STE(A)M
STE(A)M
(OP)
Maybe I'm totally out of the loop and late to this party, but in recent months I've been seeing the mention of STEAM programs in the local education system. The "A" standing for "Arts".
Now correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't adding the arts to a STEM program defeat the purpose of STEM, which is to highlight technical fields?
STEAM appears to me like the traditional curriculum minus the social studies. So how long before it just becomes STEAMS and it just includes all areas of study, thereby completely making the distinction meaningless.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the arts and feel they play an important role. Why lump them in with STEM though?
Andrew H.
www.mototribology.com
Now correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't adding the arts to a STEM program defeat the purpose of STEM, which is to highlight technical fields?
STEAM appears to me like the traditional curriculum minus the social studies. So how long before it just becomes STEAMS and it just includes all areas of study, thereby completely making the distinction meaningless.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the arts and feel they play an important role. Why lump them in with STEM though?
Andrew H.
www.mototribology.com





RE: STE(A)M
It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
RE: STE(A)M
BUT. For the last three months I've been volunteering with the STEAM studio at my local university, helping with the structural side of a senior design project. The students are from sculpture arts and mechatronics engineering, and they're working together to fabricate a very large statue that breathes and moves and will be prominently displayed this spring. That's been a cool juxtaposition of STEM and Art.
Please remember: we're not all guys!
RE: STE(A)M
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The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand
RE: STE(A)M
When something is engineered well, and you stand back and look at the resulting product, it can be a very beautiful thing.
Something the mind's eye sees as beauty with intense function behind it...without an intentional effort to make it beautiful.
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RE: STE(A)M
The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand
RE: STE(A)M
So it is for sexist and pandering reasons which assume women need to be tricked into technical fields? That's even worse than I thought! STEM programs aren't meant to get women into STEM fields, they are meant to get students into STEM fields.
I'm going to pull a quote from the "Best Motivational Quotes" thread that I absolutely loved:
If they are interested in art, let them do art. If they want to get into a technical field, let them do that. Neither are mutually exclusive of one another so it isn't as if once you are in a STEM program, you are not allowed to be artistic. If a student can't decide what kind of subjects they are interested in studying, I would guess they are either a) too young for that type of curriculum, or b) probably not suited for a focused technical curriculum.
I like that the program you are working on, SLTA, has a multidisciplinary focus. That is how the world works and it should be integrated into education. However, by lumping them together, I think it will hurt the ability of students to recognize the values in other's talents more than it will help.
Andrew H.
www.mototribology.com
RE: STE(A)M
RE: STE(A)M
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1241325/
John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
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Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
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The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
RE: STE(A)M
there are lots of women who love math, science and engineering. They don't need encouragement so much as they need an end to systemic discouragement.
RE: STE(A)M
A friend of mine worked out the hydraulics for the prop movements for the Phantom of Opera
I think most engineers appreciate a well made tool or nicely designed interface
RE: STE(A)M
Science: Chemistry, Physics, Biology, -- certainly hard science is easy to define. Does psychology, sociology, and political science also count?
Technology: Computers. But isn't there more to technology than IT services?
Maths: Everyone understood mathematics and therefore focused on it as being the answer to all the STEM problems. Of course, there is more to life than numbers.
Engineering: Engineering is difficult because it is a blend of the other three. Not only that, but it takes creativity to invent or create something. The "A" was added, not to imply painting or poetry, but to include that not just analytical minds are required to solve the world's problems. Creative ones are too.
So, in order to resolve the uninitiated's lack of understanding of the problem, they created another subset. While I agree with the concept of needing to appreciate the arts to find beauty in the world, the powers-that-be took a difficult problem to solve and made it infinitely more difficult to solve.
--Scott
www.aerornd.com
RE: STE(A)M
What, are humanities not important? Languages? Social sciences?
Why not just call it "education" then?
RE: STE(A)M
Exactly my point. When it loses focus, it loses its meaning. STEM was meant to be a particular educational focus. Not to belittle other studies, but to highlight those that were closely related and intertwined with one another.
Andrew H.
www.mototribology.com
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(I may just have overstepped a mark or two there).
RE: STE(A)M
You are all misunderstanding what is going on.
The goal has nothing to do with solving any problem.
The goal is to make sure that the administrators who boss around the educators, can continue dipping their tools in the money streams that they try so hard to catalyze and influence.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: STE(A)M
"For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert"
Arthur C. Clarke Profiles of the future
RE: STE(A)M
(Edit: George Santayana, not the singer.)
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Andrew H.
www.mototribology.com
RE: STE(A)M
Your mileage may vary.
Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East - http://www.campbellcivil.com
RE: STE(A)M
I agree. Some are inspiring!
Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC
NSPE-CO, Central Chapter
Dinner program: http://nspe-co.org/events.php