STEAM at NAIS Pudong: Make it clear, make it practical, make it local

At NAIS Pudong, STEAM is an important part of our primary school curriculum. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths, and at NAIS Pudong we also incorporate History and Geography into these lessons.

When teaching STEAM, our teachers always consider these three principles:

Make it clear

At NAIS Pudong, many of our students are English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners. As our curriculum is taught in English, the challenge for our teachers is to ensure that our EAL students can participate fully in lessons and understand key concepts. Therefore, teachers employ appropriate visual aids to help students to understand, learn and use key scientific and technical vocabulary and offer ways for students to demonstrate their understanding practically, without using spoken or written language. Whilst the latter two skills are still vital to good STEAM education, they can only be built upon a strong foundation of knowledge. Our teachers’ methods to “make it clear” are not just helpful for our EAL learners, but for all our students: everyone benefits from a better understanding of key vocabulary and concepts.

Make it practical

The best STEAM learning is hands-on. Testing magnets, observing which objects float or sink, learning how different instruments vibrate to produce sound: all this must be done practically for students to see, listen, feel and understand. Students use these opportunities to pose and then attempt to answer questions. What would happen if we used two magnets? Would the clay still sink if we changed its shape? Could we add a second bulb to the circuit? This learning through play and experimentation is assisted by some of the great resources that we have in school. Firstly, our excellent STEAM room has a range of equipment that helps students discover natural phenomena or complete mini-engineering projects. Secondly, our whole campus is a resource for STEAM lessons, whether it is learning about the difference between deciduous and evergreen trees or using a decibel meter to measure the sound levels in decibels in different areas of the school.

Make it local

Although we teach an international curriculum, our school’s language of instruction is English and our teachers come from all over the world, it’s important to recognise that our school is in Shanghai. Consequently, when teaching STEAM we draw on local examples than are familiar to our students, all of whom call Shanghai “home” in one way or another. Teachers ensure that our teaching materials link tightly to our location in Shanghai. Changes in rural and urban environments are discussed with examples from the development of Shanghai and especially Pudong District. When discussing the engineering of modern cargo ships, what better homework to set than for students to walk beside the Huangpu River and observe the huge ships passing through the heart of their city? And when it comes to learning about birds and their habitats, where better to observe birdlife than our school field with its population of magpies, wagtails and hoopoes?

By making it clear, making it practical and making it local, our teachers at NAIS Pudong bring STEAM learning alive for our students. These are the skills that AI can’t teach, these are the skills that our students need to succeed.