What do the Arts have to do with STEM?

by Kathy Belcher

Manufacturing and STEM Cluster Specialist

 

Many educators and professionals advocate including the Arts with the integrated disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Including the Arts will lead to the proposed change to STEAM. Whether STEM or STEAM, the major emphasis is integration of the curricula, in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, rather than curricula taught as five isolated disciplines.

Including the Arts is a natural component that enhances and supports STEM curricula:

·         Arts education is a key to creativity

·         Creativity is an essential component of and spurs innovation

·         Innovation is necessary to create new products and industries

·         New industries, with their jobs, are the basis of future economic well-being (White)

An interesting example of the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and the Arts was recently featured in the Arts & Life section of The Dallas Morning News. The article highlights Kevin Page, a character actor in Robocop, and artist who created an innovative technology to assist him with pointillism painting. This is a painting technique in which many small dots of color are applied to the canvas to form an image. Georges Seurat, who is considered to be the father of pointillism, spent two years creating the famous painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte shown in the picture above. The painting is approximately 7-by-10-foot in size.

In only six weeks, Kevin Page created Sunday Afternoon: A New Pointillist Interpretation, his 8-by-6-foot interpretation of Seurat’s masterpiece.  How is this possible?  Page has a couple of patents pending on the robotic technology he used to apply the tiny dots of color to his canvas. The software-driven robotic paint tool, with a video camera mounted near the tool, allowed him to create in weeks the same effect that Seurat spent two years creating. 

Page reflects, “Science is the why of things, technology is the how of things, art is the meaning of things”. His occupation as an actor and artist was the creative stimulus to innovate robotic technology that assisted him in painting his interpretation of Seurat’s masterpiece in a fraction of the time. This is an excellent example of what the Arts have to do with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. So, how can CTE teachers integrate the Arts in STEM and other disciplines to stimulate creativity and innovation needed to ensure new products, new industries, and a growing economy?

References:

Granberry, M. (2013, January 28). Character actor adds robotic painting tool to his resume: POINT MAN. The Dallas Morning News, p. E2, E6. 

White, H. (2010). Why STEAM? Retrieved from STEAM Website http://steam-notstem.com/