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First time I've seen the STEAM acronym (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math). Described as: "While these initiatives are a wonderful start into the

First time I've seen the STEAM acronym (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math). Described as: "While these initiatives are a wonderful start into the exploration of these four areas of study, the critical process of creativity and innovation is missing. Students in STEM programs may have more experiential learning opportunities, but they are limited to only science, technology, engineering and math. Our economy requires so much more than an understanding of these areas – it requires application, creation and ingenuity. STEM alone does not foster these essential nutrients."[1] It reads weirdly for me, because the people I know in STEM are some of the most creative people I know. Very much my own biased opinion, but adding Arts into STEM seems to ironically exclude art from the other subjects, and gives a space for all those art-focused people (I sometimes avoid at hack-a-thons because they don't like coding things) to feel included rather than encouraging them to learn STEM? 1. https://artsintegration.com/what-is-steam-education-in-k-12-schools/ https://artsintegration.com/what-is-steam-education-in-k-12-...

whywhywhywhy 5y ago
I don't mind STEAM, but I am biased as a designer who knows how to code and I think it leans into things a lot of kids are interested in making like videogames that have an art element to them. There is also "STEAMS" STEAM + Sport, which makes no sense to me.
- wccrawford 5y ago
  IMO, it's an attempt for people to not feel like they're being left out. It happens any time a group of people self-select and self-promote. Other people who aren't in that group change the group and claim they were ostracized and they're essential. Eventually, it includes literally everyone and means nothing at all.
stavros 5y ago
I agree that adding arts in there is kind of assuming that otherwise all these boring STEM people wouldn't have any way to create things. Which seems backwards. There's a huge creation component in STEM, especially in engineering, as if you aren't creating something, you aren't doing engineering. I don't know if I agree with the second point about excluding arts people, it sounds like you want them to be forced to learn STEM, which I don't agree with. Let people let what they want to learn, but STEM by definition could not exist without creativity.
asoneth 5y ago
The first I recall seeing the STEAM acronym was John Maeda's efforts to popularize it in the early 2010s e.g. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/steam/vol1/iss1/34/ https://scholarship.claremont.edu/steam/vol1/iss1/34/ His focus at the MIT Media Lab was teaching artists and designers to program, and my understanding is that he continued that as the president of RISD, so it definitely was not intended as an acronym to convince art/design folks they didn't need to learn STEM. I also never personally interpreted the attempted inclusion of Art as implying a lack of creativity in the other domains any more than the inclusion of Math implied a lack of mathematical aptitude in the other domains.

whywhywhywhy 5y ago

I don't mind STEAM, but I am biased as a designer who knows how to code and I think it leans into things a lot of kids are interested in making like videogames that have an art element to them. There is also "STEAMS" STEAM + Sport, which makes no sense to me.

wccrawford 5y ago
IMO, it's an attempt for people to not feel like they're being left out. It happens any time a group of people self-select and self-promote. Other people who aren't in that group change the group and claim they were ostracized and they're essential. Eventually, it includes literally everyone and means nothing at all.

stavros 5y ago

I agree that adding arts in there is kind of assuming that otherwise all these boring STEM people wouldn't have any way to create things. Which seems backwards. There's a huge creation component in STEM, especially in engineering, as if you aren't creating something, you aren't doing engineering. I don't know if I agree with the second point about excluding arts people, it sounds like you want them to be forced to learn STEM, which I don't agree with. Let people let what they want to learn, but STEM by definition could not exist without creativity.

asoneth 5y ago

The first I recall seeing the STEAM acronym was John Maeda's efforts to popularize it in the early 2010s e.g. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/steam/vol1/iss1/34/ https://scholarship.claremont.edu/steam/vol1/iss1/34/ His focus at the MIT Media Lab was teaching artists and designers to program, and my understanding is that he continued that as the president of RISD, so it definitely was not intended as an acronym to convince art/design folks they didn't need to learn STEM. I also never personally interpreted the attempted inclusion of Art as implying a lack of creativity in the other domains any more than the inclusion of Math implied a lack of mathematical aptitude in the other domains.