Reflections on the Design of a STEAM Curriculum for 12- to 14-Year-Old Girls

In this chapter we reflect on the process of designing and implementing a STEAM curriculum for 12- to 14-year-old girls. The first cycle of the curriculum was designed and implemented in 2021 during a four-day summer school in Cyprus, involving a range of activities and problem-solving inquiry for designing uniforms for scientists in a variety of STEM professions. Based on findings, a new version was designed and implemented in summer 2022 to help students work on the problem of using color to support scientists in improving their well-being in their workspace. Lessons learned from the process of designing and implementing the curriculum included using a driving problem to guide activities, introducing activities that captured students’ interests, explaining to students the design process and engaging them with it, and adding entrepreneurship activities. We highlight four pedagogical principles applied in the STEAM curriculum: learning with a purpose, gaining empowerment and agency, engaging in immersive learning, blending the STEAM disciplines through design thinking, and embracing uncertainty and risk taking.