More than the STEAM programmes
The STEAM programmes are one part of what DreamSpace Academy teaches. The academy also runs:
- Business and entrepreneurship training: entrepreneurship training for women, a youth entrepreneurship campus, startup bootcamps and the DreamShot Startup Challenge
- Digital and media skills: the Learn to Discern media and information literacy workshops, the Digital Security School, software, web and AI bootcamps, and digital marketing training for community organisations
- Training for people already at work: workplace English for the staff of a manufacturer, leadership workshops, training of trainers, and courses for school teachers
Every dated activity is on the activities pages. The rest of this page is about the STEAM programmes. They use the Changemaker Journey, from Explorer to Changemaker, to describe a learner’s progress. The academy’s other teaching does not use these stages.
The STEAM programmes: why their domains sit together
Making has never belonged to one subject. Dale Dougherty, whose definition of maker education is the best known, describes it as a physical mash-up of the workshop, home economics, art and science[2]. In other words, making is not a branch of engineering.
Education researchers describe it the same way, as practice that crosses subject boundaries[3]. A European policy study of makerspaces in education and training found a similarly wide range of skills involved[29].
In the STEAM programmes, the subject areas (called domains here) are taught side by side rather than as separate programmes. Teaching them together helps in three ways.
Real problems are not single-subject
A device that helps a fisher needs electronics, a waterproof enclosure, a price and somebody who can explain it in a video. One domain solves none of that alone.
People arrive through different doors
Someone who will not come to a robotics session will come to record a song. Once inside, every other domain is open to them.
Skills carry across
Trying, listening and adjusting in a music mixing session is the same habit a prototype needs. The way of working carries from one domain to another.
This matters most for the learners a technical programme is least likely to reach. Research on inclusion finds that more people take part when participants get a say in what they do, and when ways of knowing outside the usual school subjects are valued[27]. In practice that means offering something that is not engineering.
A person can be far along in one domain and new to another: advanced in software, a beginner in electronics and halfway through music. The maker profile records each one separately rather than averaging them into one number.
Which domains are offered now
This is the current list, not a fixed structure. Domains may be added, combined or dropped as community interest, the skills of the facilitators and the evidence from courses change.
A domain can be listed here while it is still being developed, and two of those below are. A structured course is published only once its purpose, prerequisites, learning outcomes, delivery format and assessment are clear. That is why the list of domains is longer than the list of courses.
A domain describes what someone is learning and making. Technology is used in any domain where it improves the work, not only in the ones that sound technical. Music uses recording software and electronics, art uses digital fabrication, and sport uses performance analysis. The grouping below is only a way of organising the list.
Software and AI also overlap with the academy’s digital skills training. Whether they belong inside the STEAM programmes has not been decided.
Maker & fabrication
The core of the STEAM programmes: turning an idea into a physical thing that works. It runs as two related arcs that are taught together.
- Electronics and robotics: basics of electronics, microcontrollers, connected systems, embedded intelligence
- Digital fabrication: 3D design and printing, laser cutting and engraving, CNC routing
- Cardboard and low-cost prototyping throughout: the cheapest step, and one that can be repeated anywhere without buying equipment
Digital education
From first using a computer to the confident digital skills that work and further study expect.
- Basic operation: how a computer handles input, processing, output and files
- System fundamentals, productivity software and everyday digital safety
- Number systems, first programming, physical computing
- Applied office work on a real project
- Professional fluency: AI tools, proposal writing and budgeting, a public professional profile
AI programmes
Artificial intelligence taught as something to build with and to think critically about.
- No-code AI: no programming needed beforehand, though places are limited and the usual conditions for taking part apply
- AI and data science fundamentals: needs basic programming and hardware skills
- Generative AI and language models: needs solid programming experience
- Responsible and ethical use is taught throughout all three, not left to a closing lecture
AI + electronics
Where the two previous domains meet: AI built into a physical device. It is not a separate sequence of courses. It combines the later electronics courses with applied AI.
- Sensors, connected systems and simple automation
- Hardware projects that make a decision rather than follow a script
- First innovation projects linking physical making to digital intelligence
Software & tech-entrepreneurship
Programming taught as a way to release something people actually use, including the business side that software courses usually leave out.
- Static web: markup, styling, hosting something publicly
- Front-end frameworks and interactive applications
- Full-stack development, data and APIs
- Ship and sell: testing, deployment, security, freelancing and running the work as a business
Creative and physical domains
These give people more ways in, and many people first come to the academy through them. Each uses digital tools, electronics, fabrication or AI wherever those help the work.
Creative arts
Making through image, sound, performance and physical material. Traditional and digital tools are taken equally seriously.
- Visual art and craft, including work in upcycled and salvaged material
- Music: playing, production, songwriting and beat-making
- Media: photography, video, and the editing that turns footage into a story
- Instrument-building, where craft and electronics meet
Fitness & sports
Physical development, discipline and teamwork, in two halves.
- A fitness studio: movement, conditioning, health and wellbeing
- Sports and athletics: team and individual sport
- Mind sport, anchored by chess
What a level is
Every level of a course has three parts:
- a description of what a learner knows, can do and can do without help at that level
- the number of learning hours the level is planned to take
- a piece of work, the artifact, that can be assessed and shows the level was reached
The steps inside a single course are called Units, not levels, so that the word “level” always means the same thing.
Levels belong to courses, not to people. A course might be called Robotics, Level 2; a person is never “Level 2”. Levels exist only inside the Maker stage. In the later stages, progress is marked by named milestones instead.
A learner finishes the Maker stage in a domain on becoming a skilled maker: someone who can carry a suitable project in that domain, on their own, all the way to the completion standard. The project can be their own, or one that came from a community, a partner or the course.
Becoming a skilled maker is something a learner shows, not an amount of time they put in.
What deepens between one level and the next
Saying a level is “harder” does not tell anyone what changes. Four measures make the difference between one level and the next something that can be checked. A level that has not moved on any of them is not a new level. It is more of the same work with a bigger number on it.
How the number of levels is worked out
The number of levels in a course comes from the subject itself. The academy starts by fixing the two ends: a beginner who has never made anything, and a skilled maker. Then it finds the real points between them where a learner’s ability takes a clear step up. Each step is about as much as one block of teaching can cover.
That takes judgement, and the result has to be explained, not just stated. Each level needs its own learning outcomes, a reasonable amount of learning, and its own piece of assessed work. Choosing a number of levels just to match another subject is ruled out.
Different subjects have different numbers of these steps, so their levels do not line up into equal columns, and they are not made to.
| Domain | Levels | The steps, in order |
|---|---|---|
| Maker & fabrication, electronics and robotics | 4 | Electronics foundations → microcontrollers → connected systems → embedded intelligence |
| Maker & fabrication, digital fabrication | 3 | 3D design and printing → laser cutting and engraving → CNC routing |
| Digital education | 5 | Basic operation → system fundamentals and productivity → programming and physical computing → applied project work → professional digital fluency |
| AI programmes | 3 | No-code AI → AI and data science fundamentals → generative AI and language models |
| AI + electronics | 2 | Connected systems → embedded AI. It combines two domains rather than standing as a sequence of its own. |
| Software & tech-entrepreneurship | 4 | Static web → front-end framework → full stack → ship and sell |
| Creative arts | Not yet | Delivery is real and continuous. An ordered progression has not been published for it yet. |
| Fitness & sports | Not yet | Too early to work out. Mind sport (chess) is the one established starting point. |
Publishing a number of levels is a promise. Every level must have a placement check, a clear finishing point and a piece of work that can be assessed. Where a subject does not have those yet, the entry reads “Not yet”. That describes how far the written course has got, not the quality of the teaching.
How labs differ from domains
A learner moves through domains. A lab is something different. It is a group of people who share a craft, the equipment that craft needs, and a facilitator who keeps the work going.
Facilitators take turns running a lab, and it is not owned by one person. Skills and know-how that belong to one individual leave when that person does.
A lab is not tied to a building either. It can run at the academy’s own premises, at a partner’s site, online or in a MakerSpace. No standing list of labs is published; the conditions for naming one are set out under what counts as a lab.
For now, the work is grouped around four areas of practice. These are areas of practice, not a list of labs.
Electromechanics
Electronics and mechanics are practised together. Most device work needs both, and splitting them would separate the workbench from the circuit board.
Software
Machines, a network, and quiet working time.
Media
Camera, lighting, edit stations.
Music
Instruments, recording and production.
AI is not an area of its own. It is used in all of them, because that is how it turns up in real work: in the sensor board, in the video edit, in the code, in the analysis. The grouping reflects the work as it is now, and may change.
Delivery formats
Open experiences
First sessions at the Explorer stage, where people try the tools, meet new ideas and see which domains interest them. Nothing is assessed and no experience is needed. Places are limited, and safeguarding and practical conditions still apply.
Structured courses
Maker-stage courses with stated prerequisites, Units, learning outcomes and assessed work leading to a certificate.
Open making sessions
Unstructured, self-directed time with the tools. Nothing is assessed. The academy timetables these sessions rather than leaving them to spare time (see facilitation).
Challenge and project work
Part of every stage. From the Innovator stage on, the work is set in the world outside the academy, involves talking to real users, and is the learner’s responsibility. Milestones are recorded rather than graded.
What every course publishes
Every course has to publish the items below. A course that cannot fill them in is not ready to be offered.
- Purpose and prerequisites
- Learning outcomes and expected time commitment
- Units, and the points where a learner’s ability steps up
- Tools, materials and safety requirements
- Assessed artifacts, and what each part of the Definition of Done looks like in this course
- The placement check, and how prior learning is recognised
- Certification evidence: what the artifact, talk-through and reflection must show
- Version, publication date and updated date
A course document without a version and a date cannot be corrected, because nobody can tell which version a learner was taught from.
The enterprise strand runs through all of them
Inside the STEAM programmes, research and development, entrepreneurship, and business and financial literacy are taught in every domain, not saved for a separate module at the end. They are mapped against the published European entrepreneurship competence framework[36], and brought in where they help the learner or the project.
Learning enterprise skills is not the same as turning work into a business. No learner, artwork or community project is required to become one.
What is taught depends on what a learner already understands, not on their age. Saving and selling can be learned very early[43]. Understanding profit depends on first understanding how to compare prices[45]. And the strongest randomised trial of hands-on enterprise education for young people found it changed mindset rather than business knowledge[39].
So the early stages build the attitudes through making and, if a learner chooses it, simple selling under the protections set out for that activity. Abstract business ideas come later, for whoever is ready for them. The innovation & enterprise page sets out the full strand.
The strand is not the same thing as the academy’s business and entrepreneurship training. The strand is part of every course in the STEAM programmes. The business and entrepreneurship training runs on its own, as described at the top of this page.
Where each domain stands
A written curriculum and regular teaching are two different things. A domain can have a detailed, well-written curriculum and still have run only a handful of times, so this table shows them separately.
| Domain | Curriculum | Delivery |
|---|---|---|
| Maker & fabrication | Deep and long-running | Sustained, across bootcamps and in-school delivery |
| Digital education | Deep, aligned to the national information-technology syllabus | Sustained, largely through school partnerships |
| AI programmes | Deep and recent | Delivered; some courses documented but not confirmed at scale |
| AI + electronics | Derived from two adjacent curricula | Delivered as modules within other courses |
| Software & tech-entrepreneurship | Deep | Uneven: some cohorts confirmed end to end, others documented but not confirmed |
| Creative arts | Not yet published as a progression | Genuine and continuous: art and music sessions, production bootcamps, instrument courses, a record label |
| Fitness & sports | Not authored | Mind sport only. Physical fitness and field sport are an intention, not a record |
What is settled, and what is not
| Settled | Not yet settled |
|---|---|
| The stages, and the difference between a stage and a level | The assessed piece of work at each level, in most domains |
| The completion standard and the three certificate evidence sources | Whether certificates carry external accreditation or remain internally issued |
| Learners are placed by what they can show they can do, not by age | A published progression for the creative arts |
| The number of levels is worked out for each domain, not chosen | Exit criteria at each level, per domain |
The Curriculum column shows what is written down today. Things that are already part of the teaching sometimes go unwritten for years, so a gap here does not prove an activity is missing. It does mean the academy does not present that activity as an established part of a course until it is written down.