STEAM Actually comming to FRC, and im not happy

FIRST General Forum
#61

There have been Entrepreneurship awards in FIRST for a long time. Should we add a B for business to the acronym as well? STEBAM?

The Chairman’s Award is our highest honor, and places high emphasis on cultural impact, civil service, and community relations. Should we include a C for Culture in the acronym? STEBAMC?

We have a Volunteer of the Year Award, and themes of volunteerism ring true in several other awards FIRST gives out. Should we include a V in the acronym? STEVBAMC?

What does it hurt? The end goal of STEM. When there’s more competition from the “A” fields for STEM grants, or money from STEM programs starts getting siphoned into “A” programs, it takes away from the resources dedicated to STEM. FIRST giving legitimacy to this is not a positive move for STEM advocacy.

#62

Not gunna lie- I REALLY like the RIBMEATS acronym.

#63

The idea that the STEM fields are uniquely closely related is itself a subjective political construct. This isn’t to say it’s wrong or that I want to change it, merely that it’s not sacrosanct. We have no objective way to measure how “close” “technology” is to “math” versus “art” in absolute terms.

Our concept of STEM exists because we’ve decided to group these topics together. That certainly has its benefits. But in using it, remember that the term you use influences the thoughts you think. Don’t forget that a pure mathematician may well laugh at your joke if you claim her entire field is closely related to engineering. So too might a primate researcher or a clinical psychiatrist–they could laugh as hard as a sculptor. This laughter isn’t because geologists or biostatisticians or stochastic analysts or thespians are on the “far edge” of their fields or are particularly clueless as to the scope of engineering. Rather, it’s because this isn’t just an “art” gap; different people see different gaps between different topics in “science” and “math” versus “engineering” or “technology”.

I’d advise anyone listening that there’s really no reason to define huge topics as “closely related” or not in absolute terms. Just use a delineation that fits whatever situation you’re facing. Do you want to help subjects whose funding was cut by at least N% in M school districts? Then I suspect you want STEAM. Is it departments with underrepresentation of scholarship dollars to minorities? Then maybe it doesn’t include art, but I’d guess it includes kinesiology. Is it jobs in which we have more national vacancies than graduates? etc, etc. The question is simply: what is FIRST trying to accomplish, and does including Art help do that?

#64

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to bkahl again.

…

#65

Nobody is telling you to make a good-looking robot. Just let the people who enjoy art have fun with it. No harm done there.

#66

While the award in question and the addition of the A in STEAM may make it seem like art is suddenly being added to FIRST, that is not the case. Instead, think of it as the ‘A’ finally being recognized.

Even if your interpretation of art is limited to things that are aesthetically pleasing, then it still makes sense to include ‘A’ in the mantra for a competition where teams paint their robots to branding standards, produce emotional Chairman’s videos, and create elaborate pit displays. Art has always been a part of FIRST.

It goes the other way, too. Graphic design, for example, is as much math as it is aesthetics! The Swiss school of graphic design is based upon ratios and grids, and even plays with the Fibonacci sequence. Focus testing for logo and layout design uses the same scientific method that many inventors do.

In summation, art is in no way a new addition to FIRST, and it only makes sense to finally recognize it as part of the set of ideals and aspirations under which we operate.

#67

FIRST has had written award submissions for decades. They’ve emphasized presentation skills, effective communication, and creativity (for the robot and via projects such as animations). In words and actions, they’ve promoted a well-rounded education that stresses the importance and influence of science and technology alongside other staples.

I imagine it is very difficult to make it through college and into a successful engineering career without these elements of effective communication. There are even awards, such as the Woodie Flowers Award, that champion individuals who are exceptionally gifted at this trait:

The Woodie Flowers Award celebrates effective communication in the art and science of engineering and design. Dr. William Murphy founded this prestigious award in 1996 to recognize mentors who lead, inspire and empower using excellent communication skills. … This award recognizes an individual who has done an outstanding job of motivation through communication while also challenging the students to be clear and succinct in recognizing the value of communication. As such, it is very important that this be a student-led effort and a student decision.

You could literally be the world’s foremost expert at anything - anything at all! - and that would be meaningless without the ability to share with others what you’ve learned. Referring to “the arts” covers just about everything else that isn’t in the typical STEM acronym, but let’s not forget that it covers at least the basic communication skills which are vital to everything that IS within the STEM acronym. “The arts” doesn’t cover only music and paintings, but even basic composition in its purest form.

The inclusion or exclusion of the extra letter is irrelevant - it is already present. Best to just let this one go.

#68

At your first competition this season, do take a look around you. Look at teams’ decked out pits, beautiful robots, and stylish costumes. Imagine how much goes into the graphics and branding on teams’ flyers, website, and videos. Look again and tell me that art is not a huge part of being an FRC team. Adding the A to STEAM isn’t anything new; it’s simply acknowledging what is already here.

#69

I see a lot of people asking what’s the point of adding the A even if art deserves top be part of FIRST, and while this is just my opinion, I have to say that it’s probably because some higher ups where running through ideas of themes and realized that steam was only a letter off from stem, so they simply asked themselves, what can go into stem and starts with an “A”?

Now, since this thread is also about arts new inclusion and not just the controversy of the letter, I want to say, that FIRST is not the end all be all of STEM, and just because FIRST is adding an A doesn’t force everyone to, and FIRST is proooooooobably going to include some art challenge within the game itself considering the paintbrush found in the logo (but I guess we’ll just see in {Insert days until kickoff here} days). So hey, robots doing art is still engineering, right? So can we all maybe get along for another couple of weeks before we’re ripping each other to shreds about sticking cameras on sticks? Please?

#70

I don’t have much to contribute in the way of debate, but I’d like to take a second to call attention to important themes that have largely been left out of this thread.

The question at hand is “Should A for art be added to STEM?”

To me, the important points that should be discussed in order to generate any good answer to this question are as follows:

1. What is art?
If anyone can post a definition of “art” or “the arts” that everyone can agree on. I’ll give them rep.
But seriously. I have read a broad range of definitions, and I have yet to decide witch is the best working definition to me.

2. What is STEM?
Same problem here. There are an enormous variety of definitions out there for technology and engineering especially.

3. What is the purpose of STEM?
Not of the fields, but of the acronym. In the end, art should be added to the acronym if and only if it helps the acronym achieve its purpose. This is again something I have no good answer for, as I was not listening in when the acronym was created.

4. Does STEAM aid in FIRST’s mission?
This has been discussed in depth already, but it is an important question. The reality is that STEAM already exists as an acronym and is somewhat widely used. So maybe a better question is whether or not FIRST should use it.

So if future posters to this thread could either read and answer these questions or let me know what I’m missing; maybe we could begin to construct a mostly agreed upon conclusion. (or maybe not)

#71

:frowning:

:frowning:

:slight_smile:

I’d like to think that I’m at least a sometimes useful mentor.

#72

My Edsel asks the same question.

#73

I don’t know about you guys; but I am less worried about art getting some stem money, than I am excited to start applying for art grants for my stem programs.

The money should be a two way street and making “art” with our cool toys could excite the traditional art crowd.

We pride ourselves in that no matter what a student is interested in, we have a spot for that on our team.

#74

+1 to this.

#75

I like RIBMEATS period.

#76

You know what…

I find it totally hilarious that FIRST CA simply shares a link to what would best be described as “a chance for college money”, and somebody goes totally off the rails about how they don’t like art in STEM.

Let’s take this in context, folks. If we are only focusing on STEM, I think there’s a few scholarships that need to come off the table because they’re “not STEM”. And we don’t want that, now, do we?

#77

Can you provide me any links towards art grants that are now accepting STEM applicants? The vast majority of this movement is happening in the other direction, including the Arts in STEM funding. The websites, literature, and rhetoric used is all about making sure Art is included in STEM, not allowing existing money for the Arts/Humanities to branch into STEM fields. Your robotics team suddenly isn’t going to get to apply for a grant that’s targeted for public murals or community theater, but graphic design programs are going to be able to compete against your robotics team for STEAM grants.

Here’s some examples:
http://stemtosteam.org/
http://steam-notstem.com/
https://learningforward.org/learning-opportunities/webinars/webinar-archive/from-stem-to-steam

And if you need more proof, here’s House Resolution 51 (2014), which is explicitly about adding the Arts into Federal STEM funding.

This is real. This is not a trivial matter. This isn’t just an acronym change.

#78

I’m unconvinced that this thread itself is not a performance art piece.

#79

Thanks that is very enlightening, you convinced me.

#80

I’ve been on Chief Delphi for a long time (not as long as some others, of course), and I think this might be the first time I’ve seen these words.