What does STEM to STEAM mean: New Ideas or Hot Moist Air ?
Moderator: Roger Malina Discussants: Dimitris Charitos ( Greece), Guillermo Munoz ( Spain, currently a nanoscience postdoc in Japan)
if you want to participate as an invited respondent- contact rmalina@alum.mit.edu
As you know there is an international discussion on "stem to steam" concepts and approaches for new art/sci/tech teaching and research methods. There is much debate and discussion on whether the ideas behind STEM to STEAM are new in anyway, or whether the phrase is a repacking of current work in a way to attract new funding ( for an understanding the social and cultural processes at work in 'selling' programs like stem to steam - on a larger scale- see for instance Patrick McCray's detailed book called The Visioneers: How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9822.html )
The US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine are currently conducting a two year study to address the higher education part of the question:
STARTS encourages synergies between the Arts and innovation for technology and society by promoting the inclusion of artists in Horizon 2020 projects.An increasing number of high-tech companies assert that scientific and technological skills alone are not sufficient anymore. In this context, the Arts are gaining prominence as catalysts for an efficient conversion of science and technology knowledge into novel products, services, and processes.
We are proposing a discussion on the YASMIN discussion list on this topic on Drec 19-2016-all members of the yasmin community welcome to participate
in our own School at the University of Texas at Dallas faculty members are learning how to teach science and engineering differently using STEAM approaches: eg http://www.utdallas.edu/atec/
eg:
Karen Doore: Curriculum Re-Design: Computer Science for ATEC Students Karen Doore will present an overview of curriculum for CS programming-sequence courses for ATEC and will include student projects showcasing top student works. There are significant challenges and difficulties in attempting to teach complex technical material to a diverse student groups, particularly when many students question the premise that these CS courses provide value for the effort that is required to learn the course content. There are current efforts to re-design curriculum for these courses. She is looking for feedback and suggestions that can further guide the curriculum re-design efforts.
About Karen Doore
Karen Doore is a Senior Lecturer and PhD Candidate in the Computer Science Department at UT Dallas. Her research focus is Computer Science Education, with an emphasis on curriculum design for Non-Majors. She earned her BS in Material Science and Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN and an MS in Computer Science with a focus on Intelligent Systems from UT Dallas. She currently teaches required CS programming-sequence courses for ATEC students, and has been working for several years as part of the re-design effort for the curriculum of these courses. Her new curriculum has an enhanced focus on computational modeling, so that, in addition to learning fundamental programming concepts, students learn how to model dynamic, interactive systems. One goal of this modeling focus is to provide students with skills to design, communicate about, and implement dynamic interactive programs, such as games, animations, and design tools
Our school of Art Tecnology and Emerging Communication has also announced 6 full PhD scholarships including STEM to STEAM creative work and research.
for the YASMIN discusson we are interested in STEM to STEAM topics in artistic work, art-sci-tech research, education and personal behaviour !!
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