When people start picturing STEM careers, the arts do not automatically spring to mind. However, as a form of knowledge, education changes, and so does the necessity to look for creativity in such technically oriented occupations. Meet STEAM education, a combination of creativity of art with the academic challenge of STEM classes. Including the “A” for arts increases the learning capacity and also offers another perspective to analyse problems. Let’s look at how the arts are being integrated into engineering and technology and see how STEAM education is implemented out in the world.
1. Architecture: The Intersection between Art and Engineering
It’s rather easy to see just from this list how arts and STEM can intersect: architecture is one of the most apparent areas. Surprisingly, architecture is one of the oldest cases of designing with the STEAM model in mind. Any good architects working in the building construction industry must always ensure that engineering and art work as a single entity to bring attractive results. Indeed, imagine some of the most typical and famous buildings like Sydney opera house, the Eiffel tower, and Guggenheim museum. It also meant that these buildings had to be designed and created with not only logical accuracy, but with artistic flair.
As we can see architecture is still one of the best examples of how STEAM works in the modern world. From design tools that include computer aided design (CAD) to work out new structures to the choice of material and designs that are eco-friendly, architects are not idle. With art, they are creating new forms of ideas in their minds; but when it comes to concrete application of those ideas, they will harness their knowledge in STEM. That is why architecture is a great example of the implementation of STEAM; it connects a creative field with a technical one.
2. Product Design: ‘’Art as the Integration of Technology’’
One more example of the effectiveness of the STEAM approach is a field such as product design. Design may pertain to the appearance of a smartphone or the form of a chair which are aspects that the product designers take into consideration. Most importantly here art is very crucial in a context of rendering the product not only useful but alsotractive to the consumers. But, it is not about aesthetics alone, designers use a lot of STEM knowledge to ensure their products perform well and solve users’ problems.
But let us take smartphone design as an example. Having a stylish look and feel and multiple colors, as well as the structure of a phone comes from artistic imagination. But inside, engineers have worked hard on the tech behind it: , these are microchips, sensors, and software. Auchard, p. 2 of The integration of art and science in product design relativity supports the calls for adopting steamed education in the society. That means great ideas and STEM skills go hand in hand and make up an excellent team for innovation.
3. Animation and Game Design: It could be code subtlety, code finesse or even code elegance; in this particular case, to refer to it as The Art of Code would not be far from the truth.
Video game design and animation are really representations and examples of STEAM education. The fields also need a balance of creativity and the capabilities of applying technical knowledge. Let’s consider the most recent video game you have ever played or the most recent animated movie you have ever seen. To speak more specifically, it is possible to notice that each character, each scene, each storyline is a merge of programming and actual creativity. Collectively, artists draw the appearances of the characters and the landscapes while engineers, write the codes that enable them.
A good and well-known example is Pixar – animators are closely connected to engineers. A film such as Toy Story or Finding Nemo missing art because the process of creation of these movies relies on art and technology side by side. These animated movies are supposed to be entertaining but also involve human storytelling, thinking, and skills as well as the best technologies in the form of software and algorithms that must be used to make the movie’s animations as realistic as possible. In the light of increasing popularity of the STEAM education, more creative fields such as animation and game design come into focus and will progress on the ever existing frontier.
4. Medical Prosthetics: This paper explores the possibities of merging Art with Biomedical Engineering.
Biomedical engineering in particular, but more broadly in the creation of medical prosthetics, is another awesome example of how STEAM works. The prosthetic limbs mentioned here involve the cooperation of engineers and designers in order to achieve the natural movement including the appearance and touch. While creating prosthetics, it is possible to come up with high-tech devices and at the same time, the ones which would suit the person and his/her lifestyle.
Let’s use 3D printing as an example. This technology has impacted greatly the field of prosthetics by providing an opportunity to design prosthetics explaining the real physical characteristics of each patient. This means that designers can now be able to develop limbs that look good while at the same time being as effective as the real thing. In fact, it is possible even to create prosthetic limbs with specific artistic features, such as a preferred colour or a given form, so that a patient can depict their character in the device. This is a good illustration that indicates how steam education has an influence in the real world to show how artistic and engineering aspects can significantly change people’s lives.
5. Robotics: Cognitive Skills: Creative Thinking In problem solving with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
In case of robotics arts have significant small role in STEM that is opening up in every detail. As you already know, engineers and roboticists indeed have to draw from the box in order to come up with innovative solutions to complicated issues. No matter what people are designing robots for specific industrial applications or developing specific robots that facilitate certain types of surgery, creativity is a very huge factor