The Importance of Art In STEM Education

What happens when you add art to STEM education? You get STEAM, a new approach to helping children get a well-rounded approach to science, technology, engineering, art, and math. STEM has been around since about 2001 when the administrators at the U.S. National Science Foundation revealed that U.S. students were deficient in STEM areas. In order to make sure students would be competitive in the workforce as adults, curricula began being developed that would focus more on these areas.

Problems With STEM

Although this approach sounded great, hard statistics showed over the next several years that students began to disengage from the rigorous math and science studies. Almost 40% of students that entered a STEM-related degree wound up dropping out. Most who did graduate with a degree in STEM went on to work in a non-related field. This was problematic.

Evolving to STEAM

You may be wondering why did they add art to STEM? In reaction to these troubling statistics, education experts and policymakers concluded that what was missing was art. Although STEM did focus intensely on innovation, innovation is not much without design thinking and creativity.  

STEAM-centered learning does not take away from the importance of STEM but rather gives it heart by incorporating the arts into these crucial topics. No longer must the arts and sciences be viewed as two entirely separate things. STEAM education hopes to bring these two together. This helps to create a multi-disciplinary approach to fields such as robotics, technology development, industrial design, engineering, and others.

The Art in STEAM

When we discuss art as it relates to STEAM we are talking about visual arts, history, social studies, physical art, fine art, and music. Art helps to develop flexibility, adaptability, responsibility, creativity, and innovation. All of these are crucial to success in life and career.

The Benefits of STEAM

Creativity: When children feel they are allowed to be creative, it unlocks hidden talents and knowledge that they themselves may not have even known were there. So many great innovations go undiscovered when individuals do not feel comfortable sharing their creativity.  

Academics: Research shows that students who take art and music in high school often score an average of 92 points higher on the SAT.

Decision-Making Skills: Kids who engage in art are better at making decisions. This could be in part because they feel the freedom in art to make choices and see the immediate outcome of those choices. They learn about natural consequences early on.

STEM EDUCATIONJULY 8, 2022