Where Is STEAM Investment In Georgia?

A cousin to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) curricula, STEAM programs are project-based and integrative. The state has launched a program that encourages K-12 schools to apply for STEM and STEAM certification. It’s a rigorous process, says Caitlin Daugherty Kokenes, a project associate with the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education.

“To be certified as a STEM school or a STEAM school, the school really has to show that they’ve committed throughout the school on a day-to-day basis to STEM-based learning, which incorporates project-based learning and giving almost everything they do in school a STEM focus or a STEAM focus,” Kokenes says.

At the request of the Goizueta Foundation, Kokenes and GPEE Policy Director Dana Rickman spent a year mapping STEAM investment in Georgia.

“There was no sense of, ‘Who’s doing what where?” Rickman says. “’Who’s investing in what? Where are there out-of-school program times? What schools are really good? What local populations have nothing?’”

They found most investments are concentrated in metro Atlanta, with some in areas like Macon and Savannah. Rickman says if other areas of the state aren’t able to invest, they could lag economically.

“We hear a lot about developing rural Georgia right now, and if the STEM fields are where our fasting-growing economy is, if we don’t have any STEM investments in educating students in that, that’s a lack of opportunity for growth,” she says.

Jason O’Rouke, vice president of public policy and federal affairs for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, says businesses across Georgia want employees with STEAM training.

“It’s going to be critical for any part of the state that wants to have the talent for these industries of the future,” O’Rouke says. “If they’re going to continue to grow, the students who are coming out of the education system are going to need to have some level of STEAM training to be a desirable employee.”

He says that goes well beyond the technology sector.

“You don’t really have an option anymore to say, ‘I’m not a technology person,’” O’Rouke says. “You have to be prepared to use at least a basic level of technology when you step into employment.”

Kokenes and Rickman say the map allows potential investors to see where investment is lacking. Businesses can use the tool to identify areas of need and partner with schools to build STEAM programs.

That way, they can help train students to become the workers they want to hire.