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What is STEAM? Why is it important to integrate STEAM and literacy?

STEAM is an educational framework that utilizes Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics to guide student engagement, stimulating curiosity, dialogue, and critical-thinking. The inclusion of the arts in STEAM allows students to interact with the curriculum through various innovative ways including anything from painting to dancing, from photography to storytelling.

STEAM’s foundations lie in inquiry and in critical-thinking. The curiosity and open-endedness of the humanities is naturally embedded in the STEAM approach. This means literacy is inherently a part of STEAM as it is how we consume, process, and share information. A potential project that supports both STEAM and literacy could be something as simple as students reading a book about scientific inventions, having students reflect and describe with a partner about an invention of their own, then having students recreate the invention prototype with pipe-cleaners.

In an article by Defined Learning, Dr. Jacie Maslyk, a current Assistant Superintendent and former public school educator and elementary-school principal, explains the benefits of integrating STEAM with literacy:

“There are also books that shed light on the dispositions that we want to build in our young thinkers, designers, and explorers. Fostering perseverance, flexibility, and teamwork can be introduced and reinforced through children’s literature. STEM stories can serve as models of taking risks, applying knowledge to new situations, and asking questions.”

How can the OLC support your STEAM x Literacy projects?

The Oakland Literacy Coalition’s (OLC) 2025-2026 Reading Everywhere Action Grants support literacy and reading projects, particularly those that link literacy with STEAM! These literacy and reading projects must support Oakland youth ages 0-18. Our grants specifically help fund the supply of new books and up to $250 for activities and projects that foster STEAM learning. We welcome applications from individual literacy champions, community organizations, faith-based groups, and cultural collectives. We especially prioritize applications for projects that deepen engagement with families! 

There are many ways to incorporate both STEAM and literacy into children’s curriculum:

Ways to link literacy to STEAM: Mathical List and Resource Guides Examples

A great resource to inspire activities that connect literacy and STEAM is TeachingBooks’s Mathical Book Prize 2015-2025 list, which comprises some of the most exceptional math and science-related fiction and nonfiction children’s book titles. We recommend checking out TeachingBooks’s Mathical Book Prize list as it features complementary teaching guides, activities, and lesson plans. You may be implementing similar supplemental activities and/or lessons already; If that’s the case, go you!

Suggested book titles from the Mathical Book Prize list with stimulating supplemental activities:

• Hedy Lamarr’s Double Life: Hollywood Legend and Brilliant Inventor by Laurie Wallmark and Katy Wu
  • Supplemental teaching guide (aligned for grades 1-5) outlines activities like:
    • Drama: creating an infomercial for one of Hedy Lamarr’s inventions.
    • Math: creating a secret communication code using numbers like Hedy did.

• Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer by Traci Sorell and Natasha Donovan
  • Supplemental teaching guide (aligned for grades 2-7) outlines activities like:
    • Makeshift Science Projects: projects that utilize box fans to demonstrate the forces of flight, or an egg carton to create a glider that students will experiment with and make stable.
    • Cherokee Language Lesson: shapes and numbers are paired with the teaching of Cherokee words, syllabary and history. 
    • Journaling: includes a prompt and journal sheet to have students reflect on skill building, cooperation, humility, and community action in STEM projects.

• Ten Blocks To The Big Wok: A Chinatown Counting Book by Ying-Hwa Hu
  • Supplemental teaching guide (aligned for grades K-3) outlines activities like:
    • Insightful pre-reading discussion questions and reflective post-reading questions, as well as literal comprehension questions and ELL (English Language Learner questions).
    • Encouraging students to walk around their own neighborhoods and note the things they see, paying attention to small details and using numbers to describe what they see.
    • Having students write a poem about their neighborhood utilizing their five senses (see, hear, touch, smell, taste).
    • Having students create an illustration that represents their culture or heritage, where they are from.
    • Playing a counting scavenger hunt, where students have to find a certain number of items around the classroom.
  • There’s even a resource for adding in phonological awareness routines to your read-alouds!

• Secret Coders by Gene Luen Yang and Mike Holmes
  • Supplemental teaching tip sheet (aligned for grades 3-5) outlines activities like:
    • Pre-reading questions and short vocabulary assessment specific to the reading.
    • Discovering Binary Numbers: students will learn binary code by practicing representing binary numbers using small items.
    • Are You A Coder?: students will strategize coding commands to successfully program a robot to walk.

Literacy & STEAM: Testimonies from Past Grantees of OLC’s Reading Everywhere Action Grants 📣✨

We want to spotlight local STEAM-inspired projects done by previous grantees of our Reading Everywhere Action Grants! These literacy & STEAM projects are exceptional/extraordinary examples of just a few ways to integrate literacy and STEAM effectively using our grants. What literacy & STEAM connected project will you take on next using our Reading Everywhere Action Grants?

Summer ’25 Reading Everywhere Action Grantee: Bonita the Bumble Bee

• “Bonita The Bumble Bee’s Summer S.T.E.A.M. Camp was amazing. The students experienced science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics in ways they hadn’t experienced previously. Our frequent visits to the park for “Reading in the Sandbox” were extremely fun. Other children in the park joined us to hear the great books being read. Students were allowed to take books home to share with their families and return the books to share with their friends. The funds provided by the Oakland Literacy Coalition allowed us to provide a meaningful literacy program to our students for the summer. Thank you so much.”

Summer ’25 Reading Everywhere Action Grantee: Community Education Partnerships (CEP)

• “To kick off our summer of STEAM, CEP started with learning about Art and Ecology for the first week. Our students were able to take a field trip to a nearby park, build their own terrariums, learn the importance of biodiversity, and learn how to identify certain local plant species. Literacy [was] incorporated each week through the readings of our plant identification books, experiment directions, and writing, practiced through recording experiment observations and outcomes. In addition to the science and art activities we did weekly, literacy was incorporated through books that supported the lessons. In addition we had a Family Reading Night where we invited a librarian to meet our families, share the local library resources and events and read a story to us. We were able to provide food and books to give the students!”
  

Visit www.bit.ly/OLCactiongrants to learn more about our Reading Everywhere Action Grants and submit your application today!