Boost Your STEAM Program with Great Literature and Activities

You've created a STEAM program in your library, but how do you work literacy into the curriculum? With this collection of resource recommendations, direction for program development, and activities, you'll have students reading proficiently in no time.

Many schools and libraries are implementing STEAM programs in the school library makerspace to promote problem solving by allowing students to create their own solutions to a problem through trial and error. In order to enhance literacy development in the STEAM program, however, they need resources for integrating literature into the curriculum.

In this collection of resources for doing just that, veteran education professionals and practiced coauthors Liz Knowles and Martha Smith bring readers over eight hundred recommended and annotated books and web resources, selected based on research on successfully integrating STEAM and literacy programs and organized by the five STEAM areas. Titles are complemented by discussion questions and problem-solving activities that will aid educators in both adding and using the best literature to their STEAM programs for encouraging learning. In addition to promoting literacy, these resources will help to develop creativity, lateral thinking skills, and confidence in students.

Liz Knowles, EdD, is owner/director of Cognitive Advantage (www.cognitive-fitness.com), a cognitive skill development program for all ages.

Martha Smith, MSE, has been a media specialist for over 30 years in the pre-K through eighth grades.