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How Classrooms are Changing to Better Teach 'STEAM' Subjects
Special to The Truth
The U.S. may be short as
many as three million high-skilled workers by 2018,
according to National Math + Science Initiative predictions.
In response, more educators and schools are embracing the
idea that today’s curriculum must include Science,
Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM), in order to
adequately prepare children for the future.
With this shift comes the
need for new educational tools. Here are three big ways that
classrooms are changing to keep up with this year’s
curriculum.
Cohesive Lesson Plans
You may remember shuffling
from one class to another during your school days, learning
subjects in a siloed style. After you graduated, you
probably realized that’s not how the real world works.
Luckily, schools that are focused on STEAM-related subjects
appreciate this fact and, as a result, many teachers today
are synthesizing the principles of multiple subjects at once
for greater cohesion.
From art projects that
incorporate math concepts to science projects that require
an artistic hand, students today can expect their teachers
to use games, hands-on learning stations and interactive
digital technology to go beyond recitation in order to
invent, create and discover.
Projecting the Future
Today’s teachers are
saying goodbye to the old school projectors you may remember
from your own childhood, and with good reason. New
projectors are designed to bring lesson plans to life within
seconds.
For example, Casio’s line
of Ultra Short Throw projectors offers teachers the ability
to present interactive multimedia content directly from a
mobile device, USB stick, laptop or even the internal memory
of the machine itself. Plus, no time is lost in getting the
lesson set up once the bell rings, as an image can be
displayed at full brightness in a matter of seconds.
The icing on the cake is
that these new projectors are environmentally-friendly and
can be easy on a school’s budget, reducing power consumption
by up to 40 percent and offering an operating life of 20,000
hours. Savvy schools can use the saved money on other
STEAM-related programming needs.
Add it Up
Math class is more
important than ever, and students and teachers are gearing
up accordingly with up-to-date graphing calculators that can
enhance understanding of mathematic principles. New
calculators, such as the PRIZM fx-CG10 from Casio, are
allowing students to create their own graphs over pictures
of real-life scenes to better understand the functions from
the graphs. Additionally, today’s calculators feature color
LCD with a full textbook-style display to make classroom
learning, as well as homework, easier to digest. To learn
more, visit Casio.com.
As the world changes, so
does the classroom. New tools are helping educators prepare
students for tomorrow and for challenges solvable by better
STEAM knowledge.
Courtesy StatePoint
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