There’s never enough education funding. Or people, or time, or other resources. That’s why allocating funding is always such a difficult task—it’s all about balancing competing, worthy priorities to get the most benefit for our students.
In this article, we’re going to make the case for why investing in STEAM & coding should be a top funding priority. What we’re not going to do is advocate for what this investment should look like. It could mean buying tools and courses from STEM Learning, and of course we would love that. But it could also mean infrastructure, professional development, or hiring additional teachers. As long as more students are learning about STEAM & coding at a formative age, that’s a win in our books.
Without further ado, here’s why you should make investing in STEAM & Coding a top priority.
1. Core Content Integration
Sometimes STEAM & coding education is treated like a bonus, an extra, a “nice-to-have”. If there’s extra time or resources, everyone’s happy for students to take a STEM class, but the focus is always on core content like math, science, and ELA. “First we have to make sure students are meeting standards,” the thinking goes, “and then we can do the other stuff.”
We reject this thinking. Not because core subjects shouldn’t be the priority, because they absolutely should. We reject it because STEAM and coding have a powerful role to play in helping students to achieve and exceed standards, because they integrate with core content to enhance students’ understanding of the material.
After all, STEAM is an acronym that includes many of these core subjects, like science, the arts, and mathematics! And while technology, coding, and engineering aren’t considered “core” content, quality STEM lessons are designed to touch multiple subjects. A student might be building a model or coding a program, but they’re also learning about seed dispersal, factor pairs, and mixing substances.
This is what makes STEAM cross-curricular. It touches all these subjects, which increases student understanding by giving them the opportunity to utilize their knowledge in different situations. For instance, a 2019 study on the effect of integrated STEM or STEAM education found that STEAM had an overall positive effect on student learning, especially in areas of affective domain, career aspiration, thinking skills, and emotional skills.
That’s why investing in STEAM & coding should be a top priority—because it helps students succeed in all the other top priorities. It also helps with…
2. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)
After a school year beset by challenges (understatement), it’s never been more important to educate the whole child. In particular, it’s vital that we support the social and emotional development of our students after such a trying year.
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is about giving students the skills, knowledge, and mental frameworks required for them to build healthy identities, manage emotions, feel and show empathy, maintain positive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
With the mental health of so many students impacted by the pandemic, a strong focus on SEL can help them become happier and healthier in the face of challenges. That’s why surveys show 93% of teachers agreeing that SEL is as important as academic learning.
That’s where STEAM & coding comes in. Far from the cliché of students hunched over Chromebooks, STEM projects are often highly collaborative, and there’s no better chance to teach social and emotional skills than when students are interacting with their peers.
Whether through group projects or by encouraging students to problem solve with their classmates, STEAM & coding gives educators opportunities to teach SEL techniques and students a chance to practice them. STEM projects can even be centered around a SEL lesson! There’s no limit to how SEL & STEAM can work together.
That’s why now is the perfect time to invest in STEAM & coding, because it will help lay the foundation for the social and emotional learning that students will benefit from now and in the future. Speaking of the future…
3. 21st Century Skills
Did you know that 65% of children entering grade school today will end up working in jobs that don’t even exist yet?
It’s not surprising. Take mobile apps. Mobile apps didn’t exist 15 years ago. There are many people with careers designing, developing, and marketing mobile apps who were in grade school when the first apps were released.
But how do we prepare our students for jobs we don’t even know will exist?
By preparing them with skills that will cut across all of these new and emerging industries. We’re talking about:
Critical thinking
Technology literacy
Leadership
Computational thinking
And more. In other words, 21st century skills. It doesn’t matter what job a grade schooler ends up doing 15 years from now. These are skills that will serve them well. Skills they need.
They are also skills that STEAM & coding are uniquely suited to teach—the the 2019 STEM/STEAM education study found that "The most frequently mentioned positive aspect of STEAM lessons from interviews was self-directed problem solving," and that the positive effects persisted into college, showing the potential for long-term impact.
State and local governments agree. 33 states have adopted computer science education policies since 2018. Unfortunately, computer science is still not in a majority of schools.
That’s why it’s important to invest in STEAM & coding now. These are skills that will serve students far into the future, and cut across all subjects, life skills, and professions. Speaking of students...
4. Student Engagement
Every teacher knows how important it is to keep their students engaged. Engaged students pay more attention, they practice higher-level critical thinking skills, and they have more meaningful learning experiences.
And if there’s a shortcut to keeping students’ minds engaged, it’s keeping their hands engaged.
The effect of hands-on learning on student engagement is backed by research. Multiple studies show that “learning by doing” causes students to more readily and enjoyably engage with topics, produce higher achievement at all levels of thought, and to progress appropriately at standardized tests while learning additional skills.
STEAM & coding are especially well-suited for hands-on learning because building and creation are integral parts. Even coding and running a program entirely virtually is more interactive than a lecture and a test, and when combined with physical components they can build with their hands? That’s a student engagement goldmine.
Which is why investing in STEAM & coding is so vital—it keeps students engaged and learning after a school year where engagement was hard to come by. Speaking of this school year…
5. smartMalaysia STEM Design Challenge
One of the quickest ways STEAM & coding can provide benefits to students is through challenges and competitions. Last year, we hosted our first-ever or debut for smartMalaysia STEM Design Challenge for 2020. We have partnered with SAM Labs and Pusat STEM Negara to launch the virtual competition, with the support of Ministry of Education, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris and ProjectMika.
Even though the competition was organized virtually due to the pandemic, from registration to winner announcement, we still received great responses and participations from all around Malaysia. Students were able to produce great innovative projects using SAM Blocks and SAM Studio. Some of the participants even integrate SAM Labs with other products such as Lego and Arduino, extending to more functions and programming capabilities. This shows that Malaysian student are interested in STEM education, albeit lack of exposure and materials.
Last year was only the beginning of our initiative to encourage students across Malaysia to showcase their incredible talents and wide range of skills and abilities related to STEM education. We have recently announced smartMalaysia STEM Design Challenge is coming back this year, so stay tuned for more info!
Which is why investing in STEAM & coding now, is such a good idea—it will help engage, motivate, and educate students over this year, so they’re set up for success next school year and beyond.
Why STEAM & Coding Should Be a Top Priority
When it comes to education, there are more priorities that deserve attention, funding, and resources than there are resources to give. It’s hard to pick a top priority when there are so many worthy options, much less a #1 top priority.
We still think STEAM & coding should be that priority. For the reasons listed above—core subject integration, social and emotional learning, 21st century skills, student engagement, and summer enrichment—STEAM, STEM, & coding gives educators the ability to positively impact all of their other priorities, all at once. When it comes to bang for your buck, that’s hard to beat.
So when it comes time to allocate your time, personnel hours, and funding, strongly consider STEAM & coding, for all the reasons listed here. A generation of problem solvers will thank you.
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