Over the last three years the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has been conducting studies affiliated with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Some of the topical areas covered have included professional learning in STEM, global competencies, deep learning, and scaling STEM up across the school board. As part of the STEM and Global Competencies research series, educators were asked whether they prefer STEM to remain as STEM or for it to be modified to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, ART, and Mathematics). These educators û who included teachers, administrators, and digital lead learners û were asked this question in survey and interview formats. Each of the question formats yielded similar responses to this question. However, the interview section provided detail as to how individual educators reached their decision showing that their real opinion might be more nuanced then simply choosing a preference of STEM or STEAM.

Research Report No. 17/18-9. October 2017.

Background and Rationale -- What is STEAM? -- How do ARTS benefit students? -- What are the benefits of including the ARTS in STEM? -- Why STEAM as opposed to STEM? -- How can STEAM programs be implemented in schools? -- What learning and instructional strategies are effective for STEAM implementation? -- What are some challenges to STEAM implementation? -- Research Results from TDSB STEM and Global Competencies Research Series -- Survey Results -- Coding -- Robotics -- Digital Lead Learners -- Comparison of Groups -- Interviews -- Robotics -- STEM -- Discussion and Conclusion -- References.