A child’s natural desire to learn, experiment and question is fundamentally important to their education and development, so at The British International School Abu Dhabi (BIS Abu Dhabi), they do not give their students all of the answers. Instead, they give them some of life’s most interesting questions and challenges, and the tools to tackle them. The school’s aim for their students is that they learn creativity and resilience throughout their education. When they leave school and take their first steps into university and beyond, BIS Abu Dhabi want them to do so with the confidence of real global citizens. The question is, how do they teach that?

Exploring real-world challenges with STEAM

STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics, but it equates to more than a series of subjects. Whether in the classroom or through BIS Abu Dhabi’s extra-curricular platform Global Campus, the teaching and thinking around STEAM is the key to children learning about their impact on the world around them and how exciting the possibilities are.

From a young age, children begin to explore their surroundings and from there, their perspective grows. STEAM takes this natural curiosity which students have as young learners in Early Years and Primary, through to their teenage years in Secondary School, and builds on it with a contextualised, skills-based approach to teaching. It encourages the natural instincts a child has for learning about where they are, how things work as they do, and why it matters, and asks them to apply that curiosity to solving real-world challenges.

BIS Abu Dhabi and their exclusive collaboration with MIT

Underlying the STEAM education at BIS Abu Dhabi is an exclusive collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This relationship with MIT brings opportunities for BIS Abu Dhabi students which go far beyond their curriculum and the classroom. A student might participate in a new MIT Abstracts series which gives them access to lectures with MIT professors, learning about what they are researching and the impact it will have on our lives, take on classroom or special at-home science challenges like the new Home Labs series, or even visit the MIT campus. The objective behind all MIT teaching is for students to understand and identify a real problem, and collaboratively take on the challenge of finding a solution to it – truly putting their creativity to test.

STEAM challenges

During the annual House Day event at BIS Abu Dhabi, students complete a STEAM challenge to gain points for their relevant house. This year, students in Years 10-13 built a robot hand made out of paper and straws. Despite the challenging nature of current COVID-19 restrictions, they still managed to collaborate and produce designs that could not only move, but also pick up and move other objects!

Students are now taking part in the Global Campus monthly STEAM challenges. Each month, a new challenge is set that requires students to apply their imagination and STEAM knowledge to a new context. February’s STEAM challenge was called ‘Elevator engineer,’ which involved students being set a task to design and build a prototype for a schools elevator. They had to ensure it was well balanced, be able to transport heavy loads up several floors, and needed to be as energy efficient as possible.

The current STEAM challenge for March is called “Trashion designer”, where students are being challenged to use ‘trash’ as a resource, and create a wearable item. This can be an item of clothing, a piece of jewellery a hat or a bag. They can upcycle old clothes, or clean up and repurpose something that is considered rubbish.

STEAM for young minds

From the youngest years through to the oldest students, the role of STEAM is to teach core subjects by contextualising them. STEAM careers have been promoted through Primary, and students have been encouraged to consider all the jobs that have a STEAM element. As part of their learning, Primary students have been introduced to a hacking challenge. In a movement to combat Sustainable Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and also to develop STEAM skills, the students have been busy developing a superhero vehicle, using waste material from home.

Global citizenship in the community

BIS Abu Dhabi believe that the full value of STEAM is not just in the classroom, but in getting out into the local community. This can be put into practice in lots of different ways. Teachers may ask students to identify an issue, like a lack of recycling infrastructure, and find a solution to it, for example. Going further afield, students also all have the chance to attend citizenship expeditions, such as taking part in sustainable development and construction programmes in Tanzania and attending trips to Masdar city, Abu Dhabi sustainable building development, which is powered by renewable energy. BIS Abu Dhabi students are also part of the Global social leaders programme, where a student was successful in winning the Global Goal competition.

Discover more

Whether at home or abroad, STEAM learning provides amazing experiences which teach our students about what being a global citizen really means. For more on how BIS Abu Dhabi teach STEAM, please visit: https://www.nordangliaeducation.com/our-schools/abu-dhabi/learning/our-approach-to-steam