Quote:
Originally Posted by Ginger Power
There are also very creative/artistic elements already built into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Design Engineering is basically using physical principles and creativity to build products to serve a need. The creativity needed to be a design engineer is much like the creativity needed to be an artist. The difference is the application of physics, and math. With that said, where does art fit into STEM?
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I get where the dissonance of the question comes from. My first reaction when people change from STEM to STEAM on me is that they're saying "Don't forget about the art!" As if engineering doesn't already use art in everything we do. And frankly, often when someone pitches "STEAM" at me, that is what they
individually are trying to say: "Hey, pencil pusher, be creative!" Or "Actually this field is fine, look at all the artists." Or "Hey, why isn't art getting that STEM money?" (The last is a reasonable debate, if engaged as anything more than a complaint.)
It's very annoying.
However, I don't argue that that's at all the real intention behind the acronym expansion. After all, no one would dispute that we use science and math in engineering, math in science, technology in math, and on and on. Rather than saying, "Hey, be artistic / add art!" it's saying, "Hey, we
are artistic. And mathematical, and scientific, and technological. Yes, that's that thing. Come on over!" So to answer your question - yes, there are creative/artistic elements built into STEM, just like there's math built into SET and science built into engineering. And that's exactly where they all fit.
The more practical discussion though, is that an acronym alone does not champion one implementation or another. We and HQ both need to engage STEAM as a cohesive whole, rather than as, "our art is over here in animation and our science is in the R&D..." as is sometimes done. Remember that the reason the NSF created SMET* at all wasn't to say "these are all really important." It was to say "this should be a cohesively handled framework." Because I'm convinced that artistic-style creativity is as integral to engineering as math is, etcetera, I agree with that statement.
*Yes, that's the original acronym. Glad it didn't catch on.