Solutions To The Dropout Crisis

Capacity Building: STEM to STEAM in South Carolina

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By 2018, an estimated 81,000 STEM jobs will need to be filled in South Carolina. Despite an increase in STEM majors, however, students are not choosing STEM fields. Instead, they are selecting more “transdisciplinary” fields that include the arts. An innovative educational practice called STEAM (where “A” represents the arts) is helping students see the creative and imaginative parts of STEM and increasing their engagement in STEM. The development of an interdisciplinary STEAM ecosystem—including schools, families, businesses, and community members—is being led by a team of Clemson University faculty. The effort aims to increase the participation of South Carolinians in STEM, beginning in elementary school.

“Capacity Building: STEM to STEAM in South Carolina” will focus on:

The importance of deepening the content knowledge of teachers, parents, caregivers, and business partners, and why they are all invested in the success of building the STEAM Ecosystem; how underserved and high-needs school districts will be incorporated into STEAM to ensure that the workforce reflects the state’s changing demographics; and
how the initiative will create the nation’s first STEAM Teaching Endorsement.