STEAM toolkit powering your STEM curriculum through arts, culture and creativity The arts give us the tools and skills that are essential to help us make Contents our way through life. Exploring STEAM 5 We owe it to the next i. Introduction 6 ii. STEAM – what’s it all about? 7 generation to ensure that STEAM in Action: Case Studies from across the South East 10 i. STEAM: Cleaning Up (Eastbourne) 11 they enjoy an education ii. STEAM in Motion (Kent) 17 that offers them the iii. STEAM through Structure (Hampshire) 21 iv. STEM to STEAM: Breaking the Code (Oxfordshire) 27 whole of life and culture: Tips, Tricks & Insider Knowledge 33 i. Top tips for running STEAM projects 34 head, heart and soul. ii. Embedding STEAM in your Artsmark journey 35 iii. Source list 36 Cultural Learning Alliance Links, resources and further information 38 2 | Artswork STEAM Toolkit Artswork STEAM Toolkit | 3 1. Exploring STEAM Participation in structured arts activities can increase cognitive abilities by 16-19% The Cognitive Ability Test is widely used in schools as an indicator of ability. Structured arts activities offer a way to boost children’s thinking skills, improving their performance across the board and providing knock- on effects of better life chances as adults. (Culture and Sport Evidence Programme (CASE), Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2010) 4 | Artswork STEAM Toolkit Introduction STEAM – what’s it all about? Science STEAM is used to define a method of teaching that sees five subject areas S – Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths – join together for a more holistic approach to learning. The term has become increasingly prevalent in recent years, due to concerns over the lack of creativity in Technology the school curriculum. T Artswork supports a range of programmes that work teachers need to discuss amongst themselves how to embed arts, culture and creativity in the heart of they aim to use them”, they explain. the curriculum, and it is our goal that these projects will create a step-change in the way schools engage The Joint Council For Qualifications reported a 34% Engineering with the arts, and in how they enable their pupils to drop in Arts GCSE entries between 2010-2018. In meet their full potential, through a well-rounded 2018, these registrations fell by a further 51,000. DfE E ‘core and cultural’ education. figures from June 2017 show that “between 2010- 2017, the number of hours the arts were taught The presence of the arts in England’s schools is in secondary schools in England fell by 21%”. Also falling significantly. Teaching time is being cut, with during this time, the number of arts teachers fell by Arts a focus on exam or ‘core’ subjects instead; funding 20% (Department for Education, 2017). is being redirected in favour of STEM (Science, A Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects, and Yet in their report, Creativity vs Robots, Nesta agendas like the EBacc mean a shift in the focus of remarked that 87% of jobs in the creative economy educators because of Governmental pressure to fit were at no or low risk of automation in the near within a specific model of learning. future, compared to only 40% of other jobs (Bakhshi, Frey and Osborne: Nesta, 2010). “We need our Maths The British Educational Research Association young people to be prepared for the changing needs (BERA) stated in a recent report that “the number of the labour market. Employers value employees M of students choosing post-compulsory study with 21st Century skills – a mix of cognitive and of STEM subjects is seen as being critical to a personal skills, like creativity and collaboration – as country’s economic success, yet concerns have well as content knowledge”, implores Nesta’s Hasan been expressed about the way those subjects are Bakhshi MBE. “We must focus on mechanisms that Welcome to Artswork’s STEAM Toolkit currently taught” (British Educational Research promote the fusion of arts, sciences and technology, Association, 2016). right through the talent pipeline.” (Cultural Learning This resource encourages opportunities for Alliance & Nesta, 2017) creative, connected learning by highlighting BERA lists these concerns specifically as: programmes that put arts and creativity at the heart of STEM learning. STEAM approaches • A lack of creativity extend the range of opportunities for children • A need to focus on inter- and and young people to apply their learning and multi-disciplinary work understanding in broader contexts, enabling • A need for a broader conception new learning to occur. of Science • STEM subjects’ marginalisation of concerns The new Ofsted Framework (2019) requires for society and the environment schools to provide breadth and balance in their curriculum and build children and Their research into the effectiveness of STEAM young people’s cultural capital. Embedding a approaches places a heavy emphasis on the STEAM approach into your curriculum is one importance of teachers. “STEAM provides an approach that can demonstrate this. opportunity to change the more regular ways of teaching in schools – it emphasises more engaging, The Artswork Team participatory, and socially relevant approaches – but 6 | Artswork STEAM Toolkit Artswork STEAM Toolkit | 7 Why are the arts so crucial to the make the importance of arts and cultural education more explicit” (Cooper, for Fabian future of our education system? Society, 2018). “The arts have the power to change and shape In the words of the Cultural Learning Alliance, young lives”, writes the Cultural Learning Alliance “the arts are not an add-on, or a nice-to-have. in their collaborative toolkit, Arts in Schools, 2018. They are part of the fabric of our society, and “They provide knowledge, skills, values and attributes all young people have a right to experience that can play a significant role in young people’s the best, and to be given the opportunity development, creating opportunities for them to to contribute to the arts and culture of the express their ideas and form values, and equipping future” (Arts in Schools toolkit, 2018). them to navigate a rapidly changing world” (Cultural Learning Alliance, Incorporated Society of Musicians BERA provide us with an important warning, & WHAT NEXT?, 2018). however – that “by simply bringing in external educators who run activities, the Learning through The Fabian Society’s study on the decline of arts opportunity to alter and develop practice education in primary schools (Primary Colours, 2018) [in schools] can end with their involvement” urges educators to reverse this trend for prioritising (British Educational Research Association, certain subjects over others: “Schools are required 2016). This is why it is so important that we to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, but the continue to work with schools across the arts and culture ‘core’ subjects are often prioritised to the exclusion South East, and support the sharing of the of everything else. The national curriculum should benefits of a creative and cultural education. The Fabian Society’s survey, in association with YouGov (2018) revealed some startling figures: can improve 49% of surveyed teachers 68% of teachers in said the quality of arts England say arts provision attainment in 68% 49% provision in their primary in their school has school has worsened decreased since 2010. since 2010. Maths and English. 56% do not believe 45% of teachers also they have access to the believe they do not have 56% resources and support 45% the skills needed to necessary to deliver a provide a high-quality high-quality arts education. arts education. 58% of teachers believe 59% believe their school there are fewer out- does not give enough 59% 58% of-school arts trips, emphasis to the arts. compared to 2010. Evidence points to gains in attainment across a range of subjects as a result Throughout this toolkit, you will find a selection of important STEAM statistics presented as posters of studying the arts. A 2015 Culture and Sport Evidence (CASE) review found for you to share online, pin up on your classroom and staffroom walls, or even in your windows at a positive relationship between arts and educational attainment. home. Why not send us a tweet (@ArtsworkLtd) and show us how you’re using yours? (A review of the Social Impacts of Culture and Sport, 2015) 8 | Artswork STEAM Toolkit Artswork STEAM Toolkit | 9 2. STEAM STEAM: in Action Cleaning Up with Eastbourne In 2017, Artswork (with support from Arts Council England) enabled the creation of seven STEAM Networks across the South East. Establishing new working Schools Partnership relationships between education, cultural and STEM partners, the Networks piloted models for Continuing Professional Development for teachers, as well as pupil resources. Alongside this, they provided support for schools working towards Artsmark and Arts Award, embedding the Arts Council’s Quality Principles The Project throughout. The following case studies are taken from a number of these Networks; we hope they inspire and encourage you in your own STEAM journeys. To the east of Beachy Head sits the seaside town of Eastbourne, East Sussex. With a rich history of both famous artists (Claude Debussy, George Orwell, Eric Ravilious) and scientists (Frederick Soddy, Thomas Henry Huxley, Bruce Woodgate), it provided a fitting location for the birth of a new network seeking to combine the two subject areas, in a curriculum- crossing approach to learning. Supported by Artswork as part of its mission to increase creative learning opportunities in schools across the South East, the Eastbourne STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) Network formed in November 2017. Education, arts and science organisations came together, along with six participating secondary schools from Eastbourne and the surrounding area, to investigate the ways art and science could work simultaneously, in a series of cross-curricular projects.