data coaching, data informed, data literacy, data studio, STEAM

Create a great STEAM program with Data Studio

A big thank you to Kelli Buxton (@KelliBuxton) for the historical information about the technology team.

A Bit of History

A number of years ago, Singapore American School rolled out a one to one iPad program in the elementary school. With nearly 2000 students in the elementary school, this was quite a large task to undertake. Because of the scale of the program, there were six technology coaches, one for each grade level.

The role of the technology coach at that time was to help students and teachers learn how to effectively integrate the use of iPads into the classroom. For three years, technology coaches scheduled times to deliver technology lessons on a bi-weekly basis. Professional development sessions were also provided for interested teachers.

The Start of a Makerspace

As students and teachers became more familiar with technology and the use of iPads, there was an increased desire to create opportunities for students to apply the skills they learned. Singapore American School was rolling out newly designed Desired Learning Outcomes (DSLOs). There was a school-wide push to look for ways to explicitly teach the DLSOs.

At the same time, in southeast Asia, air pollution limited the ability to go outside for recess and sports. There was a need for more active indoor play spaces. Through the combination of these factors, Creation Stations were developed.

Power Standards & ISTE

Shortly after the adoption of Creation Stations, there was a schoolwide push to identify power standards in all areas of the curriculum. While grade levels were working on core curricular areas, the technology department was also asked to do similar work. Because of this, the ISTE standards were used as a resource for creating TIPS (Technology Integration Power Standards.) These standards looked at merging the DLSOs with standards around digital citizenship and computational thinking.

Coding Scope & Sequence

The next trip on the journey took us down the road of revamping TIPS into a more vertically aligned program around computational thinking. After researching a number of computer science programs and standard progressions, we created our own computational thinking scope and sequence.

The goal was to develop authentic learning experiences for students that would provide opportunities for students to apply these skills throughout various curricular areas. The role of the technology coach was to create and lead out the teaching of these lessons while working closely with curriculum lead teachers on the development of the experiences.

STEAMing Ahead with our ES STEAM Program

The purpose of the dashboard is to be used as a springboard for dialogue around what we are doing well and what we need to improve on.

@smithrchris Tweet

Moving into a purpose built elementary campus is the next phase in our journey. We have been asked to continue to develop our work around computational thinking and designing real-world learning experiences for all of our students.

Because of this, we have decided to look at the K-12 Computer Science Framework (https://k12cs.org/) and use it as a basis for redefining our STEAM and makerspace programs. This framework has been used to help us articulate the work we are doing around learning engagements. However, we needed a way to capture what we are doing and to look for gaps in our current system.

We decided to collect data on what we are already doing and then design a dashboard that would show this work. The purpose of the dashboard is to be used as a springboard for dialogue around what we are doing well and what we need to improve on. Moving forward, we will use it to create a more robust and comprehensive student experience.

Do you want to see the live dashboard? You can check it out here.

Chris

Chris Smith is an academic data analyst in the international education field. Throughout his 25 years in education, he noticed schools and educators collecting data but struggling with being overwhelmed or not knowing what to do with the data. So, he began coaching, training, and consulting schools and educators to learn how to discover what data they actually need and how they can turn it into information that leads to insights and informed decision-making.

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