锡纸、卡纸、彩绳、胶棒、回形针、绒毛铁丝线、彩色雪糕棍，用这些材料造一艘可以漂浮在水面上的船，你会怎么做?

此次夏令营的STEAM活动——船舶建造挑战，给孩子们留下了深刻的印象。

从绘图、设计到成型，他们动手动脑，直到找到解决问题的方法;从独立思考、积极讨论到团队合作，他们积极参与，最终看到自己的船飘在水上，孩子们都开心的手舞足蹈。

没有模型，没有步骤，没有标准答案，在老师的引导下，孩子们成功的“建造了”各式各样的船舶!

这是孩子们依靠自己赢得的胜利，也是老师们探究式教学的胜利，而这仅是我们学校STEAM课堂教学的案例之一。

STEAM教育是什么

STEAM 教育发源于美国，自20世纪90 年代以后，逐渐风靡荷兰、英国等国家和地区。

STEAM代表科学(Science)，技术(Technology)，工程(Engineering)，艺术(Arts)，数学(Mathematics)，STEAM教育就是集五门学科融合的综合教育。

有别于传统的单学科、重书本知识的教育方式，STEAM是一种重实践的超学科教育概念。

STEAM教育特点

在现实生活中，我们所应用的的学科都不是完全独立的。STEAM的关键点在于“融合”，其课程是贯通圆融的，其项目是基于探究实践的，着重于跨学科知识的整合。

交叉学科、基于项目和接触真实世界，是STEAM 教育的突出特色。

这里不再有所谓的标准答案，而是强调了知识与现实世界的相互，鼓励学生自己动手去探索，教会孩子们如何理解和塑造这个世界。

STEAM教育意义

STEAM 教育旨在打破学科领域的界限，倡导基于项目的学习方式，强调体验性和实践性，是一种新的教育理念和学习方法。

更重要的是，在探究性学习原则的融合下，在以学生需求为出发点的前提指引下，STEAM教育真正提升了学习者对于学习的热爱，而这应该是教育带给学生非常重要的礼物。

船舶建造挑战活动，只是无锡海归学校STEAM教育多个活动中的一个。以具体项目为课题，学校开设多个STEAM教学项目。

无锡海归学校是一所“独具特色的STEAM教育”学校。学校拥有世界尖端的STEAM专属教学设施，注重实践教学，强调学生通过探索和团队合作，解决现实生活中的实际问题。

学校的STEAM教育，不仅培养了学生们独立思考的能力，更培养了他们的团队合作意识，而这也是21世纪的人才需要具备的基本素质。

STEAM Activity

Boat Building Challenge

This STEAM activity was designed for kids in all grades. The boat building challenge was to be completed individually, with partners, or in teams.

The challenge showcased how our older students and younger students interacted and how they worked independently and brainstormed suggestions when they worked in a group. It was very interesting to see how the students asked questions about how to complete the construction of their boats. The design thinking, and steam teacher guided the students with open-ended questions to allow the students to formulate ideas and solutions on their own.

The STEAM skills that were presented:

Science: Students showcased their skills within the scientific method as they planned and constructed the boats and test the constructions to see if they could float and hold weight.

Technology: The students extended their vocabulary and learning through use of technology.

Engineering: The students planned and constructed a boat that exhibited early attempts at engineering from simple supplies.

Math: The students used lines, shapes, patterns, and explored mathematical relationships as they planned, constructed, tested, and improved on their boats.

Some of the students constructed O and H-shaped boats and many students used a variety of the simple material that they were given to create a boat that could float and all of them managed to construct a boat that did not sink, when it was weighed down by small objects. The older students even went back to the drawing board for an overall design change and we could see that the improved construction was successful, even though some were unsure at first, when they initially placed their boats into the water.

It was a joy to see the faces of kids building, creating, improving, and gaining knowledge through active participation in learning that was exciting!

The STEAM boat building challenge is just one of many STEAM activities that we at OCAC Wuxi used to promote inquiry and solution-based learning in the classroom.

——Article by Don Pak