The use of STEAM in higher education for high school teachers. Waleska Aldana Segura 1 1 Facultad de Educación Universidad Galileo 7a. avenida final, Calle Dr. Eduardo Suger, Guatemala, Guatemala Tfno: +502 2423800 ext. 2333 E-mail: waleska@galileo.edu Abstract Recently the use of interdisciplinary strategies for higher education and high school teachers has proven to be an effective strategy to reduce absence and failure rates in students. The muldisciplinary nature of these curriculum has improved permanence and interest in high school students and teachers studying at local Colleges to improve their skills. The introduction of simple robotics and the interaction including arts proves to be effective in terms of success and retention. For two years the students have participated in workshops during classroom hours to improve the curriculum and give them extra support in basic sciences. The results prove that after two years those students improved their grades, reduced the vulnerability to other activities and acquired the skills and competences needed to success in the first year of Higher Education. The workshops are conducted by Undergraduate students of the Teaching of Physics and Mathematics programs, and prove that even the undergraduate students improved their skills when faced to the challenges of real life situations with real students to introduce the STEAM methodologies to public schools in Guatemala. This effort has been made possible due to the effort of the undergraduate students alone, without extra economical aid from the school officials, and even the high school students have contributed to get materials due to the increased interest on the subjects. With this in mind the workshops include physics, mathematics, biology, chemistry and arts topics. As a result, of 10 undergraduate students, 3 are working the thesis on the subject and the 10 students are implementing the workshops on their institutions and schools where they work. This results in more than 1,000 students benefits from this methodology and the control group of 60 students keeps interest in the subject and stays in school improving their grades. Keywords: STEAM, robotics, Basic science. This research is based on the learning experience with higher education experience on the Physics, Mathematics Biology and Chemistry high school teachers, who are taking courses at the Universities of San Carlos (Public) and Galileo (Private) in Guatemala. The time of the project has been of 4 years and in that time, the process has included several strategies, both virtual and on site to stablish successful strategies along time, to allow a better appropriation of such experimental courses. One of the strategies that has proven to work particularly well is the hands on workshop, where students on small workshops STEAM oriented interact with the students and present small experiences. Those workshops are designed so that every student has to have a specific role and participate along the semester interacting and organizing at least two full workshops. Background The curricula were stablished well within the 80´s and 90´s with specific orientations in San Carlos University 1 , fully structured on a traditional model, the curricula don’t fulfil the current needs of the students in terms of contents and tools needed to face the challenges of new TICS and developments. 2 Such curricula need the innovation to include STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) as a transversal set of contents that provides a different view and tools for the students and future teachers to face the challenges of the new paradigms of education. 1 Stablished in 1676 by the Pope and has a Constitutional support 2 Interviews with students, both from higher education and high school during workshops. 308 Proceedings of The 21st World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI 2017)