Why STEAM subjects should be a priority in Primary education
Robert McGregor is a teacher and the founder and director of STEAM Powered Education, created to help children get a head start in Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) through after-school club and holiday workshops in local schools. In this blog, Robert explains the value of a STEAM education in Primary school.
Having spent 25 years in Primary education, I have watched as practical Science skills are being slowly eroded. It used to be that science would be offered for 2 hours a week and assessed at the end of Year 6. Now it’s offered for just 1 hour a week in Primary school and science equipment is often old and out of date.
I would watch, with dismay, as each new academic year brought worse and worse results in science assessments made by teachers.
I could see children were less able to use scientific terminology, and more importantly, their understanding of scientific testing, recording, evaluation and problem-solving was also reducing.
Combine that with the many hours children spend on screens, and it made me realise something needed to be done.
When a child realises that they can affect the world in amazing ways the word 'Wonderment' springs to mind. Encouraging wonderment and a desire to be curious to know more is so important.
I hope that all teachers, whatever their passion, want to inspire wonderment in their subject.
I love to highlight Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal and Tesla, as a role model. Whatever else you think of him, he does seem to embody the visionary ideas that STEAM brings to the world.
STEAM education has so many exciting things to offer children.
At an early age, children are curious but they need a lot of help and guidance to problem solve. STEAM subjects encourage them to do this.
They force them into situations where if they don't problem solve nothing will happen. This is particularly apparent when they build something that doesn't do as it is supposed to do. Our young learners are forced to solve the problem as otherwise that particular device will not be very interesting.
There’s always a temptation to do too much for our learners as teachers, but perseverance is a key skill for children to learn and STEAM subject are vital to helping children develop this.
For me, there’s no question that local authorities should be prioritising STEAM education both in and out of school.
We are living in a highly technical society, surrounded by gadgets we love, yet do not understand.
Our young learners are going to be growing up in this world, and we must prepare them for that. The National Lottery and Local Education Authorities encourage sports organisations to teach in schools, why don’t they do the same with companies that are focused on STEAM education?
I can't think of a group of subjects that is more relevant and vital to today's Primary education than STEAM, it should be centre stage in both Primary and Secondary schools.
After-school STEAM clubs must be viewed as a vital part of our children’s educational journey and funded as such. I would love to see science, technology and coding become a core Primary subject.
Schools have invested heavily in computers, but we haven't really seen the bigger picture. We don’t show our pupils how coding interacts in the real world.
Drone building and racing buggies designing competitions between schools would be a fantastic way of encouraging our young learners to get hands on and invested in the subject. We need to create a culture of making and thinking big. Perhaps the children could redesign their playground and, even better, safely help make it?
Interested in hearing more from Robert McGregor? Take a look at our infographic about how to boost engagement with STEAM subjects in Primary education.