Students and faculty from the College of Education partnered with the UTA Library to host a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) workshop for school-age children of UTA faculty and staff.
Robin Jocius, associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, said she wanted to create a more authentic teaching experience for her students. With the help of Morgan Brickey-Jones, director of community engagement and former K-12 librarian, she began to develop ideas for the workshop through UTA's Experiential Faculty Fellowship Program.
"We saw this as a win-win for faculty/staff and for our students to get the experience to work with P-12 learners before they head into classroom," Jocius said. "It is also a win for kids in the workshops; instead of doing non-educational activities at home, they get a full day of STEAM learning."
The STEAM workshop consisted of four interactive and hands-on activities, including Lego car balloon races, 3D-printed gravity batteries and glass-jar terrariums.
Students from Jocius' class have been preparing for their workshops since the beginning of the semester. Drawing upon their coursework, student teaching experiences and the library's various resources, students split up into groups to develop their STEAM workshop lesson plan.
Rachel Edwards, an education major for middle grades math and science, said the workshop reminds her of what she wants to be teaching in a classroom.
"It's been very exciting getting to work on all these different parts and work together to give the kids a chance to do something that is very hands-on," said Edwards. "This is a lesson that we've created on our own, and we are getting to teach the kids on our own. Working with the different age groups has also been a great experience and practice."
The lesson plans and reflections students created for the STEAM workshop will be published in the UTA institutional repository, ResearchCommon, and the students will become published authors. The ResearchCommon is an open-access system and will allow teachers to utilize the lesson plans students developed.
