Teachers are now are trying to incorporate STEAM into their classes. STEAM is an initiative championed by Rhode Island School of Design and stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Art + Design. It is considered to be the essential skills for students and are most intertwined with the real world.

“STEAM represents a paradigm shift from traditional education philosophy, based on standardized test scores, to a modern ideal which focuses on valuing the learning process as much as the results. In essence, we dare our students to be wrong, to try multiple ideas, listen to alternate opinions and create a knowledge base that is applicable to real life as opposed to simply an exam,” Deron Cameron, current TCSS Curriculum Coordinator, said.

English teacher Mr. Travis, in the spirit of STEAM, had his 10th grade students combine engineering and art with English. The project was part of their Hero’s Journey project. Mr. Travis said, “The purpose of this was to mix science and technology with English.”

Students printed out a picture that demonstrates a step of the Hero’s Journey, and they placed a small light behind the part of the picture that they wanted to highlight. The light, which was part of a circuit, would light up when alligator clips were touching the copper tape. This incorporated engineering in the project.

“It was cool to do because it was something we have never done before,” said Christina Bioni, a student in Mr. Travis’s class. Bioni’s projects was illustrating the Call to Adventure step with a man standing on top of a mountain with his camera by his side. The light was placed in the lens of the camera to make it look like it was taking a picture.

Aubree Stewart, also a student of Mr. Travis’s, said, “It was a fun project but it was different because we were doing engineering in English. My project is Alice in Wonderland and I put the light in the castle that Alice is approaching.”

Mr. Travis learned about this project from fellow English teacher Mr. Youngs. All of the students in Mr. Travis’s class had the opportunity to walk around the art gallery and vote for which project they thought was the best.