STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, Mathematics) is everywhere—from businesses and organizations to the products that power our daily lives. That’s why it’s important to build the first fully STEAM literate generation and encourage career exploration at an early age.
Play to Learn is an interactive program designed for exploring STEAM careers for middle school students. The curriculum is built to empower learners with the knowledge they’ll need to discover their career pathways. Industries and innovative opportunities highlighted in the program include:
- Designing the Ultimate Prototype
- Connecting the Home of the Future
- Building the Perfect Playlist
- Medical Machines
- Data Champions
- Game Development Studio
Over 600 students took Play to Learn as part of the DigiBC Program
Knowledge & Learning
Increasing Knowledge of STEAM Careers
Play to Learn helps students understand how STEAM skills translate into STEAM careers. This skill translation begins with learning about foundational STESM skills like data analysis, the engineering design process, and concepts related to software development. DigiBC students’ assessment scores increased by 98% (from 40 to 79 out of 100). Nationally, assessment scores increased by an average of 80%.
- 659 Student
- 24 Schools
- 1,216 Hours of Learning
Preparing for a STEAM Future
Building Interest in STEAM Learning
Play to Learn reinforces key STEAM skills and mindsets while encouraging students to connect these skills with future careers. This real-world context shows students how to leverage what they are learning in their math and science classes today and over the rest of their academic career into a STEAM career in the future.
Seeing Themselves in STEAM
Reaching Students Who Do Not Identify as the ‘STEAM Type’
Early adolescence is a critical time for STEAM education. How students feel about STEAM subjects at this age can dramatically impact future options and choices. Play to Learn aims to encourage all students even those who might not think a STEAM career is them – to see themselves in a career utilizing STEAM topics. After Play to Learn, students who initially said they were not interested in a STEAM career begin to reconsider. These students saw careers that excited them, could imagine themselves in that career, and these students started thinking about next steps to pursue a STEAM career.
After participating in Play to Learn, __% of students agree:
- 46% I am interested in taking more classes on statistics. (Compared to 32% in pre-course surveys.)
- 47% I am interested in taking more classes on the scientific method. (Compared to 33% in pre-course surveys.)
- 50% I am interested in taking more classes on the engineering design process. (Compared to 35% in pre-course surveys.)
- 43% I am interested in taking more classes on algorithms. (Compared to 20% in pre-course surveys.)
Teacher Perspective
Building STEAM Career Interest
Teachers agree that Play to Learn is effective at engaging their students and encouraging their interest in STEAM. Based on feedback from 97 teachers who used Play to Learn during the 2020-2021 school year, two thirds of teachers say that Play to Learn presents STEAM careers to students in a more engaging way than other programs. And an overwhelming majority of teachers (94%) agree that Play to Learn helps their students make critical connections between STEAM concepts and future careers.
Among the 28% of students who were not interested in a STEM career…
- 35% Saw a career they were interested in.
- 42% Saw a career they could imagine themselves having.
- 33% Realized they were the type of person who could have a STEM career.
- 35% Started to think about what courses to take, internships to have, and college majors to pursue to have a STEM career.
* Based on Data from EverFi Teacher Surveys conducted during the 2020-2021 school year.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-WdeawzmMlaZoCzTqjJH_YBKXlp9-4Ds/view
