Assistant Head of Primary at LCIS, and Regional STEAM Lead for Europe, Mark O’Brien, is passionate about STEAM. This experiential learning model helps students to discover, problem-solve, and think critically across the five content areas: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths. It is a transdisciplinary and creative approach that enables students to think more broadly and ‘connect the dots’ between subjects, methodologies, and their own logic and ideas.
STEAM across Primary and Secondary schools
For LCIS Primary STEAM Week, our teachers choose from the library of MIT challenges that LCIS has access to, often choosing something that resonates with their current topic. Year 5’s current topic is ‘Mission to Mars’, so their MIT challenge for this STEAM week is from a series called ‘Into The Void’ and it’s all about sustainability in space: How can we remove all the human-created debris from space, and how could we design new satellites that leave no trace when their job is done? Year 3 are looking at how we can capture images and film in remote locations, to give people a real sense of connection to animals and habitats that we need to protect.
Students benefit from our MIT collaboration through Secondary as well. This autumn two of our DP1 students, Elli and Luka, are heading right to the heart of MIT itself in Boston, USA. During the week-long trip they will meet NAE cohorts from all around the world and enjoy MIT-run seminars, lectures, workshops, discussions and more.
AI and STEAM Challenges for Year 9 Students
Artificial Intelligence is very much a subject of the moment. LCIS Head of Design Technology, Siobhan Newell, has introduced our Secondary Year 9 students to the current MIT ‘Designing Solutions’ STEAM Challenge as an optional co-curricular activity. Students are coming up with ideas as to how AI could enhance and improve product design. This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to dive deeper into STEAM projects and show their enthusiasm for the subject beyond the curriculum.
MIT Visits LCIS: A Collaborative Experience
We are also excited to be welcoming MIT to LCIS this November for the very first time. MIT collaboration Programme Manager MaryCat Boyett and Curiosity Correspondent Abby Haley will spend two days talking with Secondary students to discover what sparks their curiosity, homing in on specific thoughts to find out where our students enquiring minds are travelling to! The conversations will be videoed as part of a collaborative exchange to create Ask MIT and Biotic MIT Curiosity Correspondent videos, where MIT experts respond to student enquiries. Curiosity Correspondent videos are another amazing resource available to all our students on the NAE Global Campus.
MIT’s motto is ‘Mens et manus’ - mind and hand. It is all about the practical application of education and ideas. Mark O’Brien comments that,
“At LCIS, our world-class collaboration with MIT enhances STEAM learning, igniting creativity and critical thinking. This approach equips our students with the skills to innovate, collaborate and tackle the challenges of tomorrow. It aligns perfectly with our Learning Goals -eight essential character traits that we believe will empower our young learners to thrive in every aspect of life.”
Keep an eye out for news next March of our visit to the 2025 NAE STEAM Festival in Prague. Read about last year’s trip here.
