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Discarding Textbooks: Learning by Doing
More than anything, there has to be sufficient buy-in from everybody involved.
At this year’s SXSWedu conference in Austin, I met Georgette Yakman, a leader and founding researcher of STEAM, an increasingly popular framework for teaching science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.
Interested to learn more, in late March, I spoke with her again about STEAM, what it actually is, and why more schools should show interest. Yakman — whose resume includes advanced degrees, honors, and positions from Virginia Polytechnic Institute — is passionate about creating a common learning language and demolishing the notion that one field of study is superior to another.
“Science teachers are given an amazing amount of clout, and science is seen as so important,” she says. “I certainly don’t deny that in any way, but within the school it creates this hierarchy of, ‘I’m better than you, my subject’s more important than yours is.’ But construction teachers, music teachers, art teachers — they use science all the time. They have to. They can’t get away from it, but they’re not often given respect by the scholastic community.”
Yakman consults with schools around the country and around the globe, helping teachers coordinate their subjects, assistance which in turn…
