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Mathematics in STEAM education is challenging in the way that it is undeniably important to student development yet also most difficult to get students to engage with. The idea behind STEAM education is to highlight the importance of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics and encourage the teaching of those subject areas to be much more integrated. Out of these fields, mathematics is one of the most established academic subjects. However, it is still vital to emphasize the importance of mathematics throughout education and life as a whole.
So what is STEAM education, why is mathematics so important, and how should mathematics be viewed in a wider STEAM context? Read on to find out more or jump to our education solutions page for further insights into improving student outcomes.
STEAM education is a concept that emerged out of STEM education, which stood for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The ‘A’ in STEAM added the arts to the mix, but both concepts are fundamentally based around the idea of highlighting subjects that are important for developing the transferable skills employers look for.
Both STEAM education and STEM education initiatives agree that mathematics is one area that is vital to childhood development and later education. In this article, we take a closer look at what mathematics is, assess its overall importance, and evaluate its relationship with the other four STEAM education fields.
Mathematics is one of the most established academic subjects globally and one of the hardest to define succinctly. The Cambridge Dictionary describes mathematics as:
“The study of numbers, shapes, and space using reason and usually a special system of symbols and rules for organizing them.”
Some definitions break mathematics down into four distinct areas, which are as follows:
Regardless of the precise definition you opt for, the most important thing to know is that mathematics is more than simply the study of numbers. It is also the study of ideas like structure, order, space, and change.
Mathematics is an important academic subject because it teaches essential life skills, such as the ability to carry out arithmetic and an understanding of shapes, angles, and distances. One of the major benefits in comparison to many other academic subjects is that its concepts are also more universal, crossing over to different languages easily.
The field of mathematics can also be used to teach students the importance of truth, the value of identifying patterns and trends, the purpose of structure, and the need to use logic and reasoning. These kinds of skills and abilities are transferable to other areas too, and so can be crucial for cognitive development on a more general level.
It is also critical to understand that some of the importance of mathematics is connected to its value within the workforce, making it useful for professional development. As an example, mathematics is a vital part of fields like accounting and finance, medicine, IT, and any field where statistics and numerical data play a key role.
Mathematics can be a daunting subject for many students, and it has historically been taught in a traditional way, which does not suit all learning styles. This can make it difficult for some students to engage fully, which can lead to a lack of understanding about some of the essential mathematical concepts that later lessons are built upon.
One of the ideas that has been recommended to improve learning outcomes is to try to teach mathematics by framing some of the traditional math problems in a more integrated way, which allows students to connect the concepts to real-life situations. This is relatively simple with areas like physics and engineering, where mathematics play a key role already, but it can also be done with the remaining STEAM education fields as well.
For instance, mathematics has increasingly become integrated with technology through things like computer databases and spreadsheets. In fact, computers have actually played a key role in proving that some long-standing mathematical concepts hold true. Moreover, mathematics can also be integrated with the liberal arts, with psychology, in particular, being a good example of this, as it is a subject area that utilizes statistics and data samples.
Mathematics has long been considered one of the core academic subjects, so its inclusion within the concept of STEAM education is perhaps not surprising. However, one of the STEAM concept’s major priorities is to promote integration, which is really the key takeaway for teachers and academic institutions.
To improve student engagement and overall learning outcomes, it can be advantageous to apply mathematical concepts to real-world situations so that students find math problems easier to identify with. Fortunately, there is significant cross-over potential with science, technology, engineering, and the arts, making this an achievable aim.
Thank you for reading. This article was the final installment in our series on STEAM education in which we covered an introduction to the framework as well as each of the core subjects – science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics. If you enjoyed this series, please visit the ViewSonic education solutions page for more valuable insights into education and the modern classroom.
Technology in STEAM education is of particular importance as a basic understanding of technology is now required for almost any kind of work. The idea behind STEAM education is to place a focus on the areas of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics, emphasizing their importance for developing transferable skills and highlighting their value within the workforce. In today’s world, the field of technology is vital because it is all around us, assisting our everyday lives, driving entire industries, and keeping us connected.
Keep reading to learn more about the importance of technology in STEAM education or visit our education solutions page for further insights and teaching tips.
What is STEAM education? Put simply, the central idea is to emphasize the importance of the five main STEAM fields and to help students to engage with them. In addition, the STEAM concept is designed to encourage integrated teaching of the fields, and this is an area where technology has an especially useful role to play.
After all, technology can be used to assist with science, engineering, the arts, and mathematics, while it can also be taught as a distinct subject of its own – known as technology education. Furthermore, education technology, or EdTech for short, has also emerged as a crucial tool for teachers and students. In this article, we will explore what technology means in this context, why it is so important, and how it influences STEAM education as a whole.
Out of the five STEAM education fields, technology is arguably the most abstract in terms of its relationship to academia. This is partly because technology is constantly evolving, but it is also because technology is less established as a clearly defined academic subject than things like science or mathematics.
Technology education is defined by the Technology Education Lab as:
“An integrated, experience-based instructional program designed to prepare students to be knowledgeable about technology – its evolution, systems, technologies, utilization, and social and cultural significance.”
A major focus of many technology programs is bridging the gap that exists between widespread usage of technology and less common knowledge about how technology actually works and how to create or fix it. The STEAM field of technology can also be said to include Information Technology (IT) and computer-based disciplines too.
Technology is an important focus area for educators because students need to become familiar with how to use computers, machines, and other devices, not only within education settings but also within their daily lives. Of course, this use of technology also continues once students move into employment too.
However, beyond this, students have the opportunity to learn how technology actually works, rather than simply engaging with it as a user. This is also crucial because people with these skills can potentially move into fields where they will be involved in designing, testing, or manufacturing devices or equipment.
Information Technology is also at the very heart of many organizations, and developing IT skills is absolutely essential, not only for lessons based on IT, but for almost all modern lessons. The importance of IT skills has only increased further with the rise of EdTech and by the increased demand for distance learning options.
With the overall importance of technology and technology-based lessons established, it is also important to understand how technology works in a STEAM context. As stated, one of the big focuses of STEAM education is on integration, and it could be argued that technology is the easiest of the five STEAM fields to integrate with the others.
The links between science and technology are numerous and, in an overview of STEAM education, Georgette Yakman argues that “science provides the framework by which all technology is developed and structured to function.” Similarly, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering are obvious examples of areas where engineering crosses over with technology and where the two concepts can be taught in unison.
The arts is a broad field, but areas like computer-aided design and photography are good examples of cross-over with technology. In addition, technology can assist with mathematics in a number of ways, from the use of calculators or computer spreadsheets to perform arithmetic through to the use of software to make graphs and charts.
Modern society is largely driven by technology, and this requires people to understand how to use it, as well as how to make it and how to fix it when it goes wrong. Technology-based subjects are a key part of a good academic curriculum, helping to equip students with transferable skills, and technology is also relatively easy to integrate with the other main STEAM education fields – science, engineering, the arts, and mathematics.
Despite this, technology is arguably the most abstract of the STEAM fields because technology education is less clearly defined than many other academic subjects, and this continues to present a challenge to educators.
If you have not been following our short series on STEAM education, please feel free to read our introduction to STEAM education as well as our look at the importance of science within the STEAM framework. You can also visit our education solutions page where you’ll find numerous insights into the digital transformation of education.
Science in STEAM education is a cornerstone of the idea of integrating technical subjects with the arts into a more complete education system. STEAM education refers to initiatives that group the subjects of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics together. The first part of this acronym, science, can be crucial for providing learners with problem-solving skills and teaching them to embrace the quest for knowledge and understanding.
Keep reading to learn about the importance of science within the STEAM framework, or visit our education solutions page for more valuable insights into the modern classroom.
Within academic circles, the concept of STEAM education has grown in popularity. While the acronym itself covers the core subjects that are involved – namely science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics – understanding the question of “What is STEAM education?” is important, and it goes beyond simply learning these subjects.
Essentially, STEAM education is an integrative education model not only focused on the importance of the individual subjects, but also how they come together to provide a rounded education. The subjects themselves were chosen partly because of this, but also because of their value within the workforce and their role in teaching crucial life skills.
In this article, we are going to focus on the importance of science and the value that a scientific education can provide students throughout their time at school and beyond.
Within the context of education, science refers to the act of teaching scientific information and processes. It is often broken down into the following three fields or branches:
However, while this remains the case, modern definitions of science tend to also include social sciences along with the three natural sciences. This then introduces a whole range of additional subjects, with some of the most notable examples including psychology, sociology, and economics.
A significant part of science as an academic subject is focused on research and ‘the scientific method’, which involves formulating a question, coming up with a hypothesis or a proposed explanation, making a prediction, testing the initial hypothesis, and then evaluating the results. This is important because it places a strong emphasis on the need to back up claims or assumptions with clear evidence. Moreover, it allows the subject to appeal to people with all kinds of different learning styles, including logical learners, natural learners, visual learners, and social learners.
While the teaching of scientific principles has a range of benefits, the importance of science can perhaps be best summarized by the fact that it teaches important critical thinking skills, the search for truth, and highly transferable problem-solving skills. The basic scientific method can also be used to answer many non-scientific questions too.
Science can appeal to learners of all types because it includes active learning, writing, creating charts, visual demonstrations, observation of events, and a lot more. Additionally, science lessons can include individual and collaborative work, teaching students to adapt to different situations based on the requirements of the task.
Within the workforce, scientific knowledge and the skills to carry out scientific research and analysis are in high demand, which is one of the reasons science is included within the STEAM acronym. One of the challenges that is sometimes raised is that young children find it difficult to engage with science as a subject, so a key focus of many STEAM initiatives is finding ways to make the subject more interesting and engaging.
Beyond the importance of science as a subject, it is also worth taking some time to think about how science relates to some of the other components of the STEAM acronym. After all, one of the aims of STEAM education is to achieve a level of integration between the different fields.
For instance, science and technology match up well because much of the technology we use and rely on has been the result of scientific discovery. The link with engineering is also clear in much the same way because engineering uses scientific ideas and concepts to design and create structures, machines, and objects. Similarly, science and mathematics go hand-in-hand, especially with physics, where numerical data is crucial.
Although the relationship between art and science may seem less clear, at least initially, it is worth considering things like depictions of the natural world. Not only does this link to biology, but there is also an element of science behind using a camera to capture an image or depicting perspective on a two-dimensional painting or drawing.
Science is a key part of STEAM education, teaching students important critical thinking skills, as well as a structured method for testing theories and evaluating evidence. Best of all, many of these skills are transferable, allowing them to be used not only in other STEAM fields but also in everyday life, too.
There is strong demand within the workforce for individuals with science-based qualifications and abilities, and this is another major reason why the importance of science should not be underestimated.
If you missed our introductory article on this topic, please feel free to read STEAM Education: Preparing All Students for the Future, or head to the ViewSonic Education page for further insights into education in the modern classroom.
Video conferencing (VC) enables us to instantaneously meet with colleagues, customers, and vendors in real-time from almost anywhere in the world. With the right equipment and a reliable internet connection, any space can now become a meeting room – answering the growing need for on-demand communication, flexible work schedules, and increased collaboration between global teams.
This new way of meeting comes with a string of benefits for both company and employee, but hinges on having the right equipment to ensure meetings remain fluid, dynamic, and productive.
Read on to find out what to look for when choosing a VC monitor or visit our workplace solutions page for more insights into improving corporate collaboration.
Web conferencing software was arguably the single most important tool of 2020. It allowed countless businesses to continue operations through a highly challenging year, and in the process opened our eyes to new and exciting working possibilities. Most notably, that remote collaboration can not only be effective but also extremely beneficial.
But with this fast-growing and seemingly irreversible shift towards remote and hybrid work comes a new challenge: how to optimize traditional and home offices to effectively bridge the geographical gap between centralized offices and remote workers.
This article will look at how to choose a video conference monitor that best serves this purpose.
A video conferencing monitor is a monitor with integrated video conferencing capabilities that allow you to leverage the tools provided by web conferencing software like Skype, Zoom, and Google Hangouts.
VC monitors are the hardware through which you will conduct and attend meetings. The quality and functionality of the monitor have the potential to largely affect any meeting, so it is important to know exactly what to look for.
When choosing a VC monitor, first consider the attributes that best contribute to meaningful collaboration. Factors such as a comfortable environment, the ability to see and hear team members clearly, the seamless sharing of ideas, and easy access to both your information and the information shared by others are all important. A quality monitor for video conferencing should replicate all these attributes within a virtual setting.
In this next section, we look at the most important features to pay attention to when choosing a VC monitor and how they impact the attributes listed above.
A large screen allows you to have multiple windows open simultaneously, giving you easy access to important information during meetings. For example, you could have Microsoft Teams, Excel, and PowerPoint all open at once on the same screen. This helps maintain the fluidity and momentum of meetings and eliminates those awkward pauses as you scroll through open tabs or wait for pages to load.
VC meetings are often more efficient than regular meetings as they rely heavily on a predetermined agenda. Having a large monitor will allow you to capitalize on this by having all the necessary information in front of you on one screen when the meeting begins.
Cameras are necessary for any VC setup; however, the positioning of the camera is key. A built-in camera that is located just above the screen ensures you are perfectly framed and helps create the feeling of eye contact while looking at your display.
A built-in camera also eliminates unwanted cable clutter and reduces setup time, which can otherwise lead to late or shaky starts. Punctuality in meetings improves workplace efficiency, so any features that can reduce setup time and eliminate potential complications are considered a plus.
A VC monitor with flexible positioning will allow you to sit comfortably throughout long meetings without developing work-related musculoskeletal disorders. It is important that you do not hunch over or strain your neck in any way as this can lead to prolonged injuries that may become worse over time.
A truly ergonomic monitor should be able to tilt, swivel, rotate, and adjust for height. Not only crucial to posture, flexible positioning of the monitor will also allow you to experiment with different desk arrangements and easily adjust the display when joined by colleagues or clients while still allowing you to maintain a professional appearance to those on the other side of the screen.
Refresh rate refers to the rate at which still images are displayed on the monitor in order to create the illusion of movement. Think of refresh rate like a flipbook – the faster you flick through the pages the more seamless the motion appears to be.
Refresh rate is measured in hertz (Hz), which is the number of times the display is refreshed per second. While 60Hz used to be considered a good starting point for monitors, it can potentially produce a flicker effect that may lead to eye strain. For VC purposes, 75Hz is a much better starting point for smoother scrolling and clearer video that is easy on the eye.
If you want to learn more about refresh rate, learn more in detail here.
When ideas are being shared between multiple people (or even just two), audio can make or break a VC meeting. You need to hear each person clearly to keep the conversation fluid and let the momentum build. Using headphones is one potential solution but they can be restrictive.
Instead, look for a monitor that comes with integrated speakers that provide quality sound. This will once again eliminate unwanted cords and clutter from your workspace and reduce the cost of having to buy additional speakers.
Video conferencing is on the rise, and for good reason. Many employees are experiencing a better work/life balance through more flexible work arrangements, while companies are seeing an increase in productivity thanks to improved communication.
Here are just a few of the benefits already being seen:
Video conferencing is changing the way we meet and, in most cases, for the better. But improvement is actionable as you’ll still need to invest in the right equipment to make it work. But with the savings, efficiency, and competitive edge that video conferencing can bring to a company, it’s well worth the investment.
If you’re looking for a VC monitor with exceptional, out-of-the-box video conferencing capability, check out the VG2440V by ViewSonic. Otherwise, you may also be interested in these useful tips to help make the transition to working from home.
The concept of STEAM education has emerged from what was previously known as STEM education. The acronym itself stands for science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics. These subjects have been grouped together to emphasize their importance for the global workforce, to boost student engagement, to highlight the transferable skills they teach, and to encourage integration.
Read on to learn more about STEAM education, what it is, how it works within the classroom, and the importance of each of the individual components that make up the acronym, or visit our education solutions page for further insights into the modern classroom.
STEAM education is the name given to an education model that focuses on science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics. The STEAM initiative itself was originally developed by Georgette Yakman and emerged from the previous STEM model, which broadly covers the same topics but excludes the arts from its definition.
Yakman, and others, have argued that STEAM allows the traditional subjects contained within the acronym to be structured in such a way that a greater amount of integration between them is possible. As the STEAM Education website states, the concept centers around the idea that “Science and Technology are interpreted through Engineering and the (social, language, physical, musical and fine) Arts, all based in elements of Mathematics.”
Ultimately, the STEAM framework allows for an academic curriculum to be designed in such a way that it will equip learners with rounded skills, which they can take out into the world after their time at school is over. It also allows individual teachers to design their lessons in such a way that students develop these skills collectively, through integrated lessons, rather than individually through the specific subjects alone.
The chosen subjects for both STEM and STEAM were emphasized because of their perceived importance to the global workforce, along with a more general desire to increase levels of student engagement. It was also hoped that it would allow those in education programs to see that many of their favorite hobbies and interests are also grounded in these same five concepts, as opposed to seeing the STEAM fields as purely academic topics.
STEAM initiatives are intended to prepare students for future work roles and enable them to develop the creativity, innovation, leadership, and critical thinking skills that will serve them well in the future. STEAM education also stresses the fact that these subjects are all integrated within many real-world settings.
One quick and effective way to think about how STEAM subjects combine together is to think of a virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) dressing room, which allows people to try on clothes in a digital environment. While the virtual or augmented reality dressing room itself will need to use relevant technology and will need to be programmed or engineered, creative people will also be required to design the clothes in the first place.
As stated, the STEAM education initiative has grown out of the previously existing concept of STEM education. The difference between the two ideas can be summarized as the added presence of the letter ‘A’ for the arts; in reality, this is quite a significant difference and not one that should be under-estimated in terms of its importance.
After all, ‘the arts’ in this context refers to not only visual or aesthetic arts but also social studies, language arts, fine arts, musical arts, and physical arts – and all of the subjects that fall within those sub-categories.
Ultimately, it is felt that this combination of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics – taught in an integrated way – will help learners think creatively, use logic, become accustomed to problem-solving, and benefit from experiential learning and working collaboratively with one another.
To fully understand STEAM education, it is useful to look at each of the components individually and evaluate why they are so important. Once you have done this, it also becomes easier to get to grips with how they integrate and why they have been grouped together to assist with the creation of education programs.
Keep reading to find out more about science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics, and how the different subjects within these wider groups contribute to a rounded education.
Science and the subjects contained within this umbrella term, such as chemistry, physics, and biology, are extremely important for educational development because we are all surrounded by scientific concepts every day, while scientific evidence is used to make important decisions in a huge range of fields.
It is crucial for students to learn the scientific method because it teaches them to solve problems and make decisions based on evidence and logical thought patterns. This can be especially important for logical learners, but the core skills involved in the scientific method are useful for students with all learning styles or preferences.
Aside from learning how to think scientifically, it is also useful for students to gain an understanding of how science links with the other STEAM components. While technology and engineering are both hugely reliant on scientific knowledge and discovery, the process of hypothesizing, testing, and drawing conclusions from the evidence are applicable elsewhere.
Technology-related skills are increasingly in demand too. Information Technology (IT), for example, is a fundamental part of almost any organization you can think of, and even education itself is becoming increasingly reliant on the use of various EdTech solutions either in the classroom, or to facilitate remote learning.
Technology also links very clearly with the other STEAM fields. For example, the strong links between science and technology can be clearly seen in fields like data science and cybersecurity. A growing number of technology-based careers require the kind of creative thinking taught in the arts, while others will require numeracy skills.
It is crucial that students learn to utilize technology at a young age and continue to use technology throughout their education. On top of this, it is equally vital that teachers develop an appreciation for the use of technology and a firm understanding of how much it can positively influence learning outcomes and student engagement.
Engineering can be broadly described as the application of scientific principles in order to create objects, machines, structures, products, and more. It is most commonly divided into four main fields: civil engineering (buildings, bridges, infrastructure, etc.), electrical engineering (electronic devices, electrical circuits, control systems, etc.), mechanical engineering (robotics, vehicles, engines, etc.), and chemical engineering (chemical manufacturing, oil refinery, etc.) However, aerospace engineering is sometimes included as a distinct fifth branch.
In truth, the importance of teaching engineering concepts and principles within academic institutions cannot be overstated because the world needs engineers of all kinds to create the objects and infrastructure we rely on.
In addition to engineering being dependent on scientific principles, there is a major cross-over with mathematics and especially geometry. However, engineering also links with the other STEAM fields in various ways. The arts, for example, are based on creativity, and there is a very clear artistic element to designing and engineering a bridge or a building. Similarly, the actual engineering process relies on technology, including computers and other machines.
The arts is an extremely broad field that encompasses a wide range of subjects, many of which have not traditionally been viewed as particularly “academic”. In her overview of STEAM education, Georgette Yakman breaks the arts down into the sub-categories of fine arts, language arts, physical arts, manual arts, and liberal arts.
Prior to the concept of STEAM, many of these subjects were not considered critical to the end goal of developing students into highly skilled citizens, with abilities and qualifications that are in demand in the workforce. However, this view has since changed. The language arts, for instance, have cross-over with every other STEAM field because they focus on effective communication, while liberal arts are also considered important academic subjects.
Historically, fine arts and physical arts have struggled to be viewed as important vocational subjects, but this view has also changed. Today, there is a greater appreciation for the importance of developing creative and expressive skills. Clearly, there are many potential career options for people with drawing, painting, and performing skills.
Finally, the last piece of the STEAM puzzle is mathematics and, in many ways, it also helps to bind the other elements together. After all, mathematics is needed to solve problems in fields like science, technology, and engineering, while it can also provide the necessary structure to the arts. Of course, numeracy is also an essential life skill more generally.
One of the challenges with mathematics as an academic subject is that although it is widely seen as being a core part of the curriculum, many students find it difficult to enjoy. Therefore, many STEAM education initiatives aim to boost engagement in this area and encourage more students to continue to study the subject at a college or university level.
A major benefit that mathematics offers over many subjects is its universal nature, regardless of language, which opens up career possibilities all over the world. Within the workforce, advanced mathematics skills are in high demand in a range of fields, from scientific research and data analysis roles, through to engineering and medicine.
When it comes to answering the question of how STEAM education can be introduced into the classroom, it is first important to stress that every teacher can be a STEAM teacher; it is not the sole responsibility of teachers of the individual subjects in question. This is because integration is at the very heart of the entire STEAM concept.
It can also be a good idea to devise specific STEAM projects, where students are required to use a range of different STEAM skills at once. Examples of this may include small-scale collaborative building projects or finding ways to include artistic or creative components in lessons that would not usually be related to the arts.
Additionally, it is also important that teachers try to make lessons that focus on science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics as interesting and engaging as possible. This will then help with the goal of getting more students to pursue these subjects later in their education, with the hopes that they end up working in STEAM fields.
STEAM education is intended to encourage student engagement in the areas of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics. The subjects within these categories are considered important for developing key life skills, while qualifications in these areas are also in demand by employers.
For teachers, a major part of STEAM initiatives is integration and the idea that the different STEAM components can combine together in a variety of interesting ways. This can then encourage more students to study STEAM fields further into their education, with the hope that this will then improve their long-term prospects.
If you found this article to be helpful you may also be interested in The Future of eLearning – 10 Trends To Be Aware Of. Or visit our education solutions page for more insights on how to create engaging lessons.