With all of the acronyms floating around in education it is easy to confuse them or lose track of what each stands for, especially if they are close. Most educators have heard of STEM as it has increased in mainstream education. STEAM the incorporation of the arts into the STEM model, also seems to be known by many educators as the arts support critical thinking and creativity, two of the skills STEM promotes.
What about STREAM? STEAMY? Or STEMM? These were all new to me! My first thought was more acronyms, great… How am I ever going to keep them straight, and what do these extra letters stand for. We will look at each of these acronyms one at a time starting with STREAM. What could start with an R that they added into this that fits… robotics (my initial thought!), but no that is incorrect. The R as I found could have multiple meanings such as reading, research, writing (using the second letter), or in a few instances religion. I was skeptical about the religion because how would you sell that in public education where issues of church and state are separate. I looked into this further to discover the R only seemed to represent religion in parochial schools. This makes sense as they are founded on religious principals.
The R in STREAM representing reading, wRiting, or research makes more sense when it comes to public education. The addition of reading and writing to the STEM/STEAM acronym promotes cross-curricular teaching and 21st-century skills. Writing fits into the framework of STEM/STEAM as it has been shown to have a positive correlation on thinking, which is necessary for creativity in all disciplines. Writing links processes together shows a trail in ones thinking if it is documented.
STEMM with two Ms, very similar to STEM with one M, introduces yet another content area. Like STREAM, there are varying opinions as to what the second M stands for. The reads I have done suggest music, medicine, and manufacturing. My initial thought on this is the music is already incorporated with the arts in STEAM education (it’s a performing art, not visual art, but still an art, therefore included with the A in STEAM). Therefore, I’m not one hundred percent sold that M is for music. Medicine, I found is more accepted in high education for those entering health-related fields, but other than that it doesn’t really make sense to incorporate medicine as a core part of STEM learning. Manufacturing is the suggested M, that I feel, makes the most sense. By adding the manufacturing component students would learn how all of the other components of the STEM/STEAM model work together in a practical way to create something. Manufacturing technologies are often not taught even at the post-secondary level! FabLabs and similar spaces in the district could play an integral part in making the manufacturing piece of STEMM become a reality.
What is STEAMY? STEAMY is really no different than STEM, STEAM, STREAM of STEMM. STEAMY is more about the experience of the student as they are participating in the learning. For primary children, this could be authentic play experiences with the via prop boxes, what a great way to introduce careers to young children! For older students, STEAMY might be the creation of something done in a Fablab or similar space. The idea of STEAMY education seems to be relatively new in the terminology, but the foundation of it, authentic learning, has been around for quite some time.
Regardless of the acronym being used, each model STEM, STEAM, STREAM, STEMM, or STEAMY, each has so much of offer the students of our classrooms by providing an environment to connect disciplines and encourage the mind to think in different ways. The acronym is not important, the learning that comes from STEM learning is what is important. With so many diverse students there is an ability to reach all of them through the content areas included and variations of STEM! And that is amazing!
The Adventures of a Public School Teacher 