Ask any ten academic professionals, “What is STEAM?” and you are likely to get ten different answers. Yet, intuitively, they would agree that STEAM is important and probably have incorporated at least one STEAM facility into their master planning. (Broadly speaking, STEAM represents the productive intersection of STEM with the arts and humanities. Other definitions for STEAM are equally valid – one size does not fit all.)
I do believe that any plan to bring STEAM programming and facilities to a campus will benefit tremendously from a step back to consider the ‘why’:
- Why do you need STEAM at your institution?
- What are the desired outcomes for a STEAM program?
To prime your thinking, I offer four possible outcomes for a STEAM program at your college and university and some examples of how these outcomes are pursued at my own institution, Virginia Tech.
1. Promoting inter- and trans-disciplinarity
Collaborations among scientists, engineers, artists, and scholars of the humanities bring a much larger toolkit of skills, techniques, and strategies to address complex problems. For example, at Virginia Tech’s Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) housed within the Moss Arts Center, current projects include a collaboration between educators, civil engineers and visual artists to develop 3D technology to automatically measure and map cracks on highway bridges to more safely and accurately monitor transportation infrastructure issues. There is also a virtual reality simulation developed by education faculty David Hicks and collaborating historians, artists and engineers that immerses participants in the World War I battleground of Butte du Vauquois near Verdun, France. ICAT provides funding and space to support these productive collaborations in STEAM.
2. Empowering design thinking
When academics escape their disciplinary silos to collaborate on a STEAM project, they may bring what at first pass appears to be very different strategies and philosophies to bear on solving complex problems. Scientists and engineers work systematically and often reductively through a problem with an emphasis on data. Artists can bring a more holistic perspective that begins with conception of the final product or solution and explicitly considers factors that are complex and difficult to quantify, such as the human dimension.
At the intersection of these two approaches lies the power of design thinking, which is both intentional and intuitive, systematic and adaptable. When STEAM incorporates the expertise of designers as facilitators, the cross-disciplinary results are particularly fertile. Virginia Tech’s Najla Mouchrek, Liesl Baum, and Lisa McNair collaborated to lead a class called CREATE!, which utilized design thinking to help students (particularly engineering students) overcome barriers to dealing with uncertainty and improve their creative problem solving abilities (Mouchrek et al., 2016).
3. Fostering inclusion
Nationally, sixty percent of all students declaring a STEM major leave the field within two years of their undergraduate studies, and a disproportionate number of these students are women and underrepresented minorities (PCAST, 2012). Students who leave often report not seeing ‘themselves’ in the field, or not seeing the ways in which their studies connect to real life and society.
When we focus on STEAM, we find contexts that are more inclusive. When the co-director Nikki Lewis of Virginia Tech’s inVenTs STEM living-learning community recognized that the female science majors were not making use of the maker space at their disposal in the residence hall, she organized a jewelry-making party in the space. Students learned to use the 3D printers, laser cutters, and other tools as they designed earrings and pendants. By turning STEM into STEAM, Dr. Lewis helped guide more students out of their comfort zones to engage with technology.
4. Maximizing outreach
Artists are constantly thinking about the public in ways that scientists may not. Artists are often effective communicators across a variety of media. Through STEAM projects, science is brought to the public — and just as importantly, the public is brought to scientists and engineers in ways that foster professional empathy and integrity.
Virginia Tech recently launched the Center for Communicating Science, led by School of Performing Arts professor Patty Raun, which utilizes improvisation and other tools of the arts to help STEM majors strengthen communication skills, including listening. At ICAT’s “Be the Data” events, K-12 students represent individual data points in the Cube, a 3D virtual reality environment. They developed a working conceptualization of data, how it is represented and how it can be manipulated, through an embodied STEAM experience. For students who have little exposure to careers in STEM, being the data can be the first critical step that encourages them to become the data scientist.
Getting started
STEAM is powerful but not magic (almost magic, but not quite) and a little intentionality will go a long way toward reaching your goals for STEAM at your institution. Here are a few parting questions to assist you in planning STEAM programming and facilities for your own campus:
- What are the outcomes you desire for your STEAM program? Do they focus on research, student learning, outreach, or all three?
- Who is already engaged in STEAM-related activities on your campus? Have you talked with them about what works, what doesn’t, and what is needed for STEAM to take off at your campus?
- What facilities already support STEAM at your institution? How heavily are they utilized? By whom? Might you already find STEAM in your libraries, your museum, or even your student union?
- How could STEAM be differentiated on your campus? What are the unique strengths of your institution that could ‘flavor’ your STEAM programs? Do you offer a focus in design, computation, or education that might distinguish your STEAM offerings?
Presentations referenced:
Mouchrek N, Baum L, McNair LD. “Student Persistence Through Uncertainty Toward Successful Creative Practice.” American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, 2016.
PCAST. “Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.” President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. February 2012.
