Educators, administrators, and corporate leaders all agree: we need to encourage girls to explore STEAM skills and consider STEM careers for their futures. But how? We asked members of the Discovery Educator Network to share content, programs, and ideas they have found to be successful in bringing more girls to the world of STEAM!
Infusing STEAM Content in All Classrooms
A major goal of the K-12 experience is to prepare students for their next step in life. So, when thinking about how to encourage girls to explore STEAM topics or pursue STEM careers, bringing these concepts into the classroom is top of mind for educators. Exposing students to STEAM experiences frequently will help them see how their personal interests align with process used in STEM careers, like researching concepts, testing ideas, and sharing results.
Check out these top four recommendations from the DEN for infusing STEAM into all classrooms:
- Offer a variety of opportunities for creative expression in the planning phase of projects. Consider how students can draw, sketch, or creatively outline plans for projects to help bring the “A” of “STEAM” into the learning process early. Some students may choose to create sketch notes from their research on a topic while others may choose to draw a prototype for a model they will create later in the process—offering a variety of arts-forward options for planning helps students connect all letters of STEAM throughout a project.
- Find creative outlets for students to share their learning. On the tail end of a project or unit, allow students to use an artistic method—like designing posters, writing songs, performing skits, or creating digital visual aids—as an opportunity for them to reflect on and share their learning. STEAM learning can inspire innovation—sharing the successes should be an exciting part of the process and easily lends itself to artistic expression.
- Designate a Maker Space for students to work on independent and collaborative projects. Creating a Maker Space in your school or classroom can sound overwhelming, but it should just be a place where students can gather to collaborate on projects and access a variety of art supplies. It can be a space in a common area such as the media center or just a corner in a classroom!
- Find opportunities for all teachers to utilize content or concepts. Collaborative planning can help all teachers find inspiration for future lessons. For instance, if your students are studying laws of motion in science class, the Physical Education teacher may have some motion-focused games where students can test the hypotheses and theories introduced in science class!
STEAM lessons will pave the way for new innovations and collaborative experiences, and it can also help girls picture themselves as scientists, tech-wizards, artists, mathematicians, and engineers. Use content that puts successful STEM women in the spotlight so students can envision how their interests can align with a career they may not have considered or even heard of before.
“Project STEM's course through the Amazon Future Engineers' program isa great way to showcase women in STEAM. I also incorporate this content for 6th grade, which includes a lot of videos and resources that discuss girls in STEAM and provide examples of accomplished women in STEAM fields.”
- Alexis Teitelbaum, Pennsylvania PreK-6 Technology Explorations Teacher
Explore STEM Career Resources
Girls4Tech
Career Tours by Amazon
If/Then STEM Professionals
Five Ideas for Dynamic STEAM Programming
Finding space for girls to comfortably explore STEAM topics and collaborate with other girls can mean extending your programming in new ways through clubs, contests, and special events. Read on for five ideas from the DEN to make your STEAM programming fun and flexible for girls!
We cannot hope that girls turn their graduation tassel and suddenly take an interest in STEAM topics. Instead, we need to find ways for them to explore STEAM early, frequently, and in encouraging settings. STEAM learning can be exciting for all students when there are clear connections between the different letters and students’ interests!
Whether you’re a teacher, administrator, student, or community member, you’ve probably heard lots of conversation surrounding reading over the last school year. Particularly discussions about literacy instruction and student reading proficiency, both critical to the success of students’ academic careers. One teacher, Judith Philias, shared her insights with the Discovery Education team about why she loves teaching English Language Arts, how DE has helped her literacy instruction, and some advice for teachers who are looking to help their students grow as readers and writers—all while keeping learning fun!
I have been teaching in Miami, Florida for 16 years and I currently teach third grade. I became a teacher because I get to make a lasting impression and challenge my students. The title “teacher” brings many roles, including (but not limited to) counseling, developing differentiated instruction that can meet the needs of various learners, being a role model, and even advocating for what’s best for your students. I love teaching English Language Arts (ELA) because reading is an essential skill to life, and having great foundational reading skills can help set up students for successful futures. In third grade, ELA is an extremely critical subject area for students, as the state reading test is a determining factor for promotion to fourth grade.
This year I have noticed that my students have been struggling to identify key details in a passage and with comprehension questions regarding the text. Discovery Education has supported my literacy instruction by helping me reach my students in a variety of methods. DE offers instructional videos for teachers that model how to implement new strategies, interesting reading passages to help students practice their reading skills, and other engaging resources for student use.
My students love Discovery Education! When I incorporated DE resources within the lesson, it made my students’ day because it was something fun and different. For them, it was beyond a textbook, because the information was presented in a way that kept it from feeling boring or repetitive.
An SOS Strategy (DE’s popular instructional strategies developed by teachers) that I use that always receives great feedback is Three Truths, One Lie. After reading a story, I organize the students in small groups to create their responses: three true details and one false detail. As the students work together, it is actually easier for them to identify details from the story than to write the lie! When they are finished, each group presents their sentences, and the other groups have to determine which sentence is a lie. It makes a fun lesson using a skill my students usually struggle with, and it serves as a quick assessment for me to see how my class is progressing in identifying key details in a text.
My advice to other teachers who are using Discovery Education is to familiarize yourself with the platform, because it will help you explore everything it has to offer. The site has so much information, and for some individuals it can become overwhelming. Familiarizing yourself with the homepage and search feature is a great way to start! After you learn to navigate the website (as best as you can), choose one SOS Strategy, watch the instructional video, read the teacher’s guide, and lastly, apply the strategy in your classroom. Another great feature is that some strategies include their own graphic organizer!
Judith Philias
Judith Philias is an Elementary ELA Teacher located in Miami, Florida. She has been teaching for 16 years, and is a member of the Discovery Educator Network as a DEN STAR. Judith currently serves as her school's Third Grade department chair, one of the Future Educators of America (FEA) club sponsor, and Dance Team club sponsor. She is passionate about differentiated instruction and challenging her students in new ways!
