Crayola seeks to add art to education

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CreatED, an educational model of Crayola aims to give teachers the tools to move from STEM to STEAM.

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For several years there has been a strong preference for involving students in the STEM subjects and prepare them for the most demanding positions within the most competitive markets. This type of courses makes teachers struggle to find ways to include art in their science and technology classes.

By using art in these subjects, not only do students learn to think critically, but also to solve real-world problems and other 21st century skills by using creativity.

To help schools and teachers, Crayola developed the creatED personal development workshops where educators find the necessary tools to incorporate art into their curriculum.

With activities such as volcanoes that students can color and paint and others like programming visually, without initially using technology, Crayola plans to integrate creativity and leadership to break down STEM topics and engage K-8 students.

The workshops’ objective is for teachers to help students think about the concepts that drive technological development through hands-on activities, even when they are not using any.

CreatED offers schools three areas to focus on: STEM, Visual Literacy (which includes math concepts apart from reading) and creative leadership. It also provides support and mentoring for one to three years, according to the preference of each school.

The purpose is to motivate teachers to innovate, giving them the confidence to include art in their classes in an immersive and creative way, creating learning environments centered on the students. Students become creators, expressing their ideas differently.

Currently, eight districts in the United States are serving as pilot schools of Crayola.

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