Imagine, Inquire, and Create

In this book, the authors integrate STEM (i.e., science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) concepts and the cultivation of young minds in order to be open to innovation. This book uses STEM instruction as blurring the lines among basic subject areas.  Often, it’s more than integrating science, mathematics, engineering, and technology.  Ideas, activities, and projects can be integrated with lessons from the language arts to the Arts as well.  In this book, STEM is treated as more of a philosophy than a program or a set of activities. 

With deep respect for the unique relationship between teachers and their students, Dennis Adams and Mary Hamm navigate the classroom of the future, where, in collaboration, learners question, analyze, interpret, and discover. While the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering, and math are essential in understanding the world today, spontaneity, risk, and imagination are key to innovation and creativity. In Imagine, Inquire, and Create: A STEM-Inspired Approach to Cross-Curricular Teaching, Adams and Hamm collaborate to create innovative curricula, and teaching practices for an evolving classroom., This book truly addresses a well-rounded educational program, not only focusing on STEM (all the rage right now) but also on ALL subject areas. By looking at collaborative learning, teamwork, differentiation, and diversity all the while incorporating technology and good, old-fashioned hands-on materials, Adams and Hamm, help teachers like me, find a way to make every student feel successful and part of the class as a whole. I especially like the activity on Bridge Building as it brings in so many facets of learning from research on the Internet, books and magazines to hands-on creativity with everyday available materials (newspaper and duct tape) and then adds NO TALKING (or in my class, NO SIGNING) to work together cohesively, to experience success and/or failure, and learn from both, that we all have something to contribute no matter how big or small. Adams and Hamm remind us that there is more than just STEM; that the Arts and Language Arts, History, all subjects, come into play through collaboration,  teamwork, and learning. What I liked most about this book is that sprinkled throughout is a reminder to administrators and School Boards that Professional Development is a huge part of this and I hope that they will act as role models in demonstrating collaboration and teamwork with their staff to help us help our 21st century children become successful, respectful team-players of the future.

Dennis Adams is a former Fulbright Scholar who taught elementary school and also higher education at the University of Minnesota, University of Maine, and McGill University in Montreal. He did graduate work at Harvard University and has a PhD from the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of more than twenty books and over one hundred journal articles on various educational topics.Mary Hamm has taught at Ohio State University and the University of Colorado. More recently, she has been teaching at San Francisco State University. She has worked on both math and science standards and has published more than a dozen books and eighty journal articles on these subjects.