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Rhode Island School of Design Presents “Bridging STEM to STEAM: Developing New Frameworks for Art-Science-Design Pedagogy”
01/20/2011
National
Science Foundation-funded workshop brings together leaders to develop
strategies for enhancing STEM education through the integration of Art and
Design thinking
PROVIDENCE,
RI – JANUARY 2011 – Rhode Island School of Design [RISD] and the National
Science Foundation [NSF] present “Bridging STEM to STEAM: Developing New Frameworks
for Art-Science-Design Pedagogy” from
January 20-21 at RISD.
The workshop will bring
together 60 leaders in fields of Science,
Creative IT, Engineering, Art and Design, Mathematics and Education Research to
examine and develop strategies for enhancing STEM [Science, Technology,
Engineering, Math] education through the integration of Art and Design
thinking.
Hosted by RISD President John
Maeda and Provost Jessie Shefrin, and organized and led by Principal
Investigators Christopher Rose and Brian K. Smith, the gathering is designed to
initiate discussion of how to bridge STEM
education practices and creative problem solving [turning “STEM to STEAM”] as
an innovative educational approach. Providing
a platform and network to explore current
and possible developments in interdisciplinary understanding, perception,
communication and research practices through creative enquiry and insight, the
principal goals of the event are to:
- Develop strategies for enhancing STEM education
through the integration of art and design thinking [STEM + ART = STEAM].
- Invent and share techniques that take advantage
of simple, freely available IT systems and applications to support enhanced
observation, analysis and understanding of pictorial and numerical data.
- Build new connections between art and design
disciplines and scientific fields to advance understanding of complex systems,
e.g., through improved strategies and techniques for the shared perception and
visualization of scientific data.
Leading scientists, IT experts and creative technologists,
artists, designers and education researchers are participating in the
event. Short presentations will
include Shirley M. Malcom [American Association for the Advancement of
Science, AAAS] and Margaret Honey [New York Hall of Science] in conversation;
Michael Benson, Kinetikon Pictures, and Jonathan Harris and Richard Saul
Wurman.
“Participants will be asked to
consider the greatest potential of their respective fields of research, work or
teaching, and how they each envision the value of their work benefiting from interaction with
other disciplines, to forge relationships
between art and design with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM],”
said Chris Rose, co–Principal Investigator. “Artists and designers can make
vital contributions to meeting important challenges facing 21st
century educational practices and the STEM agenda, and this gathering of minds
is designed to collaboratively
discover connections in our educational, research, and pedagogy practices.”
In place of the familiar conference format, the event will
feature a number of “encounter spaces,” where key individuals in differing
fields have the benefit of each other’s perceptions of things including
connections between 'Data', 'Information' and 'Experience’ and the aspects of
studio practice in design and visual thinking that could enrich aspects of
science in education and research.
“Artists, scientists, designers, and engineers use different
methods to define and solve problems, but they also share similar concerns for
discovery and innovation. STEAM is about identifying and exploiting those
similarities that lead to creative and innovative collaborations between the
arts and sciences,”said Brian K. Smith, co-Principal Investigator.
“STEM
to STEAM pedagogy integrates a broad range of learning methods and learning
ecologies from the empirical studies in the science lab, constructive critique
in the design studio and creative discoveries in informal learning settings,”
said Pamela L. Jennings, Ph.D., Program Director, Computer and Information
Science and Engineering, National Science Foundation. “Creativity and rigor are
rewarded; the participation of women and underrepresented domestic minorities
is broadened and STEM learning in formal and informal settings is transformed
from ‘we have to learn’ to ‘we want to learn’.”
“When policymakers today talk about education and reform,
it’s all about the STEM subjects. It's about convergent thinking – problem
solving by breaking it down. Instead, a divergent thinker takes
an idea and looks to expand it, and to find new diverse ways to connect it,”
said RISD President John Maeda. “You need both to create balance: combining
STEM with the Arts to get STEAM. In the past 20 years, we’ve focused too much
on technology innovation. Art and design humanize those developments, and fuel
true innovation, which ultimately leads to economic recovery and
leadership. The National Science Foundation is attuned to the need
for innovation, and through these continued collaborations we will advance STEM
to STEAM in the United States of America.”
This workshop is just the most recent example of RISD’s
continuing commitment to advancing art + design innovation. RISD-based artists
and designers currently collaborate successfully with scientists and engineers
on a range of innovative projects.
RISD is currently one of eight collaborating institutions in
the Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR, including the state’s recently awarded $20 million
NSF Research Infrastructure Improvement grant . The grant aims to advance
research on the effects of climate change and build appropriate institutional,
technological and communications infrastructure. RISD’s involvement will help develop visual techniques and
communication strategies for scientists, and facilitate successful
interdisciplinary research at the intersection of science, art and design.
About Rhode Island School of
Design
Rhode
Island School of Design [RISD] has earned a worldwide reputation as the
preeminent art and design college in the country. Today, with more than 26,000
alumni, the college enrolls approximately 1,900 undergraduates and 400 graduate
students from the U.S. and almost 50 countries, offering degree programs in the
fine arts, architecture, and design disciplines, and art education. Academic programs include research and
design initiatives, the exploration of art criticism and contemporary cultural
concerns, as well as international exchange programs. Each year, RISD hosts
prominent and accomplished artists, critics, and authors to its campus. Included within the college is The RISD
Museum of Art, which houses a world-class collection of art objects from
Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome and art of all periods from Asia, Europe and
the Americas, as well as the latest in contemporary art.
About National Science
Foundation
This workshop was funded by the National Science Foundation,
Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate, Information and
Intelligent Systems Division CreativeIT program. The National Science
Foundation [NSF], created over 50 years ago, is the premier Federal agency
supporting basic research at the frontiers of discovery, across all fields, and
science and engineering education at all levels. NSF funds the best ideas and
most promising people, searching out the frontiers of science and engineering
to foster high-risk, potentially transformative research that will generate
important discoveries and new technology. Research supported by NSF—selected
through competitive, merit-based review—has fueled many important innovations,
stimulating economic growth and improving quality of life and health for all
Americans.
The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
supports investigator initiated research in all areas of computer and
information science and engineering, helps develop and maintain cutting-edge
national computing and information infrastructure for research and education
generally, and contributes to the education and training of the next generation
of computer scientists and engineers. The CreativeIT program, active from 2007
to 2010, supported interdisciplinary research that integrated creativity-based
practices, methods, and models, as transformative generators of new discoveries
in computer science, computational thinking and technology innovation.
Visit www.stemtosteam.org for more info.