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You’ve probably heard of STEM, but what about STEAM? The acronym STEAM incorporates the letter “A” for art into the traditional STEM acronym of science, technology, engineering, and math.
The arts, which include music, theater, dance, and the visual arts, require creative thinking. Artistic and creative ability has a lot more to do with the branches of STEM, which demand analytical thinking and employ the opposite side of the brain, than you might first assume. Taking art classes produces important skills such as critical reasoning, problem solving, collaboration, and connection. Learning to employ both sides of the brain creates intuitive and innovative thinkers who bring imaginative and unconventional perspectives to the core fields of STEM. For example, in the world of technology, a thousand programmers can code the software that makes your phone run, but what good is the code without designing for the user's experience? Industrial designers work with engineers to bring the science of technology to life by coming up with how the phone will look and feel in your hand, what icons and images will show up on your screen, and even the most convenient places for buttons and cameras. In today's world, creative solutions are needed to address broader and more important issues such as poverty, climate change, chronic diseases, and more.
An important facet of art is that it is a way to simplify and effectively communicate complex scientific ideas to society and to the STEM community itself. Leonardo da Vinci once said, “Art is the queen of all sciences, communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world.” As da Vinci described, art helps to illuminate and make difficult science easier to understand. It helps scientists visualize and further explore issues. And it can help make complicated ideas clear. Think about walking through a science museum--which would you rather see: a block of text on a wall or a detailed, colorful diagram or illustration that draws you into the world of science in a vivid and engaging way? Art is one way of taking the seemingly sterile world of science and depicting it in a fresh and creative way to beginners and experts alike.
Studying art supplements a STEM education by integrating creative thinking into science, and it helps students become more collaborative, well rounded, and perceptive in problem solving. One study showed that students who have experience in art are more or just as successful as students who did not. A study on the high school graduating class of 2004 showed that students who took art classes were 21 percent more likely to be in college after graduation than students who did not take art classes, and students who had participated in the arts were just as likely to major in STEM as students who did not.1 In addition, students in art and STEAM-focused classes tend to outperform their counterparts in both math and language arts on standardized tests.2
Marrying art with STEM creates STEAM, a cutting-edge group of fields that, when combined, can improve and make the world a better and more harmonious place to live. Click here to read a little more about the different careers in science and art and hear from women who are blending art and STEM in their daily lives.
1Elpus, Kenneth. Rep. Arts Education as a Pathway to College: College Admittance, Selectivity, and Completion by Arts and Non-Arts Students. National Endowment for the Arts, 2014. https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/files/Research-Art-Works-Maryland2.pdf, 4.2Inoa, Rafael, Gustave Weltsek, and Carmine Tabone. “A Study on the RelationshIp between Theater Arts and Student Literacy and Mathematics Achievement.” Journal for Learning through the Arts, August 13, 2014. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3sk1t3rx, 7.
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