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Reflections and Measures of STEM Teaching and Learning on K-12 Creative And Performing Arts Students

Abstract

Despite the fact that many students with interests in the creative and performing arts have the potential to be successful in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), they often rule out pursuing careers in STEM. We argue that one reason for this is the broader societal dichotomy between creative and technical fields: students often either like STEM courses or arts and humanities courses. The goal of our program is to capture students’ perceived interests and support them in coming to see the relationship between the creative and performing arts and broader STEM concepts. This goal was accomplished through the design, development, and implementation of a variety of inquiry-based labs. These labs, which were developed primarily by undergraduate and graduate engineering students, focused on a diverse set of topics including image processing, robotics, bioinformatics, and audio processing. Project staff implemented these labs to students in an arts magnet school that is part of a large urban school district. In this paper, we discuss preliminary results from the first two years of the project. In particular, we will focus on (a) a brief description of two labs (which are some of the labs available at http://dk12.ece.drexel.edu), (b) the effectiveness of the labs by assessing i) overall K-12 student attitude change in the program and ii) graduate and undergraduate experiences and development, and (c) lessons learned thus far in the project.

Rationale of STEM for Artistic Students

At an early age students are encouraged, both deliberately and inadvertently, to excel at their proficiencies and strengths, which can be equally mathematical, artistic, reasoning, designing, etc. The tendency to play to one’s strengths at an early stage of a student’s development can be ultimately self-fulfilling, leading students to avoid or underperform in subjects that lie outside of their proficiencies. A student who excels in the arts from an early age may believe they will never be good at math and science. This is particularly important for students who self-select into magnet schools that have particular identities that can further silo students into particular career paths. In this project, we seek to develop learning opportunities that can support students in connecting their interests with STEM concepts and correspondingly, increase and broaden the career opportunities for students of the creative and performing arts. Along these same lines, we feel it is important to note that students who choose intensive study in the creative and performing arts do often have the ability to succeed in mathematics and science and that by helping them see the connections between their interests and aptitude in STEM, we are broadening the pipeline for individuals pursuing degrees, and ultimately careers, in STEM. This work builds on research in the learning sciences as well as existing work supporting the integration of STEM and a variety of student interests. Research based on the theory of Multiple Intelligences suggests that teaching of concepts and subjects can be more effective through the use of alternative methods and perspectives that appeal to a different set of skills than traditional pedagogy, but that may be better suited to a student’s cognitive profile1. In this project, we developed and tested inquiry-based multimedia lab activities to appeal to several

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Essinger, S., & Coote, R., & Konstantopoulos, P., & Silverman, J., & Rosen, G. (2010, June), Reflections And Measures Of Stem Teaching And Learning On K 12 Creative And Performing Arts Students Paper presented at 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky. 10.18260/1-2--16844