It’s not STEM, it’s STEAM. It can only be STEAM. If we plan on using it in schools, in our teaching then it can be nothing but STEAM. (It can also be MEATS if you really want to play with the order of things, it’s just an acronym. “We need more MEATS in school!” But then you STEM people have to do Mets, and that's just a recipe for losing.) We can’t leave out the Art. Even if you are dedicated to STEM, stomp your foot, say the blue-haired handsome modest guy on stage is wrong, you’re still including Art. You can’t help it.
Dig it.
I think most aspects of STEAM make sense in schools. It’s easy to see how Technology and Engineering and Math play together. Those go together like peanut butter and jelly, like James Brown and Bootsy Collins. The essence of STEAM, after all, is to combine these disciplines. To help students see how all the things they’re learning relate to each other.
And I’d argue that the two that make the least sense to many teachers when trying to join them into one mega-discipline are Art and Science.
Art and Science may appear at first glance to be the most different from each other. Society certainly thinks so. We divide people into right brained and left brained. Oh I’m the artistic one, my wife is the more logical scientific one. Here’s this prize for science, here’s this prize for art. We have a science museum and an art museum. And never the twain shall meet.
This is incorrect.
Art and Science are one in the same. They are the easiest to join into one concept. The yin and yang of the whole deal and what makes STEAM such a powerful teaching tool. Art and Science are the glue that holds STEAM together. They should be the bookends of the acronym. AMETS! ATEMS! SEMTA! Hashtag SEMTA!
What is Science? Science is an effort to understand the human condition and the world in which we exist. Science is how we examine who we are, what we know, where we came from, and where we can go. Science is where we create our futures and learn from our past. Science values mistakes as Eureka moments. Science stands on the shoulders of other scientists, building on what was known. Science is the study of the world that we may know it better. Science looks at stars and knows they are made of the building blocks of the universe.
What is Art? Art is the effort to understand the human condition and the world in which we exist. Art is how we examine who we are, what we feel, why we feel it, and where that can take us. Art is how we envision our futures and represent our past. Art springs from mistakes. Art responds to the art of others, stripping it down and reinterpreting it. Art is the study of the world that we may know ourselves better. Art looks at stars and sees nature’s pure beauty.
Science and art are one in the same, and the sooner we stop siloing these things off mentally and in our classrooms the better off we will be. Science is a creative act built to test hypothesis. The end result of science is not to prove an idea, but to discover where the idea leads regardless of what the scientist thinks will happen.
Art is a creative act built to see if you can do a thing beautifully. Even if it’s an ugly thing, a challenging thing, can it be done beautifully? Art exists first in the mind or the heart or the soul, then it is created on an easel or a document or by stripping away the pieces of marble that hide the statue. It’s fine-tuned until it says what it needs to say, whether that’s what the artist intended at first or not.
They are the same.
We must stop telling our students in words and actions that art is the beautiful thing we do with glue sticks and colored paper before holidays and when parents are coming and science is the technical thing we do when well we don’t really have time for science today, sorry, but if we did there would be beakers and eye protection and bubbling and lots of note-taking.
Science is beautiful. Art happens constantly.
And here’s where it gets really good, my friends- My favorite argument is Kirk or Picard? Picard, obviously. But my second favorite argument is Is Teaching Art or Science? If we’ve gotten this far together and you’re still with me then you know my answer. Is teaching an art or a science? YES, yes it is.
I’ve started thinking about teaching math as an art form. It’s hard. The kids weren’t ready for it. I wasn’t ready for it. Numbers have never been art to me. It took time. But if I’m right and teaching is an art and a science that means math must be beautiful and creative. Even the standard algorithm. Even dividing fractions. And I don’t mean because I’m drawing pictures of brownies and cutting them up, though I am an excellent brownie artist. Just ask my kids while I’m standing next to them holding a report card.
The joining of Art and Science is the maker movement. Making gives the maker control. Control over your learning and over your world. How many of our students feel as though they have no control? Making gives them that control, it shows them they can make an impact in the world that they live in that is both productive and beautiful. When there is nothing and then, because of your hands, there is suddenly something, that’s power. The true joining of science and art in our classrooms is an act of power for our students.
Teller, of the magic duo Penn and Teller, said this in regards to why magic (and what is magic but scientific principles applied artistically?) works- the most important decision everyone makes from day to day, minute to minute, is deciding what is really going on. We want our students to get that critical thinking muscle so strong that they will always be able to make that most important of decisions- what is going on- no matter what. Art and science help our kids see the truth of the world. Science and art allow them to decide for themselves what is really happening.
Making is a joy! My students recently earned some free time or a goofy day- you know Pajama Day, Crazy Hair Day, whatever. They voted to have 45 uninterrupted minutes in class to free make. Like, Mr Robertson isn’t giving us a goal, we just create. This is what I want. I steepled my fingers like Mr Burns and intoned, “Excellent.” And it’s vital that I celebrate the making of anything, the creation of a passion that isn’t driven by curriculum because I can tie anything back to teaching. We all can. Adam Savage of the Mythbusters says that “It doesn’t matter what you make and it doesn’t matter why. The importance is that you’re making something.” Making makes our students critical thinkers. The joining of art and science in making forces hundreds of choices, and inspires students to discover the answers on their own without lining up at my desk to get them. I want them to make because they have to, the music is inside of them already, so my job is discovering how I can exploit the curriculum and the standards to let it play loud.
Listen! What is teaching? Teaching is an effort to understand and explain the human condition and the world in which we exist. Teaching is examining through instruction, work, and reflection what we know, what we want to know, and what is yet unknown. Teaching is mistakes upon mistakes. Teaching is constantly responding to the past to create the future, both immediate and long-term. Teaching is the study of humanity that we as humans may understand ourselves individually and as a whole better.
We design lessons. We design projects. We design assessments. We design, build, test, revise constantly, daily, hourly, minute-by-minute. I won’t say we are both artists and scientists because by now you know that artists are scientists and scientists are artists. But this is only the first step, this understanding. It’s great that I get it. It’s not enough. I need my kid who thinks she’s not artistic to see that what she’s doing, how she sees the world, is already art. And my kid who thinks he’s not good at science, I need him to see it as art, as creation. I don’t need to be a scientist or an artist because I already am- I’m a teacher. And so are they, because they’re students. And so are we, because we’re humans. And we are made of stars.
If you like this post and the other posts on this blog you should know I’ve written three books about teaching- He’s the Weird Teacher, THE Teaching Text (You’re Welcome), and A Classroom Of One. I’ve also written one novel- The Unforgiving Road. You should check them out, I’m even better in long form. I’m also on the tweets @TheWeirdTeacher.
No comments:
Post a Comment