Ask any teacher when students truly light up, and the answer is almost never “during the lecture.” It usually happens when hands are busy and ideas are messy. Gallup’s student poll has found that about three in four fifth graders feel engaged at school, but by senior year that number drops to roughly one in three. Somewhere along the way, curiosity gets traded for note-taking. STEAM experiential learning offers a way to win it back by letting students learn through doing, making and creating instead of just listening.