Getting the Word Out

Here’s a link to a short article by the Engine Institute, Inc. that mentions my presentation at the New England Faculty Development Conference: http://theengineinstitute.org/moving-from-stem-to-steam

“Eupatorium cannabinum Sturm4” by Johann Georg Sturm (Painter: Jacob Sturm) – Figure from Deutschlands Flora in Abbildungen at http://www.biolib.de

I strongly encourage you to check out the work of the Engine Institute, which aims to foster cross-fertilization of art and science in some pretty innovative ways. Their Executive Director is the fabulous China Blue Wong (http://www.chinablueart.com). I hope to feature her here soon.

 

STEAM Meeting in New England

Fern Specimens, Chromolithograph, L. Prang & Co., Print Department, Boston Public Library, 1861-1897 (approximate)

This fall, Gavin Andrews (of the Peabody Essex Museum) and I gave a presentation on STEAM at the New England Faculty Development Conference.  Coincidentally, this June the NEFDC conference will be on the topic of Moving from STEM to STEAM: What Really Works (http://www.nefdc.org/spring2014conf.html).

The keynote speaker is Tom Pilecki, who was the director of the Center for Creative Education for twelve years, and is the co-author of the book “From STEM to STEAM: Using Brain-Compatible Strategies to Integrate the Arts” with David Sousa (http://www.corwin.com/books/Book239445). Interestingly, he was founder and principal of the St. Augustine School for the Arts, which was the focus of the 1993 documentary entitled “Something  Within Me”, a film that won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award, Filmmakers Trophy, Special Jury Prize (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108183/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_1).

The conference will take place at Roger Williams University (http://rwu.edu) in Rhode Island, and the call for proposals ends February 23. The tiny coastal state of Rhode Island is also home to RISD (http://www.risd.edu), a great champion of STEAM, so perhaps some RISD folks will attend the meeting?

Hope to see you there.

Virtual STEAM

The field of scientific visualization represents an authentic connection between the arts/design and the STEM disciplines.  Daniel Keefe (http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~keefe/dfk_iweb/Home.html) and David Laidlaw (http://cs.brown.edu/~dhl/)  recently reported on what they’ve learned through the their teaching in the field of Virtual Reality (http://ivlab.cs.umn.edu/papers/Keefe-2013-VR-Design-for-STEAM.pdf). VR is advanced visualization technology that has broad appeal for undergraduates of all disciplines.

Nicole Stenger with VPL gear. Stenger is a French-born, American artist and pioneer in Virtual Reality.

The authors discovered that when art and STEM students worked together on Virtual Reality data visualization projects, they each began to develop some expertise in the other’s discipline. This exploration improved cross-disciplinary communication, facilitating the collaboration.

The authors incorporated important elements of art classes into their teaching. For one, they used a critique-style discussion of work-in-progress. Scientists knowledgeable about the data joined in. They found these classroom critiques so useful that they brought this teaching/learning technique into other computer science courses. (I could see how art-style classroom critique could be useful in other STEM courses as well.) Both groups of students faced the additional challenge of effective communication with the scientists whose research they were representing. In life-after-university, this third party could represent a client or additional collaborator.

They also emphasized the importance of “sketching” prior to programming. Sketching took various forms including paper & pencil, a series of concept sketches using Adobe Illustrator, acting out possible user experiences, short films, sculptures, and prototyping in the CavePainting virtual reality system. Data display environments help to align sketches with the reality of the data.

This paper causes me to reflect on my own teaching and on the importance of reflection for learning. It’s important to slow down, develop lots of ideas, get lots of feedback, and learn how to understand each other.

The paper described here was published in the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality 2013 which was held as part of the 15th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction.

Origami Origami

Origami authentically merges art and design with mathematical theory, algorithms, and technology. Math is central to learning in STEM, and is a language shared by STEM, art and design (http://cjvrose.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/stem-to-steam-report.pdf).

Origami artist Dr. Robert J. Lang of Alamo, California, also a physicist and engineer with expertise in R&D, has written and spoken extensively on these ideas (http://www.langorigami.com/science/science.php). Paper folding artist Michael LaFosse of Origamido Studio (http://origamido.com) in Haverhill, Massachusetts, is a biologist by training and uses organisms as subjects for his art.

There are even conferences about this type of work. The Sixth International Conference on Origami in Science, Mathematics, and Education (6OSME) (http://www.origami.gr.jp/6osme/) will take place at lovely Yayoi Auditorium on the Hongo campus of The University of Tokyo (http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/) in August 2014. The conference is currently taking submissions from “art, design, mathematics, science, computer science, engineering, liberal arts, history, education, and other fields and their intersections.” 

Paper cranes, folded as prayers for peace. Peace Park, Hiroshima, Japan. (Fg2)

Paper folding is something that interests undergraduates, as evidenced by the origami club at MIT, OrigaMIT (http://origamit.scripts.mit.edu/index.php), so it may suggest a new type of active learning for incorporation into university courses, especially those in math and engineering.

Transnational STEAM

The International Conference on Transnational Collaboration in STEAM Education (http://stemstates.org/stemfest-malaysia-2013/international-conference-on-transnational-collaboration-on-steam-education.html) will follow on the heels of the World Conference on Science and Technology Education (http://worldste2013.org) this October.

The venue will be the University of Malaysia Sarawak (http://www.unimas.my/index.php/en/) in the lovely city of Kuching on the Island of Borneo.

The conference organizers at Science House Foundation (http://sciencehousefoundation.org) see the arts/design as part of an integrated approach to science education. The conference will feature panelists discussing the role of art and creativity in science.

Pinnacles at Mulu, Gunung Mulu National Park, Borneo

While K12 education is emphasized on the conference website, post-secondary and higher education will be discussed. The call for papers ends May 30th.

Bornean Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)

Kuching is one of the neatest little cities in the world, and Borneo is known for its extraordinary biological and cultural diversity.

Chinese Gateway at Friendship Park, Kuching