Roller Coasters, Sustainability, and Molecular Cuisine: STEAM in the Language Classroom

Foreign language educators focus not only on language acquisition, but also on nurturing students to become creative, intercultural, interdisciplinary and critical thinkers that can apply their skills in their current and future lives. When language teachers embrace and integrate STEM and other topics into their foreign language classes, they can motivate students more effectively to pursue language studies by making it more relevant and meaningful to other disciplines and their future career.

The presenter will begin with a brief overview of the theoretical background and results of a case study he conducted in a language class that combined language study with STEM topics, showing that the integration of STEM topics can increase motivation and outcomes in the foreign language classroom.

Based on the study results, his experience in developing and teaching several interdisciplinary language courses, and his work on the beginning and intermediate German language textbook Impuls Deutsch, the presenter will then share many practical examples and classroom activities that integrate STEM and other contents into the foreign language classroom—as early as the first semester.

Finally, the participants will have the opportunity to work in groups, and brainstorm ideas to include similar topics into their own courses.