Humanizing Science through STEAM Challenges

Humanizing STEAM book cover

This project involved the development of K-5 grade level STEM and the Arts (STEAM) children's stories in the form of short videos produced by elementary teacher candidates (ETCs) at Iowa State. The team working on the project developed a YouTube Channel to publish the developed products, with an online book to house copies of the videos as well as text versions of the stories.

By developing this project, the team involved were able to: 

  1. improve ETC's pedagogical content knowledge through engaging in designing, teaching, and video recording inquiry-based STEAM lessons;
  2. give ETCs a more balanced view of the nature of science through reading about scientists and then producing video-based children's books; and
  3. provide an enhanced sense of a Community of Practice where the future teachers and facilitators (instructors) modeled, learned, and mentored together.

As the PIs stated in their final report: 

"This project improved my teaching practice especially to intentionally think about “quality and learning,” “quality and open-sharing.” Also, importantly, this project made me think deeply about the impact and the beauty of non-commercial open educational resources."

Citation: Bahng, E.J. & Hauptman, J.M. (2021). Humanizing Science through STEAM Challenges. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Digital Press. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.31274/isudp.2021.73