Maker Education: The STEAM Playground

Educators who are committed to teaching STEAM in their classes and programs will be inspired and encouraged by the capabilities for multidisciplinary instruction and project based learning offered by an emerging pedagogy known as Maker Education. While making was previously thought of as STEM-focused, it can easily be integrated across all subjects. Maker Ed’s Resource Library has a section on Projects and Learning Approaches, which includes many cross-curricular project ideas that expand this model of education from STEM to STEAM and beyond. Author/Artist Bio A self-described edu-preneur passionate about achieving outcomes through innovation, Amanda has spent recent years developing competency-based educational materials and connecting educators to employers through meaningful credentials. Amanda is committed to User Centered Design as an Agile Product Owner who applies Lean methodology to the development of solutions and strategies. She has also served the higher education sector as a professor, a vice chancellor, and assistant dean. Her areas of expertise include helping institutions improve institutional effectiveness, measure outcomes, and develop faculty. She earned her PhD in Education from the Claremont Graduation University/ San Diego State University Joint-PhD program in Education. She also holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from San Diego State University. Currently Amanda is a Director of Competency-Based Solutions for Wonderlic, as well as an Executive Director of Helios Education Lab