How We Build Robots and Skills: Transdisciplinary Learning in STEAM

The STEAM programne is an innovative educational initiative that focuses on transdisciplinary learning, combining the subjects of Design & Technology, ICT, Arts, and Drama to develop students’ essential skills. 

This year marks the program’s second edition, continuing to challenge and inspire students to explore and create beyond the boundaries of traditional disciplines. Smaranda Nicolau, Teacher of Drama and Media Studies, joyfully shares the experience of the fifth-grade students in the STEAM programme—a journey full of creativity, discovery, and collaboration. 

In the article, you will discover how these young innovators transformed ideas into concrete projects, enthusiastically and boldly exploring the fascinating world of design, technology, and art.

Last week saw us wrap up the STEAM program for Grade 5. The program, titled How To Build Another Me, has now run for a second consecutive year. This year, we had the pleasure of inviting parents to observe the outcomes of learning. And observe they did, as almost 60 Grade 5 students huddled together on the terrace of our Secondary building to present what they had worked on in the four subjects that come together to form this transdisciplinary program: Design & Technology , ICT, Arts and Drama.

The Robot and the Story: Improvisation and Creation

For 10 minutes, in their teams of three, students performed short improvised scenes that they had rehearsed in Drama. In these scenes, students had created simple, real-life scenarios exploring a situation in which three people, having a regular day, come across an extraordinary object – a ROBOT.

Each team created their own situation, their own characters and each team came up with a different problem that the robot helps solve (or creates). Students built these scenes from the ground up in Drama classes and developed them independently, through improvisation. 

We very much wanted parents to have access to this imperfect but amazing work-in-progress that showcases their creativity as well as their performance skills. Some scenes were truly remarkable, some were simple and effective, but all students performed and all work was entirely their own. 

From Self-Portrait to 3D Character

The same can be said for the amazing displays teams created to showcase their progress through Arts, where they learned how to create character designs starting from self-portraits and then advancing all the way to printable 3D figures and even Funko-Pop style characters based on themselves. Just like in Drama, learners’ starting point was their own experience. The artistic subjects in STEAM have this opportunity to encourage learners to explore starting not from afar, but from up-close, from what they know best and yet seldom stop to learn more about at this age – themselves. 

When Imagination Meets Technology

The process then moves into its technical side with students developing coding and design skills in ICT and Design & Technology. Whereas the arts allow freedom of expression and promote exploration, ICT and Design & technology anchor this exploration in real-world possibilities. Yes, it is possible to make a machine behave in any conceivable way, but in order to do that, you have to be able to break down the behaviour into small, logical and connected steps (ICT). Yes, it is possible to design anything, but in the end you must understand the limitations of the technology used to make your product – 3D printers can only print a specific format and your design needs to adapt to that format. Yes, the robot could have arms like an octopus, but they’ll probably fall over and not be able to move them. 

Yes, the real world imposes limitations. These are not the enemy of creativity, but ultimately its greatest helper in becoming useful to others. In our minds, we can come up with any story and any design, but in the end, we will perform only the stories that make sense to an audience and create only designs that work and can be helpful to other human beings. 

Input – Process – Output: A Transdisciplinary Lesson

It was this insight that we tried to convey through our STEAM Module in Grade 5. We wanted learners not only to gain conceptual understanding and competencies in each of our subjects (What is Binary Code?, What is Character Design?, How does 3D printing work?, What is a character’s backstory?) – we wanted them to be able to transfer these concepts and use them across disciplinary boundaries. While all of the subject matter being covered in STEAM is still the content of the National Curriculum, teaching these subjects together over the past two years is our way of making learning more relevant and more life-like and connected. But it is also our own way of creating a story of learning, because, as teachers, we know that what links learning together best is a good yarn. 

The Robot — A Little Box, A Universe of Ideas

The story of STEAM is the story of any process – it begins with an INPUT. In Drama, the input for an improvisation is usually the audience’s suggestion of a space for the scene to take place in, or a relationship between the characters. In ICT, the input for machine behaviour is usually a code which prompts actions. These two types of inputs, when looked at closely, are very similar. Human beings also receive code inputs that prompt action. 

The story then continues with a PROCESS by which the input is integrated. 

Here again, the Arts share some part of the process – in Drama and Visual Arts, the process is the slow and gradual acquisition of skill that will allow our hands, voices and bodies to bring the contents of our imagination onto a piece of paper or a stage. It takes practice and it is a process of failing and trying again. 

In Design and in ICT, the process shares different elements – elements of learning about machine capabilities, of learning how to translate what is in our mind into language that a 3D printer can read or into code that a small robot can perform. 

Finally, the story ends with an OUTPUT. This is what we invited parents and teachers to observe. In our case, the output was a presentation of the students’ work in our subjects over the course of a year. The product – a small robot that reacts to the person in front of it by moving its arms, body and emoting with an LCD screen and a speaker. Kids usually design amazing 3D printed parts so the robots are quite a bit of fun, for both the students and their parents.

At the end of the day, though, the robot is only a small box with moving parts. On its own, it wouldn’t look like much. This is one reason why we love it even more – though small, it embodies a big truth about learning. What is visible of learning is often very little. The real learning, the massively interconnected and truly impressive structures of knowledge that get built – we cannot see those, because they are hidden away in another small box, the one that really matters in this case – a young learner’s brain. With its own myriad of inputs, unique and mysterious processes, and the lovely creative outputs it brings into the world, for teachers and parents to see on a Wednesday morning on the terrace in front of the Senior Cafeteria.

Thanks to the kids for taking up our challenge, to everyone who attended and of course, to the dream team of teachers who made it all happen (in alphabetical order): Victor Bratu (ICT), Salih Gokcel (Design), Bogdan Topîrceanu (Arts), Vlad Oancea (Drama).