Take a look at the exciting developments taking place in our curriculum with a grant from the National Science Foundation focusing on Improving Undergraduate STEM Education.
NSF IUSE: The application of science and engineering in artistic media from blacksmithing to ceramics and glass in the Materials Engineering Curriculum
NSF Grant # 2120156
Our Mission is to Improve Undergraduate STEM Education at South Dakota Mines. We are endeavoring to explore alternative opportunities for our students by putting put an "A" into STEM to create an exciting and diverse STEAM education. The goal is that the "A" or art component will create opportunities for students to approach engineering problems and real-world challenges from an innovative mindset.
We are creating an academic program which integrates art concepts into undergraduate engineering programs with the goals of increased student innovation, creativity, collegiality, and entrepreneurship, while broadening the undergraduate talent pool.
Positive outcomes can be achieved through strategic curricular and co-curricular modifications that integrate and embrace STEAM program development. Outcomes targeted include innovation, creativity, collegiality, entrepreneurship, and broadening of the STEM talent pool.
Art + Engineering Workshop for Teachers and Adult Community Members
Friday, June 14th, 2024
Workshop Registration Link here: 2024 Workshop Registration Link
More Details on this page: Art + Engineering Workshop
Science of Pottery and Glass for High School Students
Monday, June 10th, 2024 to Thursday, June 13th, 2024
Summer Camp Info here: 2024 Summer Camp Info Link
Summer Camp Registration Link: Register Here
The first step is the infusion of STEAM content into laboratories and courses distributed throughout a model engineering program (Metallurgical Engineering).
Next we will engage the broader community with specific partnerships in the local artistic and entrepreneurial community. The community includes our local highschool students, teachers, and community members.
Figure on the left is an image of a recent high school graduate, Olivia Grinager enrolled in the Army Apprentice program that is utilizing the Art + Engineering space for her summer project. On the right is the A+E Program presenting at the SD STEM Ed Conference.
Currciulum Development
During Spring 2022 semester, MET 352 students were divided into 5 groups and tasked with creating a clay body from minerals in the Black Hills.
The main objective of this project was to design a viable clay composition using Black Hills materials, and based on the common average compositions of porcelain, stoneware, or earthenware. The clay must not crack during firing, the firing temperature of the composition must be 1200℃ or under, and the water absorbance of the fired product must be 3% or less. The mechanical and thermal properties of the resulting clay was analyzed and documented. The final demonstration product chosen by each group was presented as their final project.
News, Announcements, and Media Release
News, Announcements, and Media Release
The Art in Engineering Program:
Art has been a big focus at SD Mines in recent years, so much so, that they have created the Art in Engineering Program.
According to Katrina Donovan, the Principle Investigator of the Art in Engineering Program, “We really want to improve our students here. So in terms of making better students, creativity is a big part of innovation.”
The program is designed to help students incorporate art and creative thinking into their lives as STEM students.
South Dakota Mines will host a ribbon cutting for the new Glassblowing Lab inside the university foundry at 11 a.m. April 25. The lab is an addition to the National Science Foundation funded Art and Engineering program hosted inside the Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering at Mines.
The new A+E program at South Dakota Mines links the creative process with science and engineering education to increase both innovation and intellectual diversity. The program pairs top area artists who help students learn a craft while studying associated science and engineering concepts in materials and metallurgical engineering.
Toni Gerlach, owner of Mind Blown Studios in Deadwood, will be instructing students in the Glassblowing Lab at Mines. Starting this coming fall, the campus Glassblowing Lab will also be open weekly to the public who want to learn the craft.
Students at the South Dakota School of Mines have the opportunity to combine science and art to practice glassblowing techniques.
It wouldn’t be a ribbon cutting ceremony for a glassblowing lab without a glass ribbon.
Students, like Jenna Sayler, are excited for the opportunity to study the technique.
In front of students and faculty, South Dakota Mines unveiled the school's new glassblowing lab with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday. Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Lecturer Katrina Donovan and Glassblower Toni Gerlach explain what this new program means for students and staff.
"I am a teacher, an educator," Donovan said. "So I am always in front of the class and it has been such a beautiful opportunity for me to work with Toni"
“I think Albert Einstein really said it best, ‘creativity is intelligence having fun’ and that’s really what we’re trying to promote with this is using creativity to start exploring different areas within the art stem fields’,” said Dr. Katrina Donovan, an instructor for the class.
Donovan says this program fits in perfectly with other classes taught in the building like metallurgy and blacksmithing, so it was easy to convince students and staff to get on board.
At South Dakota Mines two high school students received the opportunity to participate in real research projects through the Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP). These students get to spend their summers literally getting their hands dirty as they contribute to – research focusing on identifying local Black Hills minerals, including rock and soil samples, that would be viable in the process to create a ceramic clay body and coating.
South Dakota Mines, a university in Rapid City, South Dakota, is 1,506 miles from Rochester Institute of Technology. Where the two are connected, however, is with its partnership through Army Educational Outreach Program Apprenticeships and Fellowships.
RIT’s K-12 University Center administers the program on behalf of the U.S. Army with sites across the country at Army laboratories and partner universities. South Dakota Mines – sometimes just called “Mines” – is one of those collaborators that brings real world STEM experiences to students seeking to enhance their knowledge in science, technology, engineering and math that complements the things they’re most passionate about. These opportunities often lead participants to scholarships through the Department of Defense, furthering education in fields benefited by the DOD and civilian defense jobs that have the ability to change the world.
This year, there are 425 apprentices and fellows, which include two high school students at Mines. Aaron Letner is working on slip casting of local minerals into ceramic bodies – or pottery; Ian Grinager is working on formulating and optimizing ceramic coatings – or glazes – the ceramic bodies that Letner creates.
