4. NAEA Position
Statement on
STEAM
STEAM education
refers to teaching and
learning in the fields
of Science,
Technology,
Engineering, Arts, and
Mathematics. The
STEAM approach is
the infusion of art and
design principles,
concepts, and
techniques into STEM
instruction and
learning.
5. A STEAM Approach:
• is engaging to students.
• encourages creativity and innovation.
• values disciplines equally.
• seamlessly connects disciplines.
• presents open ended problems that result in individual
solutions.
• relates to students’ lives.
• is implemented through a wide variety of approaches.
• provides meaningful opportunities to collaborate with
others.
• can lead to careers in the arts.
• just naturally makes sense.
• sparks curiosity, interest, and imagination.
6. In a STEAM
program, projects
start with art and
connect one or
more additional
disciplines as they
naturally apply. Over
the course of the
year in a STEAM
program, students
work with all of the
STEAM disciplines.
7. STEAM learning focuses on the 21st century
skills of critical thinking, communication,
collaboration and creativity while providing
problem solving experiences for real world
purposes in both a social and academic context.
16. SCIENCE
“Study the science of art. Study the art of science.
Develop your senses—especially learn how to see.
Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
Leonardo da Vinci
101. How to Get Started
• Learn and share the vocabulary.
• Look for artists who are/were
interested in other disciplines.
• Explore contemporary artists.
• Point out meaningful connections.
• Incorporate technology.
• Collaborate with classroom teachers.
• Collaborate with other specialist
teachers.
106. The celebrated physicist Richard Feynman
said that scientific creativity is imagination in a
straight jacket. Perhaps the arts can loosen that
restraint, to the benefit of us all.
https://okgosandbox.org/this-too-shall-pass https://okgosandbox.org/this-too-shall-pass
https://okgo.net/2010/03/10/this-too-shall-pass-rube-goldberg-machine-official-video/
http://bit.ly/2Ue9c7F
OK Go Sandbox is an online resource for educators that uses OK Go’s music videos as starting points for integrated guided inquiry challenges allowing students to explore various STEAM concepts.
4 lessons
Parabolas and microgravity
Math and physics, flipbooks
Chained reactions, simple machines
Using sensors and light
The NAEA has developed a position paper supporting the inclusion of the arts with STEM to make STEAM, adopted in April 2015. This is useful to share with your administrators, parents, and school community.
The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) was one of the first proponents of STEAM education.
The RISD Nature Lab is a collection of natural specimens where that students can observe and draw.
Reggio Emilia was developed after WWII by pedagogist Loris Malaguzzi and parents in the villages around Reggio Emilia. It is child-centered and stresses hands-on experiential learning.
The September 2015 edition of SchoolArts Magazine was devoted to the theme of STEAM.
By Eric Gibbons. I’m sharing so many of his student artworks here because both they and their photographs are wonderful. Students studied pollen and seeds for inspiration. Students researched what flowers coordinated with their birth month and the national flower for the country their family was from and researched the pollen and seeds on a microscopic level. These they interpreted as works of art. egibbons@nburlington.com
Gibbons include photos of the process his students undertook.
More process photos.
High School Lesson by Eric Gibbons
Students learned about cells and watercolor painting at the same time.
The natural world suggests many subjects for art. These artworks were created for Draw a Bird Day (April 8) by the students of Rachel Wintemberg. rachelhw1966@gmail.com
Students created a collaborative mural of their birds.
detail
Printed between 1827 and 1838, Audubon’s book contains 435 life-size watercolors of North American birds (Havell edition), all reproduced from hand-engraved plates, and is considered to be the archetype of wildlife illustration.
You can search for state birds on Audubon.
Artist Walton Ford is a good contemporary artist to introduce as a comparison to John James Audubon, John Gould, or Maria Sibylla Merian when exploring natural history in art.
John James Audubon and Walton Ford
http://www.schoolartsdigital.com/i/723387-october-2016/9
The properties of clay are amazingly varied: clay is resistant to heat, absorbs water, and is thixotropic (can turn from a liquid to a solid and back again). Clays are a group of minerals distinguished by their small particle size, composition and crystal structure.
Clay is a mineral made of small, loose particles that can be shaped, applied as a layer onto other materials, dispersed in liquids, or hardened by firing. The temperature of vitrification determines if a clay can be turned back into wet clay. https://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/content/files/Clay_Science_Resource.pdf
Student Design Rigor, made with Illustrator, http://www.schoolartsdigital.com/i/150543-mar-2009/0
Middle School Lesson, http://www.schoolartsdigital.com/i/1078392-mar-2019/32
Fractal: a curve or geometric figure in which similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales.
Anne Marie Baldauf, http://www.schoolartsdigital.com/i/1147672-sep-2019
Friedrich Froebel, the German educationalist, is best known as the originator of the ‘kindergarten system.” In 1840 he coined the word kindergarten. Friedrich Fröbel's great insight was to recognize the importance of the activity of the child. Activities in the first kindergarten included singing, dancing, gardening, and self-directed play with the Froebel Gifts. Fröbel intended, with his Mutter- und Koselieder – a songbook that he published – to introduce the young child into the adult world.
The Froebel gifts (German: Fröbelgaben) are educational play materials for young children, originally designed by Friedrich Fröbel for the first kindergarten at Bad Blankenburg. Playing with Froebel gifts, singing, dancing, and growing plants were each important aspects of this child-centered approach to education. Buckminster Fuller and Frank Lloyd Wright both went to this kind of kindergarten.
Pop-up cards and books provide great examples of paper engineering.
Radial symmetry is widely found in nature. These artworks include both radial symmetry and the color wheel. By the high school students of Kendra Farrell.
Mary Coy, http://www.schoolartsdigital.com/i/555314-nov-2005/38
Mary Coy, http://www.schoolartsdigital.com/i/555314-nov-2005/38
Art Teacher Mary Coy, http://www.schoolartsdigital.com/i/555314-nov-2005/38
Art Teacher Mary Coy, http://www.schoolartsdigital.com/i/555314-nov-2005/38
Have students make paper quilt squares and combine them to make a quilt for display.
Escher’s “Reptiles” is probably the most famous artwork based on tessellations. Look for artists such as Escher who were driven by mathematical content.
A contemporary tessellation by Jim McNeill, http://www.jimmcneill.com
A contemporary tessellation by Jim McNeill, http://www.jimmcneill.com
Cover by Jim McNeill, SchoolArts Magazine, January 2006
Many of these approaches to STEAM are included in Bridging the Curriculum through Art: Interdisciplinary Connections, by Pam Stephens and Nancy Walkup, from Crystal Productions. This presentation can be downloaded at www.slideshare.net/nwalkup.
What STEAM connections can you make with your students?