fostered and improved. This evidence could be applied to the design of museum experiences to help improve STEM outcomes.

The project will complete a literature review, a document review, and a survey of ISE (Informal Science Education) professionals. It will host a convening of STEM professionals (researchers, practitioners, educators, and others) and disseminate products designed to inform future project development. As a result of these activities, the leaders hope to prompt conversations about imaginative thinking, identify areas for future research, and influence future research. They hope to inspire imaginative thinking among public audiences through exhibitions, programs, and other designed experiences.

The grant Principal Investigators are Rebecca Kipling and Christina Reich of the Museum of Science, Boston. You can find out more about the project at:
https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1906899&HistoricalAwards=false

The Collaborative’s Research Thought Leaders help provide the strong research foundation upon which the Collaborative’s work rests. Each Thought Leader is nationally and internationally recognized in their own field and brings an extensive depth of experience and expertise. They also are adept at working across disciplines.
In our previous newsletters, we brought you interviews with each of our Thought Leaders. This new series will consider how you might apply some of their most important ideas in your STEAM work. To do so, we’ll use examples of the Collaborative’s successful application of these ideas in K-12 classroom implementation and teacher professional development. This first in a series of articles looks at STEAM’s relation to creativity and innovation. Future series articles will look at such topics as equity; interdisciplinarity; applications of these concepts to learning settings; STEAM educator training; and creating effective STEAM models. The easily readable information below is built upon the Thought Leaders’ newsletter interviews, on conversations with them, and on an in-person convening in Washington, DC, that was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
 
Creativity and Innovation
For the Collaborative, the definition of creativity relates to novel ideas, while innovation refers to the application of those novel ideas to appropriate uses.

THOUGHT LEADER INPUT

• Let Them Play the Music. Creativity in Education Thought Leader Bonnie Cramond, PhD, cites University of Georgia mathematics professor Jason Cantarella, PhD, who said, “If we taught music like they teach math in schools, we would only teach the music scales and not get to play the beautiful music”. In addition to teaching the required content (the “scales”), she points out, we also must integrate the wonder that’s found in all disciplines when using creativity. She adds that creativity is found not just in the arts, but that it also is involved in any human endeavor. For, she points out, creativity is looking at something in a different way, solving a problem in a new way, or expressing something in an original manner. This is greatly needed in STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering, and Math), as this is where our greatest breakthroughs are developed, she adds.
• Innovative Cognition. Neuroscience Thought Leader, Sandi Chapman, PhD, agrees with the importance of the use of these concepts across disciplines. She adds that innovative cognition is the most powerful function of the human brain, for our brain was designed to create new knowledge – not just to be a fact storage-retrieval machine. Innovative thinking, she points out, is important in all types of disciplines, from sciences, technology, engineering, and math to the arts and humanities. To improve the well-being of our society, she adds, we must introduce innovative cognition starting in youth to build a lifelong desire for ingenuity.
• SMART Strategies. Dr. Chapman adds that there are specific strategies to promote these innovative thinking skills. These include: 1) Strategic attention, where information is narrowed down to the information most applicable to the situation; 2) integrated reasoning, where you get the “Big Idea” of what your problem is about, then integrate across disciplines, as well as apply the synthesis to your life; and 3) innovation, where you can use multiple approaches to create change.
• Transfer. Arts Thought Leader Rob Horowitz, PhD, agrees with the importance of synthesizing across disciplines and points out how creativity, imagination, and the willingness to express oneself also are applied in the STEM world. He adds that while cognitive, social, and personal competencies, such as fluency, imagination, and collaboration, can transfer from the arts to other disicplines, other disciplines’ competencies, such as problem-solving, can transfer back to the arts. This can be a mutually-reinforcing system where each discipline’s processes and competencies can reinforce those of other disciplines, he says.
• Imagination. Science Thought Leader Hubert Dyasi, PhD, agrees with Dr. Horowitz that imagination is an important element in science that is not stressed enough. That’s how scientists move from data to generalizations to modeling, he says. He adds that visualization and imagination are important in helping students “see” science ideas.
• Connecting Seemingly Unrelated Ideas. Dr. Chapman notes that the use of creative thinking and imagination inspires students to generate as many ideas as they can across disciplines, based on meaningfulness, then apply these ideas to solve a problem. This, she says, helps students connect seemingly unrelated ideas.
• Process. All Thought Leaders point to the primary importance of integrating processes and competencies across disciplines, in addition to teaching the fact-based content. In this, they say, we want to include failure, feedback, and multiple iterations, for in doing this we are allowing the brain to do important work.

​APPLICATION

• The Collaborative’s National Endowment for the Arts-supported multi-year and multi-session teacher professional development (PD) effective practices project addresses these important Thought Leader concepts. It first trains K-12 classroom teachers from all disciplines across the US in the Collaborative’s creative and innovative thinking skills and their application to effective STEAM practices. The development of these thinking skills was a collective effort by Collaborative members who are leaders in the arts, STEM, humanities, and higher education. These skills and their usage are continuously improved, based on feedback from the Collaborative’s studies of these thinking skills in action. A number of teachers in the PD project said these thinking skills and their application was one of the most important and useful things they learned in the training. Teachers also have said that these thinking skills are so valuable, they are making a poster to use each time they plan lessons.
• These thinking skills are assessed by the Collaborative’s thinking skills rubric. Another rubric, addressing interdisciplinarity, will be addressed in the next newsletter. It is these rubrics and the thinking skills they are assessing that, among other things, are looking at this important concept of transfer among disciplines, Dr. Horowitz points, out,
• The thinking skills also are taught to administrators who are another important part of this Collaborative PD. This training better equips them to provide effective STEAM leadership for those with whom they work.
• The importance of these thinking skills was validated in a recent Collaborative study of students across the US. It found that use of the Collaborative’s thinking skills and STEAM lessons increased creative thinking 188% in elementary students and 126% in secondary students. Importantly, this growth was the same for white and other ethnic groups.
• Other aspects of the study found that elementary students who participated in the STEAM instruction reported significant gains between pre- and post-intervention in their enjoyment of school in general, learning math, learning science, and thinking outside the box. Among secondary students, students who received the STEAM instruction reported significantly more enjoyment of school, enjoyment of math, interest in science, perception of the importance of cross-disciplinary work and perception of the arts’ helping to learn science than students in traditional art and science classes.
• In the Collaborative’s STEAM lessons, students creatively integrate STEM and the arts with innovative approaches advocated by the Thought Leaders. They use imagination that the Thought Leaders say is so important. They visualize science principles that Dr. Dyasi points out is important. They are using their brains for processing and use the mandated content instead of just memorizing it, as Dr. Chapman points out is important. These students, as Dr. Cantarella points out, do, indeed “play the music”.

In its position as a national STEAM education trailblazer, the Innovation Collaborative has adopted its position on STEAM education.
 
This position was thoughtfully developed by a team of Collaborative leaders representing arts, science, and humanities institutions, with continuous input by all Collaborative members across disciplines and learning settings.
 
In this position statement, the Collaborative emphasizes the importance of equity, curiosity, and the application of competencies and practices across disciplines. These competencies and practices include, but are not limited to, fluency, originality, imagination, collaboration, problem-solving, risk-taking, and persistence. See Applying Research Thought Leader Wisdom article in this newsletter for more on applying creativity and innovation.
 
The Collaborative’s STEAM position also emphasizes the importance of transdisciplinary learning. In this approach, boundaries are erased among disciplines, increasing learning in addition to cognitive and affective growth.

In the last newsletter we summarized just a few of the ways in which educators and guides have innovated to provide effective COVID learning environments when traditional methods were not possible. Over the past year, this process has progressed with additional thoughtful approaches and also research-based analyses of where we are and how we might move forward.

Coping through Literature and the Arts
More and more, thought leaders are looking beyond the current health crisis to plan for recovery. This includes not only economic and structural measures but also intense attention to psychological and emotional crises that the pandemic has caused.  Increasingly, writers are recognizing the important role that literature and the arts have and must continue to play in this process. Here are just a few of the resources and articles that have appeared in the past few months:

Trade Literature to Help Students Understand
(Recommended by Angela Ding at Worlddreader.Org)

The Unwelcome Stranger, by Drew Edwards & Diana Nawatene
            A grandfather advises children how to cope and be kind.

I Love You, by Michael Ross
            Kwizera does not understand why she cannot be physically with her grandparents.

Coronavirus: A Book for Children, by Elizabeth Jenner, Kate Wilson, Nia Roberts, & Axel Scheffler
            This non-fiction book answers questions children might have about the coronavirus.

Hello, My Name is Coronavirus, by Manuela Molina Cruz
            An informative book narrated by the virus, itself.

My Hero Is You, by Helen Patuck
            Sarah is upset because she cannot go to school. She feels unsafe. An imaginary dragon gives her comfort.
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The Virus-Stopping Champion by, Hilary Rogers
            A short story convinces children that they, too, can be champions.

Read more at https://www.worldreader.org/now/6-books-to-help-your-children-understand-the-coronavirus/
  
Poetry for the Pandemic
And the People Stayed Home (Family Book, Coronavirus Kids Book, Nature Book), by Kitty O'Meara
            A beautifully-illustrated poem that reflects the angst of in today’s world.

Arts for an Anxious World - and More

How Art Helps Us Make Sense of COVID 19’s Incredible Toll. (from National Geographic)
Contributed by Collaborative Innovation Fellow Julie Olson

In a field outside of JFK Memorial Stadium in Washington, DC, artist Susan Brennan Firstenberg’s art helps Americans visualize our shared grief—a flag for every one of our COVID deaths. People come and help, praying and giving physical manifestation to what we are all experiencing. That is one of many memorials that have bloomed across the country. Another is by a thirteen-year old student in Sherman Oaks, California, who is spearheading the creation of a quilt. Eventually, all panels of this quilt will be assembled. Like these exhibits, other art installations throughout the country are addressing the country’s shared COVID experiences. 
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/11/how-art-helps-make-sense-covid-19-incomprehensible-toll/

Our Kids Need Arts Education More than Ever: Here’s What’s Lost Without It (from Time)
Frank Gehry calls on President Biden to empower school-age children to help heal themselves by restoring arts education because the arts…(help them) express and channel their emotions…and find their spirit’s song. He urges this emphasis on the arts so that children have the creative powers necessary to solve the problems we are leaving behind.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/our-kids-need-arts-education-now-more-than-ever-heres-what-is-lost-without-it/ar-BB1c6Q9j?ocid=msedgdhp/
 
From the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Teaching K-12 Science and Engineering During a Crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic is resulting in widespread and ongoing changes to how the K–12 education system functions, including disruptions to science teaching and learning environments. This report describes high-quality instruction today, with tips for administrators, teachers and others. It emphasizes quality and equity, giving advice for managing and monitoring instruction. The free publication is available for download from the National Academies.
https://www.nap.edu/resource/25909/interactive/?fbclid=IwAR0cufKezzb_-cCrlbi4skWinZk5SXkD2VQRlFV2zWdxZ86y-6qw8sy-xTw#.X3ZJmWof3RA.facebook

And for lightness and pure joy…
Pre-K Teacher Goes Viral After Sharing Virtual Classroom Dance Parties: “It’s About Bringing That Joy Factor”
Azel Prather, Jr., went viral when he shared his virtual pre-school dance party on YouTube. Pre-pandemic, Prather taught preschool at Kipp DC Arts and Technology Academy in Washington, DC. He has long recognized those children who were “dancing in their seats” when they were supposed to be learning sight words. Dance was part of the program then and it is now, through Instagram and other social media tools.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/pre-k-teacher-goes-viral-after-sharing-virtualclassroom-dance-parties-its-about-bringing-that-joy-factor-165553012.html
The approaches above are different, but the message is clear.  Moving forward, education will never be the same.​

​The Educational Theatre Association’s (EdTA) August survey, “The Impact of COVID-19 on Theatre Education,” has confirmed the profound effect of the pandemic on school theatre throughout the United States, leaving many programs at significant risk in the coming years.

The survey queried more than 11,000 middle and high school theatre educators about the status of their programs in the pandemic environment. Nearly 2,400 teachers responded, offering a snapshot of how COVID-19 has reshaped both their teaching methods and student learning opportunities.

Analysis shows programs have suffered substantial revenue losses, with 91% of schools forced to cancel performances in spring 2020. For many programs, ticket revenue provides the main source of funding, as 44% receive no financial support from their districts. Money lost to investments in canceled productions coupled with lack of spring ticket sales created a ripple effect on current season budgets. In fact, 22% of programs faced cuts for the 2020-21 academic year.

Many survey respondents reported 2019-20 revenue losses that were substantially more than they earned, and it is likely the economic downturn will limit other funding support this school year and beyond. For teachers, the impact raises short-term concerns about student recruitment, morale, and motivation as well as longer-term uncertainty about reductions in program capacity, external funding, and student opportunities.

According to James Palmarini, Collaborative Advisory Council member and EdTA policy and advocacy advisor, the cancellations and lost revenue numbers were not unexpected, but still troubling. “We knew many theatre programs had to cancel their shows in the spring, but the numbers regarding those lost productions and revenue are still very sobering,” he said.

Palmarini added there was hope from respondents for the current school year, with 59% answering “maybe” and 19% “yes” to a question regarding whether they thought they would produce a live show in 2020 or 2021, and 97% indicating they were returning to their positions in fall 2020.

Seventy-five percent of educators stated they were starting the school year entirely virtually or in a hybrid model. The data on how they are adapting to the virtual environment suggests a broad range of strategies, with no predominant mode for reaching students. In the spring of 2020, the most frequently realized instructional strategies were virtual lessons taught asynchronously and available on-demand; project-based lessons spanning multiple class periods; instructional videos or digital games; and digital versions of lesson packets with worksheets.

EdTA will conduct a follow up survey in the Summer of 2021.
For a comprehensive summary of the survey results visit the EdTA Rapid Response Advocacy Center.

The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) has launched Arts ARE Education, a national campaign encouraging school districts to continue to fund and support K-12 arts education programs in the 2021-22 school year. Given expected state and district budget cuts, calls for remedial education in tested subject areas, and the continued need for PPE equipment, NCCAS expects that arts programs across all disciplines will be at risk.
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The campaign asks advocates of all ages to take these action steps through its website:   
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• Sign the Arts ARE Education Pledge committing your support for arts education.
• Reach out to your district school board, asking them to pass the Arts ARE Education Resolution committing that they will continue funding for district arts education programs next school year.
• Write a letter to your state legislators urging them to support full funding for arts education in their district and asking them to reach out to the schools in their districts to do the same.
• Participate in the Arts Education Capitol Hill month in March, in which advocates will make virtual visits to Senate and House legislators to make the case for arts education support at the federal level through the Department of Education. More details will be posted on the website in the coming weeks regarding how to participate and prepare for the Capitol Hill visits.

Campaign manager James Palmarini, member of the Collaborative Advisory Council, said the initiative’s launch is the beginning of a long-term effort to mobilize supporters of arts education for all students. “While the current campaign focus is on district budgeting for the 2021-22 school year, I fully expect the need for this effort to continue for a considerable time. Even with federal assistance, the impact of the pandemic and the resulting economic fallout will be shaping public education for many years.”
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He added that the campaign is also mindful that students of color in high poverty districts are most likely to lose arts education access, given the limited resources the districts will have to continue with arts programs. “I think the Arts ARE Education campaign offers theatre education (and all arts education) advocates a great opportunity to raise their voices in a very grassroots way that can make a real difference for our students and the fields of theatre and all arts education.”

March 10: Growing Up with an Inventor and Sharing their Story through Film will feature documentary filmmakers Rob Lemelson and Cindy Yoon sharing stories and film clips from documentaries about their famous inventor-fathers.
April 14: Marilyn Hamilton, co-inventor of the Quickie Wheelchair, will speak with NMAH (National Museum of American History) curator Katherine Ott about her life as an athlete and inventor.
May 12: Sarah Will, Paralympic skier and accessibility advocate, and Mike Schultz, inventor of the Moto Knee and Versa Foot, will come together to talk with NMAH sports curator Jane Rogers about their respective careers.
 
Register for Growing Up with an Inventor​

​Collaborative member national education institutions have risen to the challenge to help their stakeholders adapt to the current COVID challenges. We asked representatives from these institutions to give us the top 3 strategies that their institutions are using to effectively address COVID for their stakeholders. 

Below are impressive strategies that these institutions are using. These strategies can benefit the entire STEAM field.

Crayola
Cheri Sterman, Director of Education
At Crayola Education we are meeting teachers where they are and bringing a message of new opportunities to the discussions.

• We’re offering remote professional development courses that demonstrate best practices in remote instruction.
• To build educators’ remote instruction confidence and effectiveness, we are immersing them in arts-infused experiences that increase their engagement and that they can use with students.
• We’re providing resources that help families and educators co-educate and CREATE™ Relationships with each other. A silver lining in the pandemic cloud is that families and educators are partnering in deeper ways.

Dramatic Results
Christi Wilkins, Executive Director
We are transforming our delivery to engage with our students/families/collaborators by:

• Emphasizing Human Centered Design (Design Thinking) strategies into everything we do with special emphasis on student engagement
• Celebrating "failure" and "risk taking" as a staff to keep us innovating and responsive to our students' needs
• Continually (and rapidly!) iterating, based on active feedback solicited from our "users" - students, families and our collaborators.

Educational Theatre Association
Jim Palmarini, Director of Educational Policy, Reimagined the student-driven  International Thespian Festival (ITF) and the annual EdTA Conference for teachers as virtual events (2,000+ attendees for ITF-V and 900+ for Conference)

• Expanded Theatre Educator Pro,  our professional development website for teachers, to include virtual or hybrid standards-based K-12 lesson plans, curriculum, and production strategies, through webinars, downloadable content, and extensive links to curated tools and resources.
• Created and disseminated the EdTA Recommendations for Reopening School Theatre Programs guide, detailing best practices for ensuring the wellbeing of students, teachers, and school staff as they re-enter the teaching and learning environment in the 2020-21 school year, with specific advisories to help teachers and leaders answer the question: “What is safely possible for our school and our students under state and district health rules.”

International Technology and Engineering Educators Association
Steve Barbato, Executive Director

• ITEEA Open Access At-Home Resources for Educators: In mid-March, ITEEA began compiling the resources below as a way to support educators through the unprecedented period of “social distancing” designed to prevent the spread of the novel Coronavirus. The list continues to grow and there is now functionality built in that allows educators to easily add new resources to share with colleagues.  

• Developed an Online Learning Toolkit for the 2020-21 REACH Challenge! These downloadable resources provide educators and team leads with everything they need to complete a design-thinking project. Each section includes ready-made lesson plans, slide presentations, worksheets, hands-on activities, and inspiring explorations aligned with the ITEEA “Standards for Technological and Engineering Literacy” and “Next Generation Science Standards” (NGSS). The toolkit is designed to bring technology and engineering to life for high school and college students, giving them the opportunity to use their STEM skills to help overcome human challenges for social good, making a real-world difference in the lives of those around them. ITEEA’s REACH Challenge is an impactful Adaptive & Assistive Technology (AT) design-thinking project for middle school, high school, and college level STEM programs, showcasing ITEEA’s mission that "Technology and Engineering Bring STEM to Life"! Teachers are guided through a series of lessons to lead their students in using their STEM skills to REACH a member of their community who has a challenge to overcome. This innovative project shows teachers how they can help students use their STEM skills to help overcome human challenges for social good, making a real-world difference in the lives of those around them.

• ITEEA’s STEM Center for Teaching and Learning (STEM CTL) has created a totally virtual option for all the professional learning opportunities to deliver Engineering by Design™ courses and much more. Examples include our Digital learning and safety Micro-badging online course series. These include online STEM education micro-badging mini courses now available for a Digital Literacy Micro-badging Series and a STEM Education Safety Micro-badging Series.

 
National Association of Gifted Children
Bess Wilson, Immediate Past Research Network Chair; Assistant Professor, Department of Foundations and Secondary Education, University of North Florida

• Giving flexibility to instructors, students, and staff regarding content/course delivery modes
• Providing additional professional development to instructional faculty on engaging and best practices in online and digital instructional design
• Increasing our universal design so that all learners can access our materials in online environments
• Providing additional support to students and partners in times of crisis (e.g., counseling, ombudsman, etc.)

National Dance Educators Association
Susan McGreevy, Executive Director

• Developed a webinar series around strategies for transitioning to online learning available on demand through the NDEO website www.NDEO.org
• Provide bi-monthly virtual chat sessions for special interest groups (SIG) for K-12, Higher Ed., and Private Sector groups. 
• Created a new course, taught by four professors, through our Online Professional Development Institute: “How to Create an Online Course”. Seventy-five teachers enrolled in the course when it was offered for the first time this past summer.  

National Science Teachers Association
Tricia Shelton, Director of Professional Learning and Standards Implementation

• NSTA launched the NSTA Daily Do in the spring. New Daily Dos continue to be released daily (M-F) https://www.nsta.org/resources/daily-do
  1. “To help introduce both teachers and families to phenomena-based learning, The National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) has been developing a series of short “Daily Dos”— tasks that embed sensemaking and can be completed remotely.”  This is a quote from NAP Teaching K-12 Science and Engineering During a Crisis (2020).
  2.  These lesson plans can be delivered in a face-to-face, hybrid, or remote setting supporting the multiple environments teachers are navigating.
  3. The lesson plans focus on sensemaking (strategies and guidance to support ALL students).
• NSTA developed Distance Learning professional learning and resources. https://www.nsta.org/distance-learning
  1. The resources are adaptable for synchronous, asynchronous (aided by technology), and asynchronous (no technology).
  2. The Distance Learning strategies and tools are focused on multiple aspects of sensemaking (experiencing phenomena, engaging in science and engineering practices, and sharing ideas).
  3. The Distance Learning professional learning utilizes a suite of tools to create a learning community where students virtually work together (synchronously or asynchronously).

• NSTA has partnered with organizations like CSSS and NSELA to share Back to School Guidance for 2020-21 and to share teacher stories from the classroom
  • http://cosss.org/resources/Documents/back-to-school-docs-2020/CSSS%202020%20Back-to-School%20Considerations-full.pdf
  • https://www.nsta.org/distance-learning​

By Christi Wilkins, Collaborative member and Executive Director of Dramatic Results
​
The Collaborative’s spring, 2020 newsletter included information about the Dramatic Results™ panel presentation at the Arts Education Partnership’s Annual Convening (fall, 2019) titled Systemically STEAM: Tips for Forming a STEAM Ecosystems. Dramatic Results also presented at the 2020 SLECoP Virtual Convening (October, 2020). In this session, titled Resilience and Resolve – The Power of Thriving STEAM Learning Ecosystems, presenters shared their successes and failures in integrating the arts with STEM through a cultural/psycho-social framework. 

The session documented Dramatic Results’™ work when its own resilience and resolve were put to the test this past spring. As schools across the world adjusted to the current global health crisis, the agency swiftly pivoted its in-person operations within four weeks, replacing all in-person programs with live, virtual STEAM programs using Zoom.  As a direct result of their investment in cross-sector dissemination and community-building efforts, they have expanded their original 7-member local STEAM Ecosystem (including: U.S. Sailing Center; Long Beach Public Library; Historical Society of Long Beach; Growing Experience; an urban farm located on the grounds of a housing project; engineers from Boeing and Northrop Grumman; a Bravo TV chef; and The Social Justice Sewing Academy) into a regional and national collaboration with Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Museum of Design, a digital artist from Fab Labs, a neuroscientist from Duke University’s TIP Program, Start Science, and ReDiscover.

By leveraging its growing STEAM Ecosystem, Dramatic Results™ has been able to offer engaging online classes on topics that include cyborg prototyping, genetics of “dragon breeding,” design thinking in healthcare, video game design, photography, movie-making, and mixed media art. Students responded to the new format almost immediately, with consistent levels of engagement, especially through the site’s chat.

Dramatic Results™ is further expanding its STEAM Ecosystem reach to serve Calvert County Public Schools (CCPS) in Maryland, a rural community with few resources. This fall, CCPS will serve its first virtual STEAM cohort, which will provide under-resourced gifted girls across six middle schools an after-school “hands-on” live virtual STEAM program. 

You can learn more about Dramatic Results™ and how to start building a STEAM Ecosystem in your community. Download a FREE copy of the Dramatic Results™ STEAM Mapping Tool™ here.

By: Jonathan Katz, Collaborative Strategic Planning Committee Chair and Collaborative Strategic Advisor

Mission
The Innovation Collaborative is a national transdisciplinary¹ forum to foster creativity,² innovation,³ and equity⁴ in teaching and learning.

Purpose  
The Innovation Collaborative provides information about how effective intersections of the arts, sciences, humanities, engineering, math, and technology (STEAM) can reinforce innovative  thinking. To that end, it identifies, conducts, and disseminates research. By supporting teaching and lifelong learning, the Collaborative encourages networking and collaboration across disciplines, institutions, and individuals in both in-school (formal) and out-of-school (informal) settings and the intersections of the two.

​Vision
We envision a diverse, equitable, and inclusive society where:

1. Individuals and Institutions
   1. Have an integrated view of the arts, sciences, humanities, engineering, math, and technology (STEAM); and
   2.  Look at the world creatively and innovatively; and
   3. Identify and solve important problems, from the local to global scale
2. Education
   1.  Is an integrated system that addresses cultural, disciplinary, and institutional boundaries; and
   2. Employs seamless transdisciplinary learning and effective problem-solving experiences in all cultures; and 
   3. Engages, empowers, and prepares students for college and career, and prepares adults for productive lives.

Goal 1: Improving Practice 
To promote and share research about the many ways that the intersections of the arts, sciences, humanities, engineering, math, and technology (STEAM) promote creative and innovative thinking in all audiences and demographics

1. Stimulate Research
   1. Determine effective practices that promote creative and innovative thinking at the arts, sciences, technology, engineering, math, and humanities (STEAM) intersections in in-school and out-of-school learning settings. 
   2. Stimulate research across institutional boundaries that studies the effects and implications of these intersections.
2.  Apply Research to Practice
   1. Purposefully develop effective STEAM practices to meet the needs of diverse learners.
   2. Apply research findings from the Collaborative and other sources to practice in in-school and out-of-school learning settings.
   3. Develop tools and resources for individuals to self-assess and reflect on how they are applying this research to their practice.
3.  Establish Research-based Infrastructure
   1. Provide a diverse, research-based foundation for the movement that connects the arts, STEM, and the humanities in a variety of learning settings.
   2. Work with cross-institutional partnerships to support this movement.

Goal 2: Collaboration
To create equitable opportunities for individuals and institutions to convene and share in interdisciplinary conversations, collaborations, and experiences that lead to a shared vocabulary, a common understanding of the value of these intersections, and an appreciation for their applications

1. Convene
   1.  Convene Research Thought Leaders to collaborate and to advise on the Collaborative’s work.
   2. Convene networks and fields of practice to promote the importance of arts, STEM, and humanities (STEAM) intersections in learning.
2. Disseminate
   1. Disseminate existing research.
   2. Host symposia, present at conferences, and publish findings.
3. Proliferate
   1. Promote collaboration across individuals, institutions, and disciplines within the Collaborative.
   2. Promote collaboration with individuals and institutions outside of the Collaborative.
   3. Link researchers and/or practitioners across the arts, STEM, and humanities (STEAM) to grow the STEAM field and to promote Collaborative goals.
   4. Share findings, strategies, and outcomes of these collaborations.

​Goal 3: Policy Development and Implementation
To identify shared beliefs among individuals and institutions regarding the importance of the arts, STEM, and humanities (STEAM) intersections in teaching and learning, resulting in a policy agenda and individual policy statements that form the foundation of equitable collective efforts

1. Identify and Articulate
   1. Identify shared beliefs regarding transdisciplinary teaching and learning.
   2. Identify opportunities within education policy and legislation to further support these shared beliefs.
2. Create
   1. Create individual position statements on shared policies/practices in transdisciplinary education that support creativity and innovation.
   2. Create an annual legislative agenda focusing on key opportunities that support the Collaborative’s mission and vision.
3. Educate and Inform
   1. Share position statements and annual legislative agenda with policymakers at the national and state levels.
   2. Distribute position statements and annual legislative agenda throughout the Collaborative member institutions.
   3. Support and monitor efforts by Collaborative members to share position statements and annual legislative agenda with their primary stakeholders.
   4. Join with other education stakeholders to bring the Collaborative’s position statements and annual legislative agenda into other related efforts.

​DEFINITIONS

Transdisciplinary¹

• Transdisciplinarity is the full integration of different disciplines that achieves a synthesis that transcends, through shared concepts and processes, the individual disciplines.  
• Transdisciplinary learning requires students to work on different disciplines interdependently and simultaneously, seeing that one discipline cannot complete the task without the other. This learning helps students understand that the disciplines rely on each other to contribute to a deeper understanding of each discipline and to achieve an overarching synthesis. This synthesis can help produce higher cognition that would be unlikely through addressing the disciplines individually. It can help solve problems, explain phenomena, create a product, and more. 
• An example of transdisciplinarity.
  • Second grade students were given the problem of inventing a 3D wheel that could navigate Mars’ sandy and rocky surface. Through initial hands-on experiences integrating both disciplines, they combined their grade-level science concepts of texture, mass, rolling, and spinning with art concepts of line, shape, texture, and form. They also integrated disciplinary processes such as (science) observing, asking questions, experimenting, developing a solution, testing, evaluating, using data to develop a conclusion, and (art) creating, presenting, responding, and connecting. In teams, they then used these science and art concepts to design and make their invention and write a team presentation that would show how well their invention solved the problem. 
  • In their experiences, they didn’t separate the disciplines’ concepts and processes by thinking “I’m doing art now” or “I’m doing science now” or “I’m doing language arts now”. Their inventing process transcended each of the disciplines, driven by a strong synthesis that was richer than each individual discipline and that solved their problem, like in a real-world scenario.​

What should artistic and cultural leaders aspire to exemplify and accomplish in a time of crisis? Innovation Collaborative Strategic Planning Advisor Jonathan Katz published a series of four blogs on the Americans for the Arts website entitled Leadership Success in a Crisis Environment.  They are intended to stimulate dialog about characteristics desirable in leaders during crises, the ways effective crisis managers think, the special needs and opportunities for leadership during crises, and the management principles that prove most valuable during crises. Jonathan welcomes feedback as well as forums for discussion of the ideas. 

• Blog I:    Leadership Success in a Crisis Environment: Leadership Roles and Goals 
• Blog II:   Leadership Success in a Crisis Environment: A Perspective on Decision Making
• Blog III:  Leadership Success in a Crisis Environment: Leaders Demonstrate Value during Crises
• Blog IV:  Leadership Success in a Crisis Environment: A Leader’s Crisis Management Checklist

 

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By Juliana Texley, Innovation Collaborative Board Member and former President, National Science Teachers Association

It often takes a major event to upset the status quo and for real change to occur. The U.S. Department of Education issued its first Star Schools grants to improve and evaluate online education in 2000. While the potential of online systems was clear twenty years ago, very little innovation occurred in the pedagogy until this year. In March 2020, schools across the nation were suddenly shut down and teachers had to adopt new methods almost overnight.
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Educators across the globe reached for skills and methods that they never thought they would need. Best practice couldn’t simply involve readings and worksheets or lectures via Zoom.  Innovation happened! For this issue of the Innovation newsletter, we surveyed to find suggestions and links for a program near you.

Talk Isn’t Cheap
At the most basic level, nurturing innovation online begins with communication skills. That original Department of Education study twenty years ago emphasized two important elements of online interactions—open collaboration and creativity. Those elements are being reintroduced today in the best programs.  One of the key ideas that teachers then and now recognize is summarized by Sharon O’Malley¹. Online discussions should be between students, not teachers and individual learners, she points out. What seems logical is, in truth, a tremendous challenge when a teacher moves from face-to-face to asynchronous online dialogue. Learning to “stop talking” online was one of the first changes teachers had to make as the transition occurred. 

Spatial Reasoning
A second key principle of good online learning also included in O’Malley’s review, the intersection of science and the arts, is often spatial reasoning and how it is a skill that is both innate and learned. The online environment can be just as effective in discovering, manipulating, and developing spatial reasoning skills. Deborah Kris² shows that very specific methods can be incorporated to decrease gender gaps as well. Incorporating spatial reasoning tests, games, and building experiences into standard online courses can bring them to a level that could not be achieved in any other way. Unfortunately, it is awkward to incorporate spatial learning, art, and graphical analysis in many traditional online learning platforms.  Therefore, the teacher may find it necessary to juggle not one but several learning management systems simultaneously. While these platforms may not be compatible, in the past several months teachers across multiple subject areas have demonstrated it is possible to deliver effective instruction through these strategies.  

Great Examples from the Arts and Physical Education
Students today find online arts a motivational dimension of their shared experience. But it is still rare to see these skills woven into the fabric of science and social studies courses online. This is partially true due to the limited imagination of the programmers who develop the platforms. They might remember education as it was when they were students themselves, but they haven’t necessarily considered sites and apps that can be adapted for blended learning. When teachers make the effort, innovation enriches the at-home experience. Here are just a few examples of innovative resources:

• Choir practice is one of the activities that has been identified as high risk in the age of COVID (because of the deep breathing needed for a performance and aerosol droplet projection.) But everyone has seen those great online performances, comprised of singers in multiple locations. Tom Cook reviews some specific software that can be employed to create online choir performances at: https://blog.chorusconnection.com/virtual-learning-taking-your-choir-rehearsals-online. These experiences get rave reviews. Also see the National Association for Music Education for a great review of virtual resources: https://nafme.org/my-classroom/virtual-learning-resources-for-music-educators
• Dance has moved online as well. Stefani Sassos reviews the online dance options at:  https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/fitness/g32686399/best-online-dance-classes/ 
• The Educational Theatre Association has an extensive list of resources and strategies for creating virtual performances on its Theatre Educator Pro professional development site at https://learn.schooltheatre.org/creating-virtual-performances

• Young Voices for the Planet, a non-profit that features award-winning films, has developed two online programs that blend video, science, social studies, and activism. The programs include 
  • Civic Engagement and Democracy, and
  • Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation.
• Jason Education couples online STEM curriculum with journaling, literacy, encounters with role models, linked art experiences, and multilingual text. Many of the curricula feature entrepreneurial “Design and Pitch” challenges that encourage Shark Tank-like student interactions. They also offer competitions involving video production.
• Jason Education also offers curricula in early childhood STEM which was developed in partnership with the Massachusetts Audubon Society, along with online professional development. These lessons include art, social studies, and other links illustrating early childhood best practices.
• In the winter, 2020 Collaborative newsletter the real-time integrated arts and STEM program, SAM Academy, was described. Like hundreds of similar programs across the nation in the “summer of COVID”, SAM went virtual this summer. Take another look at the program at http://cvsamacademy.org/art-cohort/
  
  

Innovation isn’t just for our students. Congratulations to all the teachers and administrators who have become COVID innovators. It’s worth bearing in mind that most education leaders believe that once the virus is controlled, hybrid and virtual instruction will continue to serve as a viable instruction option. So, while all of us in education continue to face challenges, the innovation that is happening will serve us far into the future.  
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1. O’Malley, Sharon. (2017). Effective Teaching Online. https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/07/12/7-guidelines-effective-teaching-online
2. Kris, Deborah Farmer. (2015). Can Teaching Spatial Skills Help Bridge the STEM Gender Gap? https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/43802/can-teaching-spatial-skills-help-bridge-the-stem-gender-gap