Wow!

I am glad to see this relationship articulated so well. I think that's also evidenced by the TED talks,which started out as Technology, Entertainment and Design and morphed into something far wider in scope.

I have long thought that the E in STEM is particularly connected with the arts. My area, technical theater and design, is inextricably woven with engineering, math and physics. We refer constantly to principles of geometry or physics in our tech classes and in our conversations with students. I can't count the number of times that a student has told me that the project we were working on has made some core concept of physics or math he learned in school blindingly simple or evident. Last year a student said to me as we were building a set, "If my math class had used projects like this one to explain chords and tangents"- we were laying out a Palladian window-"I would have gotten a lot more out of it. I had no idea that it pertained to the real world."

Last spring we had a running joke with the students working on the big airplane for Drowsy Chaperone, which was designed, engineered and built by students working closely with me and our TD Scott Segar. We used the word 'vector' so many times that it became a buzz word. The project required so much engineering, discussion, modeling and trial-and-error that it was almost like designing an actual plane! And several students who thought they hated math or physics discovered that they liked applying those concepts in the service of something so creative, complicated and tangible.

I fear that many in decision-making circles think of a student's experience of the arts as a kind of icing on the cake for a well-rounded student. Even with no icing, it's still a cake.

I think it's more like the leavening component of the cake itself!


Patrice Macaluso
Theatre Department

Reply-To: Teaching Breakfast List <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 3:19 PM
To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: The Links Between Science and Arts

Scientific American article on the link between the sciences and the arts.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/08/22/from-stem-to-steam-science-and-the-arts-go-hand-in-hand/


[cid:E5449BFA-C22D-4BEC-A7AA-305A8AB42AB0]
Mr. James B. Greenberg
Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center
Milne Library
SUNY College at Oneonta Oneonta, New York 13820

email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
phone: 607-436-2701
fax:   607-436-3677
Twitter: greenbjb

"Ignorance is curable, stupidity lasts forever"