VALDOSTA – Do you know the importance of STEAM in education? STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics, and according to the Georgia Department of Education, STEAM isn’t just an acronym. The stemgeorgia.org website tells us that, “STEAM education is a transformative approach to traditional teaching and learning that fosters creativity and innovative thinking in all students.”

Teachers at J.L. Lomax know that STEAM education is important for their scholars’ future, so they took their students on a field trip to the Valdosta State University STEAM Center. During this fun-filled trip, students experienced six different, hands-on immersive, mixed content lessons. These lessons came from the Project Learning Tree curriculum, where the goal is to help students “experience nature and learn about trees and forests.”

Would you believe that crayons, make-up, sunscreen, and even chewing-gum, comes from trees? Students learned, many items, such as the ones just listed, include an ingredient that comes from trees. Crayons, make-ups, and chewing gums have sap products in them, while sunscreen and make-up both use cellulose from trees. Another more obvious thing that comes from trees is paper, and students on this trip got the opportunity to make it! Students had to strain pulp, sop the water out of it, roll it flat, and then dry it, similar to what would happen in a real-life paper plant.

Students also learned about topics such as camouflage as a survival strategy, where they pretended to be birds and searched in competition for colored worms and bugs. They became water molecules and traveled through the water cycle, creating colorful bead bracelets to depict their travels. They turned into forest rangers and tried to save the forest from fires, in a fun tag-related game. Then they even got to tour the STEAM center where they learned about the diversity of artiest and their artwork.

Students will take the fun and knowledge had on this trip, and remember the experience forever. And, as they STEAM through the rest of the school year, they will be able to apply the education concepts in the science, technology, art and math classrooms.