What about having students do individual STEAM projects? Again-that’s not faithful to basic STEM principles, which always include teamwork. Can we combine art with just one of the STEM subjects-perhaps science-and ignore meaningful subjects like math and engineering? We certainly could-but that would be just art and science, not STEAM. We could change the scope of STEM so that it focuses equally on learning in all subject areas-but why do that? We already have effective teaching methods for doing that: problem-based learning.
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Let’s circle back to the question of how to include the arts in STEM in an authentic way. She aims to do just that while staying true to the specific purpose of STEM education. Ruth believes that in our technically-focused world, we have a responsibility to educate the whole child to become a global citizen in his or her community. She views art as a way of offering more diverse learning opportunities and greater access to STEM for all types of learners.Īrt also provides diverse opportunities for communication and expression. Engaging students’ strengths using art activities increases motivation and the probability of STEM success. She currently works with a team of STEM writers and program developers who are using crowdfunding to develop and pilot a STEAM program in Colorado.Īccording to Ruth, the arts are a great learning tool and can serve as an on-ramp to STEM for underrepresented students. That’s what artist and educator-turned-STEAM-enthusiast Ruth Catchen is determined to find out. So how exactly can teachers fit the arts into STEM programs and do justice for both STEM and STEAM? What would an ideal STEAM program look like? But if we’re talking about how one can use art in engineering… as an artist, it seems we’re missing the point and devaluing, or not realizing, art’s purpose and importance. From arts proponents: Engineering and technology can certainly serve the artist and help create art. How can you focus on other subjects (such as art) without losing the mission of STEM or watering down its primary purpose?Ģ. The focus of STEM is developing rigorous math and science skills through engineering.
STEM projects do not deliberately exclude the arts or any other subject rather, these subjects are included incidentally as needed for engineering challenges. From STEM proponents: STEM lessons naturally involve art (for example, product design), language arts (communication), and social studies and history (setting the context for engineering challenges).
Surprisingly, I’ve heard push-back from both camps:ġ. Recently, the idea of adding the arts to STEM programs has been gaining momentum. It’s no surprise that STEM programs need to maintain an intense focus. STEM, then, is a specific program designed for a specific purpose-to integrate and apply knowledge of math and science in order to create technologies and solutions for real-world problems, using an engineering design approach. However, a 2014 study published by the America Society for Engineering Education identified several characteristics of quality STEM programs: Children who study STEM also develop a variety of skills that are essential for success: critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, communication, collaboration, and entrepreneurship, to name a few.Ī number of K-12 programs currently fly under the STEM banner.
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Students need more in-depth knowledge of math and science, plus the ability to integrate and apply that knowledge to solve the challenges facing our nation. Both private and public sectors report that 21st-century workers require skills that many of today’s graduates don’t have. STEMįirst, consider the why and what of STEM education. Whichever side you come down on, here are some ideas for you to mull over. A tug of war is currently looming between proponents of STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and math) and advocates for STEAM lessons, which add art to the mix.
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