One of my interests is in STEAM — integrating the Arts into STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). And I will tell you why it’s important, why it interests me, and what I have been doing to attract more local access to effective STEAM activities for our kids.
The STEAM movement is important because over the last decade or so, research showed that the US ranked as one of the lowest developed countries globally in producing students qualified for STEM-related jobs–and we still rank among the lowest. The most jobs and the best paying careers in the future will be STEM-related.
Acting on that research, our country made STEM education a priority, but Americans wouldn’t vote for more taxes needed to pay for education. So the arts were de-funded and public schools were left to fundraise if they wanted arts enrichment back in their curricula. Some schools are better at this than others for obvious reasons — this continues to widen an economic education gap.
More than 10 years later, research now shows we are not in a much better situation today as far as qualified US graduates go. US corporations complain they have to hire foreigners for top paying STEM jobs simply because they can’t find qualified Americans. If US Citizens aren’t qualified for most of the better paying jobs of the future, who will have most of the better paying jobs? If Americans aren’t qualified to be hired to design tomorrow’s newest technologies, then who will be? Who do we want to be developing the top future technologies, if not US citizens? And what will they create?
American students are still mainly choosing majors and careers with less rigorous math requirements and in fields which are more glorified in the media — like law and finance. Research shows that a vast majority of US students will fail to attain basic math proficiency before graduating from high school. Our generation inherited great infrastructure which needs updating and for that task, we need creators with STEM skills — those are the jobs crucial to sustaining a healthy economy and community resources.
How do we attract more students to these subjects and careers? Improve the foundation: math education, and interest them at an earlier age: when they are forming their passions, past times and hobbies — in the middle school years. They are seeking more challenging activities and haven’t yet committed to an educational path or career. How can we influence a passion for those future STEM careers?
Thus the STEAM movement is emerging. The STEAM movement is about fulfilling our dire American workforce needs. Creativity is the number one skill employers are seeking for the future. The STEAM effort focuses on how creativity is applied in STEM — that is adding the arts.
People crave to have their whole brain involved in their work and learning– the critical thinking left side and the intuitive, artistic right side. The most enjoyable way to do that is involvement of the arts: visual arts, performing arts (that’s acting, improv, comedy and music too), conceptual art, textile arts, the applied arts such as industrial design, graphic design,fashion design, interior design and decorative arts. In truth marketing science, tech and engineering products requires artistic skills to design or present anything that will sell.
There are so many kinds of intelligence, and integrating the arts back into the nation’s education effort is the most effective way to bridge the gap to attract a larger American audience to STEM subjects. STEM fields are where most of the future jobs will be. Our country needs a workforce of creators. Concepts in art in fact bring STEM products and services to life.
My view is that more A’s are key for change — an after-school, and at home focus, more local neighborhood access, active student ownership by walking /biking by themselves to community areas offering STEAM activities ), and collaboration across our culture silos (parents, education system, government (public community recreation centers and library system), corporations, and NGOs (Boys and Girls Club, YMCA, etc.). An example would be business partnering with a school or libraries for example.
Schools are already doing all they can to keep the arts in education, but the arts were de-funded a decade ago. Parent PTAs and Foundation organizations continue to raise thousands of dollars to help fund initiatives and keep arts programs in schools. My goal is to help make it easier on parents and teachers and kids by bringing STEAM maker spaces or suppliers to kids where the kids already are — so they can walk to, bike to and tinker and play in STEAM on their own, after school, in every school cluster community.
Art as self-expression has historically been the tool to explore the world and what is unseeable and figure out our own place in it. Art is a tool for mental health which students use to seek ways to excel in their community even if they are failing in school.
Learning must be engaging — fun– especially to bridge the gap and reach students in low income areas, who aren’t thriving much less surviving in the current educational system. To interest and motivate students — high expectations help, but people aspire to fun, important, popular or high profile careers.
STEAM interests me because although I was B math student, my early math education (the base for all these subjects and careers) was an unfortunate learning experience. That influenced my attitude for life to excel at it and make math more fun for my kids. Efforts and requirements in my career made up for it in spades.
Marketing is the ultimate STEAM job especially with the tools of today. It is a job where you must use and appeal to both sides of the brain to be successful. As a spreadsheet data geek, I enjoy the analytics and also working with artists, musicians, producers, design teams, programmers, developers, buyers — everything needed to make the product features, numbers and algorithms come to life, and people enjoy it.
I have volunteered for the last 15 years in hundreds of events, projects and committees supporting casual projects to integrate emotional intelligence and the arts to complement what is taught at my children’s public schools. I will outline them later. But today I wanted to mention the following.
Last week I volunteered at the STE[+a]MConnect Ascend Conference. This organization is bridging arts, science, education and the community. Check them out: http://steamconnect.org/who-we-are/ They are interesting because they are a forum for community collaboration, and a collection of resources to get folks out of their silos: bringing diverse stakeholders (non-profits, education, business, policymakers and our communities) together across disciplines to collaborate, increase community awareness and investment.
Over the last year I have watched them begin to influence change in academic institutions. Their goal is to better prepare the American workforce to be qualified for the top careers, and to be creating tomorrow’s technologies. They are the first member organization and clearinghouse central reference point for initiatives and resources in San Diego and southern California, and are a growing national presence.
