STEAM - Transforming Data

We encourage you to teach STEAM both through and between disciplines (transdisciplinary).

This lesson could be used across various strands of the curriculum, including Maths and Visual Arts. Consider focusing on a curriculum strand that will complement other areas of learning you and your students are working on.

Syllabus outcomes: VAS4.1, VAS4.3, VAS4.4, VAS4.6

General capabilities: Literacy, Ethical Understanding, Critical and Creative Thinking, Personal and Social Capability.

Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability

Relevant parts of Year 7 Maths achievement standards: Students plan and conduct statistical investigations involving discrete and continuous numerical data, using appropriate displays. Students interpret data in terms of the shape of distribution and summary statistics, identifying possible outliers.

Relevant parts of Year 8 Maths achievement standards: Students analyse and describe the distribution of data.

Relevant parts of Year 7 & 8 Visual Arts achievement standards: Students evaluate the ways that visual artists across cultures, times, places and/or other contexts communicate ideas, perspectives and/or meaning through their visual arts practice. They select and manipulate visual conventions, visual arts processes and/or materials to create artworks that represent ideas, perspectives and/or meaning.

Unit of work: STEAM Made Simple – Secondary

Time required: 150 mins

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – the teacher will need to lead students through new ideas, activities and the class project. For smooth transitions and general running of the lesson, it may be beneficial to pre-arrange certain activities within this lesson and setup materials before class.

• Device capable of presenting a website to the class
• Dot Art Example (one per student or equipment to project) 
• Examples and Suggestions (teacher copy).
• Resources Required sheet (one per student)
• Transforming Data Worksheet (one copy per student)

This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:

• Collaboration
• Creativity
• Critical thinking
• Global citizenship
• Problem solving

STEAM Education:

Over recent years, the importance of STEM has been heavily promoted and discussed within fields of education. This has been within the context of ensuring that the next generation of students are provided with relevant knowledge and skills for the 21st century. STEM acknowledges the importance of the interrelated nature of science, technology, engineering and mathematics and the prominence of these skills in a world of continuous technological advancement.

What was missing from this original acronym, however, was an acknowledgement of the vital importance of artistic and creative thinking. The ability to think outside the box to develop artistic and creative solutions. 

The relevance of art is integral to success in all of the original STEM areas, and so STEAM education is now moving to the forefront. Significant figures in science and technological advancement (notably Leonardo DaVinci, Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs) valued and applied the contribution of artistic skill into their work and art, design and creativity is also pivotal to success in industries such as marketing, advertising and promotion.

This is an original Cool+ lesson.