Sense-Making and STEAM: Using Art to Make Science Visible

When children engage in play, they develop essential skills like creativity, flexibility, imagination, and problem-solving. Children who engage in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) activities also build similar skills. Both play and STEAM enable children to ask questions, try different solutions, and develop explanations for why things happen. This process, known as sense-making, is how children develop an understanding of the world. While children’s knowledge about the world becomes more refined as they age, their ability to play and tinker remains vital to developing skills they will use as lifelong learners. This article presents a three-step cycle that teachers can use to support children’s engagement in play and STEAM. We review what sense-making looks like in art, science, and STEAM. Then, we present two sets of STEAM activities utilizing the three-step inquiry cycle. We end the article by presenting ideas for how teachers can get started in STEAM.