While reading, writing, history, math and science are key focus points in schools, creative thinking skills are just as important for building a successful future for our kids and communities. Creative thinking helps to solve problems, both big and small, and is critical to personal and professional success.
Children are naturally curious and creative. It is vital that we provide educational environments that encourage and nurture these traits. Unfortunately, the teaching structure in many U.S. schools does not always lean towards creating a classroom environment that fosters creative thinking. We often find that when school budgets shrink, creative programs such as art and music are many times the first programs to be cut. To add to the problem, COVID-19 has forced a new normal in online learning where teachers, parents, and student alike can struggle to adapt.
Why Is Creative Thinking Important?
Many jobs that require routine processes are becoming obsolete – replaced by automation – leaving mainly careers that require our ability to analyze, discover, problem-solve and innovate. In fact, many CEOs believe that more than rigor, management discipline, integrity or even vision — successfully navigating an increasing complex world will require creativity. To prepare our students for the future, we must ensure that their creativity is fostered and strengthened throughout their academic careers.
Besides adding fun and excitement to learning, encouraging creativity at a young age has many benefits. Children enjoy learning when it’s engaging, interesting and fun. Creativity also boosts confidence, relieves stress, helps emotional and social development, and provides an avenue for self-expression.
Brainy Bytes Encourages Creativity Through STEM/STEAM
Creative thinking is a key component in STEM – science, technology, engineering, and math. Wired sums it up well: “In America, we must make core subjects like math and science relevant for students, and at the same time, foster creativity, curiosity and a passion for problem solving. That’s what STEM education does. STEM is about using math and science to solve real-world challenges and problems. Once they grasp core concepts, students are able to choose a problem and use their own creativity and curiosity to research, design, test and improve a viable solution.”
We know parents are looking for programs to enhance their child’s creative learning. We are also very much aware of the need for STEM in the classroom and beyond to prepare our students for the future. Brainy Bytes’ mission is to meet both these needs by offering courses that introduce the world of STEM in an environment that encourages student engagement while nurturing creativity, problem-solving and communication skills.
Brainy Bytes now provides a variety of online and onsite STEM programs for K-12 including robotics, engineering, storytelling, game creation, media, coding, graphic design, 3D animation and more. Parents and educators can choose from pre-scheduled courses or work with a location to schedule learning pods that fit their needs/time.
Learn more about Brainy Bytes on our website!
Check us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest.