You may have heard of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), without the ‘A,’ but here at Digistars, we feel passionately about STEAM education. As per the University of San Diego, STEAM is an “educational discipline that engages students around the subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Math” that brings creativity into work.
In today’s world, setting students up for future success means exposing them to these disciplines holistically in order to develop their critical thinking skills.
Here are some enlightening statistics from a study done by Microsoft that show the importance of STEM/STEAM education:
The decision to study STEM starts before college for many students.
- Nearly 4 in 5 STEM college students (78%) say that they decided to study STEM in high school or earlier. One in five (21%) decide in middle school or earlier.
- More than half (57%) of STEM college students say that, before going to college, a teacher or class got them interested in STEM.
- This is especially true of female students (68% vs. 51% males), who give “a teacher or class” as the top factor that sparked their interest.
Studying STEM/STEAM before college allows for a higher level of preparedness.
- Only 1 in 5 STEM college students feel that their K–12 education prepared them extremely well for their college courses in STEM.
- Students who felt less prepared for STEM college courses said that offering more STEM courses would have helped to better prepare them — and for students who felt extremely/very well-prepared, it was the challenging, college-prep courses that helped.
Education writer Jeevan Vasagar stated in a Financial Times article, “Education is under pressure to respond to a changing world [and] as repetitive tasks are eroded by technology and outsourcing, the ability to solve novel problems has become increasingly vital.”
Employers are seeking, now more than ever, candidates with twenty-first century skills. Technology is consistently replacing repetitive, task-based work, leaving humans with the challenge to work in jobs with creative, critical thinking and collaborative components. A report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts 8.8% growth (and a median income almost $50,000 higher) in STEM/STEAM-related occupations between now and 2028, compared to 5.0% for non-STEM occupations.
Dr. Kristin Cook of Bellarmine University says “Kids are natural inquirers [and] STEAM methods provide them a space where they can dive deeper into what they’re learning in the siloed disciplines.” We couldn’t agree more. Digistars allows students to apply their academic education with an abundance of imaginative ideas that are translated into a variety of films.
Digistars takes STEAM principles and puts them into action through a variety of program options that combine digital literacy, processes, and skills with creative and critical thinking in the form of directing, writing, acting, and artistic designing.
Moreover, the sudden shift to online learning due to the global pandemic has shown us that much school work was still pen-and-paper-based. With the onset of widespread online learning, teachers are finding it ever harder to keep students engaged and excited about learning. While it’s unclear whether schools will continue to be online, or back in the classroom, or some hybrid of both, teachers will need to be prepared with new and innovative ways of teaching familiar subjects.
The old ways of teaching and learning are no longer adequately preparing today’s students for the real world now or for what they will find beyond graduation. Digistars’ fun and enriching programs supply students with modern skills to set them up for success throughout and beyond their K-12 educational journey.