Steam curriculum: Arts Education As An Integral Part Of Interdisciplinary Learning

STEAM in the Everyday World

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RUNNING HEAD: STEAM CURRICULUM PLAN 
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In another example of transitioning from STEM to STEAM, Sharapan (2012) 
suggested that early childhood educators should apply Fred Rogers’ approach to learning 
by, “…facilitating inquiry-based thinking and discovery” instead of presenting straight 
facts (p. 37). She explained that utilizing the arts in curriculum allows children to express 
STEM concepts (2012, p. 36). According to Sharapan (2012) each of the STEAM 
disciplines elicits important skills or processes; science creates a sense of wonder and 
curiosity, technology provides tools to be utilized, engineering illustrates that problems 
have solutions, art promotes creativity and communication, and math provides 
opportunity to compare and sort patterns (p. 37). Sharapan (2012) believes that STEAM 
can be found in everyday life and that early childhood educators can take advantage of 
teaching these concepts as they arise naturally (p. 37). In addition to building on natural 
consequences, Sharapan (2012) suggested to expand on children’s natural interests, 
encourage and appreciate their questions, invite visitors who work in STEAM careers 
such as a project manager to the classroom, and create a meaningful context for learning 
through discussions and relevant learning (p. 38-40). 
Brock, Dunifon, and Nagel (2016) reiterated this practice with the claim that 
children learn better with relevant subject matter because they need to connect ideas to 
help explain the world around them (p. 49). They argued that the connections between 
literature, the arts, and STEM are important to curriculum and learning (Brock et al., 
2016, p. 49). “Projects that fuse the arts with scientific inquiry are complementary and 
require students to engage in critical and creative thinking” (Brock et al., 2016, p. 49). 
Their article summarized a large-scale STEAM project, which derived from a thematic 
extension of a novel involving 5 elementary schools and a local zoo (Brock et al., 2016, 

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RUNNING HEAD: STEAM CURRICULUM PLAN 
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p. 49). These schools communicated via Skype and blogging, they collaborated with the 
local zoo, the teachers shared resources, and students were assessed using technology 
applications such as Wordle, Animoto, or PowerPoint (Brock et al., 2016, p. 49-50). The 
overall project consisted of the students conducting investigations with the zoo educators 
to design and create dioramas, small literature circle discussion groups with each student 
assigned a specific role, designing and creating animal crates with puzzle feeders 
intended to simulate transportation of animals, and a study of gorilla paintings and 
creation of original student artwork (Brock et al., 2016, p. 50-51). Throughout the 
entirety of this project the students employed processes and practices from each of the 
STEAM disciplines. The art element was not an after-thought, but rather it was 
meaningfully incorporated into the unit. Students compared gorilla paintings to the work 
of abstract artist Jackson Pollock and discussed elements of art used to elicit an emotional 
response (Brock et al., 2016, p. 51). The unit was concluded with the students creating an 
original abstract watercolor painting with the goal of eliciting an emotional response from 
their audience (Brock et al., 2016, p. 51).