3 Easy Ways to Add STEAM to Your Kids Crafting Classes

How do we prepare children to succeed in the future in a world that is rapidly changing? For future jobs that may not even exist yet!!

 Learning STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) skills may be one of the most important skills that today’s children will need for the future.

Don’t worry, It's actually really easy to teach STEAM skills through creative crafting and you don't have to be a scientist or mathematician to do so!

Today we’re going to talk about 3 easy ways to add STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) to your kids crafting classes.

Okay be honest: Does the whole STEAM concept freak you out just a little bit?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone!

Kids need to be inspired to start exploring, discovering and asking questions from a young age.

Because here’s the thing: We learn by failing.

This is how we innovate - we fail our way to the right answer. And Engineers fail all the time, we just call it something else.. We call it ‘Data collecting’.

The focus and importance on STEAM is growing worldwide.

Today we explain:

what STEAM is and why it’s important for kids to practice STEAM skills and

we’ll give 3 easy practical ways for you to add STEAM elements to your crafting classes

According to a report published by Dell Technologies: 85% of the jobs that will exist in 2030 haven't even been invented yet.

Everywhere around us are new kinds of opportunities and careers that didn’t exist a decade ago.

So how do you prepare kids for jobs that don't even exist yet?

We recently asked a few of our crafty kids what they want to be when they grow up… here’s what they said:

Gianluca, age 6 wants to be an inventor and make youtube videos

Sarah, age 8 wants to design video games

Oliver, age 7 wants to work in artificial intelligence

WHAT??!!

Can you remember what you wanted to be when you were a kid? Kids today already think differently.

It was less than 3 decades ago (in 1991) that the World Wide Web became publicly available, think of all the new opportunities that the internet created. Where will we be and what will our kids be doing in the next few decades?

More importantly, how can we provide kids learning experiences that will prepare them to become inventors, AI experts, designers and who knows what else?

How are we to educate children for technologies that have not been developed yet and careers and opportunities that don't even exist yet?

STEAM is a hot topic as it is an integrated approach to learning that develops critical thinking and encourages kids to think more broadly about real-world problems with a hands-on approach.

Introducing STEAM to kids from a young age, cultivates collaborative exploration and problem solving. Problem-based learning-through-play is hands down the best way to get your kids excited about STEAM. Kids learn best if it’s through play.

How to add STEAM to your kids crafting classes?

The good news is you do not have to be an engineer, scientist or mathematician to develop STEAM skills in your students and kids. 

STEAM learning happens naturally everyday as kids explore, experiment, play, and try new things.

It's actually really easy to teach STEAM skills through crafting,

STEAM learning happens naturally when kids craft as they get to explore, experiment, play, and try new things.

Here are a few practical ways that you can try to introduce STEAM-learning into your arts and crafts classes:

1. Nurture curiosity by asking questions

A creative crafting class is a wonder world playground for developing creativity and innovation, and the best part is that there’s not only 1 solution to problems, there are millions!

Give your students the freedom to discover and learn.

The best way for you to facilitate creativity and nurture curiosity is to ASK LOADS OF QUESTIONS.

Inspire your students by asking questions, rather than just giving instructions or offering solutions. Give them some time to think about it and figure it out.

Problem solve together. If a student struggles with a task, don’t take over and do the step for them, ask lots of questions and try to figure out what the solution is together.

2. Let go!

Learning through experimenting can get a bit messy sometimes and it can be hard for us as adults to not step in and say ‘look what you’ve done, let’s clean up this mess’.

Kids are natural STEAM learners. For adults, it may look like they are just making a mess, splashing paint around and unpacking and repacking and sometimes even bending things until they break, but this is how they learn - by investigating, discovering and trying new things.

It’s important to let go and give kids a chance to explore and discover.

3. Celebrate the failures

As I mentioned before, learning from failure is how we innovate.

Therefore, if my calculations are correct, every mistake we make should be bringing us closer to success?

Now that sounds to me like something worth celebrating!

How often do you celebrate your kid’s learning?

Showcase your kid’s projects and creations! Don’t forget to showcase the process as well, as the process demonstrates that it takes a series of failures to get us to the eventual success.

Success takes time.

So to wrap up, let's do a quick recap on the 4 ways to add STEAM to your crafting classes:

Nurture curiosity by asking questions. 

1. Remember to not take over, assist by asking questions.

2. Let go

3. Celebrate the failures

So there you have it!