The Need for STEAM
Everyone’s raving about how STEM education is the end-all be-all of what our kids need. What’s more important though is the integration of the arts into STEM education or STEM fields themselves. The arts bring creativity, new vision, and a new sort of take on how the STEM fields should be approached.
There is a clear difference between what a performing arts artist does (singing, acting, dancing, visual art) and how art is done in the STEM fields currently. Right now the arts aren’t particularly emphasized in the STEM fields, and it’s my belief that if these two ideas are brought together that only incredible things will be achieved.
Not only does this create more jobs, more majors, and more opportunity – but it also advances us into a new age. Where the “artists” and the “nerds” aren’t separated, they’re together or even the same person. This will not only create more diversely talented individuals but also attract more people to the STEM fields themselves.
Artists are the people who cultivate the culture for each and every generation. They are what sets apart one generation from another. They highlight the good and the bad that each generation deals with and goes through. We need to provide what they need to make sure that when we are all gone, the future generations know what our generation went through. We need to make our mark for future generations to remember our time.
STEM is going to continuously advance, there are going to be new discoveries and new findings in practically every field. It is up to us that these discoveries are able to reach the mass population and everyone gets to know what is changing and what is new. What’s better than to release it through STEAM. This combination will allow artists and people in the profession of STEM to combine their thinking and figure out how to speak to the mass public and even engage them.
The arts that is in STEAM isn’t exclusive to just the performing arts, it includes every creative avenue a person has. Any idea that can be imagined in someone’s head can be made possible by STEAM.
Don’t just take my word for it, if you research back into history you’ll find a plethora of examples of humans using STEAM to create new and exciting things. One example includes 18th century photographer Charles Nègre, who combined his love for photography and his curiosity with the science behind it to create pure art. Film-making and acting are two of my favorite things. So to potentially combine something I’m so passionate about with STEM and see the future of it is very exciting to me.
STEM doesn’t exclude the arts; it just focuses heavily on math, science, and engineering. We need to get to the point where these things are taught together and where they are given the importance that they require.
SHAJIA
