‘STEAM’ education gains momentum in schools: More focus on design
March 7, 2013 at 1:23 am 4 comments
I’ve heard about the STEAM movement (STEM + Art) and thought it was a good idea. Thinking of the “Art” piece as also including Design makes it a great idea.
According to the website, the movement aims to include art and design in STEM policy decisions; encourage the integration of art and design in K-20 education; and influence employers to hire artists and designers to drive innovation.
“Design is increasingly becoming a key differentiator for technology startups and products,” the website states, and art and design “provide real solutions for our everyday lives, distinguish American products in a global marketplace, and create opportunity for economic growth.”
via ‘STEAM’ education gains momentum in schools | eSchool News.
Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: design, STEAM, STEM.
Computing Ed Research - Guzdial's Take 
1.
Monica McGill | March 7, 2013 at 4:57 pm
Ah, I only recently encountered the STEAM acronym. “A” is definitely a critical part of the process for the user experience, though as a member of a committee to rewrite learning outcomes for general education at my university, we have redefined the acronym to be Aesthetics. This can encompass all the “other” things that make technology a valuable part of the user experience, including art, story/narrative/theme, sound, interface, etc.
It will be interesting to see if STEAM gains momentum.
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Ward Eames | March 13, 2013 at 3:29 pm
Monica,
That is really interesting. We do live STEM Entertainment events http://www.elevation-education.org. We use “A” for art but I like Aesthetics better. Where can I learn more?
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Monica McGill | March 14, 2013 at 5:39 pm
Ward,
I’m not sure if others have approached interpreting A as aesthetics vs art. We happened to gravitate to that through numerous discussions while developing our new gen ed requirements for our university. I think the term “aesthetics” can be interpreted contextually for the environment in which it is being used as well as the individual perspective.
Aesthetics in mechanical engineering, for example, might be different than that in computer science.
And it might be different based on the individual perspective. On the user end, aesthetics in computer science might be more about the user experience of products created. On the developer end, aesthetics in computer science may refer to writing what we often define as “elegant code” or using “elegant solutions” to address problems.
Monica
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SIGCSE2014 Preview: Engaging Underrepresented Groups in High School Introductory Computing through Computational Remixing with EarSketch | Computing Education Blog | March 1, 2014 at 1:28 am
[…] angle here is particularly interesting. In the preview talk, Jason talked about “authentic STEAM.” They have audio loops from real musicians, and involve hip-hop artists in the classroom. […]