Digital Commons Network^™

Natural Philosophy, Michael J. Leach

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

In this poem, I reflect on the close connection between life science and the arts from the perspective of a student undertaking liberal studies.

Stumbling Into The Spiral: A Serendipitous Steam Exploration, David Rufo

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

An artist-educator discovers how a STEAM-based approach to making art brings together a variety of subject areas in surprising ways.

Outer Space: A Steam Voyage, Jancy Mcphee

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

SciArt Exchange offers multi-disciplinary art contests, artwork events, consulting, training and community resources to support science and technology education, collaboration, and innovation. Using a science-integrated- with-art approach, SciArt Exchange supports, prepares, and convenes people of all ages, backgrounds and affiliations to discuss and potentially solve space, science, and technology challenges. This field note shares the Humans in Space Art Program and the Project Mars Competition.

Peace Guardians, Watts Bears And The Maori Haka, Zachariah Fisher

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

In the summer of 2017, Peace Guardians carried out a summer school program for twenty inner city kids ranging from 8-13 years old in Watts Los Angeles. The program was part of the annual Watts Bears summer school. The Watts Bears are group of student football and track athletes coached by the Los Angeles Police Department. Working in conjunction with the Watts officers and coaches, Peace Guardians and guest teachers spent four hours a day with the students facilitating mindfulness exercises and the Haka as wellness tools to incorporate into their lives in and out of the classroom and football …

Cataloging Wonder: The Art And Science Of The Collection, Christine Metzger

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

The Exploring Science in the Studio National Science Foundation grant funded three initiatives at California College of the Arts, a private four-year art and design college in the San Francisco Bay Area. The grant sponsored annual Science-in-the-Studio which embedded scientists into the art and design studio curriculum, the creation of Mobile Units for Scientific Exploration (MUSE) and a new collection of science materials, equipment, and natural specimens, and a national symposium on integrating science into the art and design studio curriculum. Approximately 30 SitS classes have been offered since 2010, and the Exploring Science in the Studio symposium was convened …

Passing, Paul Kelley

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Passing is a Site-specific public installation assembled with plastic and an iPad. At its center, the iPad displays a video loop of a human image repeatedly walking in and out of the frame. The work maintains my foundational interest in having the viewer slow down to have a more thoughtful and absorptive experience with the work and surrounding space – continuing my practice of challenging viewer’s expectations and putting them in a position to stop and question.

Interdisciplinary Summer Institute Offering Steam Activities For At-Risk Middle School Students, Katherine Zaromatidis, Kara Naidoo

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

A one-week long summer institute was designed for at-risk middle school students with two goals in mind: increasing interest in scientific inquiry through the use of artistic venues and exposing students to a higher education setting to motivate future goals of post-secondary education. Students were brought to the Iona College campus and were led through STEAM activities by a multi-disciplinary team of educators, who were assisted by a group of motivated undergraduate and graduate students. The summer institute culminated in a dramatic performance prepared and delivered by each of the students.

3d Printing – An Insider’S Perspective, Siddharth Sah

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

The 3D printing market globally is still at its infancy, - or some might argue that there isn’t really a market yet. The knowledge of 3D printing design is still largely limited to engineering design – not product design. At MakeWhale, we are constantly pushing the boundaries of the application of 3D printing technology to consumer products resulting in a beautiful mix of technology and art.

Combining An Intuitive Art Workshop And Neuroscience Rituals To Make Us Happy, Audrey Gran Weinberg

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

One might wonder how intuitive art can connect to neuroscience and how this could be accomplished. In this descriptive article, research connecting art therapy and neuroscience has been collected and a workshop on Intuitive Painting has been described in detail. The connection was made by the author based on an article by Barker (2017), ‘4 Rituals to be more Happy,’ who writes a popular science blog. The rituals: gratefulness, expressing negative emotions, decision making and human touch were combined with Dr. Pinkie Feinstein’s method of Intuitive Painting in a small group setting. Although subjective, it would seem that at least …

Wonder, Walking, And Water, Rachel Mayeri

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Art and Science is a seminar and studio course on science-inspired art practices. We will survey and discuss cutting-edge art-science theory, practice, and institutions in seminar. In studio, we examine art-science topics in hands-on experiments, and guided activities leading to art projects.

Kids Inspire Kids For Steam, Kristof Fenyvesi, Tony Houghton, José Manuel Diego-Mantecón, Elizabeth Crilly, Adrian Oldknow, Zsolt Lavicza, Teresa F. Blanco

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

The goal of the Kids Inspiring Kids in STEAM (KIKS) project was to raise students’ awareness towards the multi- and transdisciplinary connections between the STEAM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics), and make the learning about topics and phenomena from these fields more enjoyable. In order to achieve these goals, KIKS project has popularized the STEAM-concept by projects based on the students inspiring other students-approach and by utilizing new technologies, tools, open educational resources, and everyday items and materials. Through the students-inspiring-other-students-approach, we have aimed to get participating students developing STEAM activities for other students in their own local …

Literary Digest: Cannibal Poetry And Biology, Alicia Anzaldo, Claire Boeck, Sara Schupack

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

A humanities professor and a biology professor at Wilbur Wright College collaborated to create a lesson on human digestion and poetry, enriching the humanities course theme on cannibalism. This article describes the lesson plan, examples of student work, and faculty reflections.

Nature In Deconstruction, Russell Chowdhury

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This 'desconstructive photography' shows how humans interact with nature.

On Capturing The Ineffable: A Moment From Experimental Film "59.10", Henry Leslie Foster Ii

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This artwork is a still from “59,” an experimental film installation I created with the following restrictions: I had to direct eleven 59-second films in eleven months with eleven collaborating artists, none of whom could be cis men.In the resulting project, we used film and those eleven short moments to capture our unique, fragile experiences. We explored everything from the way in which facets of personality drift in and out of the subconscious to the beautiful, mercurial nature of gender.

Elements Of Art, Mike Doyle

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Through these paintings and my writing I share how elements of art and science overlap in the strokes of paint that create the perceptions of something familiar in our minds.

Justin's Save The Frogs Project, Justin Sather

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Justin’s Save the Frog Project goals are 1) to spread the awareness about the rapid decline in frog population 2) inspire others to make the environment a better place for people and animals 3) make an impact by building wetlands in California specifically for the CA Red-Legged Frogs and Foothill Yellow Legged.

A New Generation For Art And Science, Alice Marie Perreault

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

My interest in this cross-over between art and science, specifically, the body and supportive technologies, has lead me to mixed media and installations where I can examine degeneration and a “new” generation using a combination of conventional and unconventional materials. Unlike re-generation, which is a return to an original state, “new” generation gives way to new arrangements.

Science Theater As Steam: A Case Study Of "Save It Now", Christopher D. Davidson, Willard Simms

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

What are the markers of a successful STEAM program? How and when can educators be reasonably sure that an interdisciplinary unit or project, rich in both the sciences and the arts, has delivered on its implicit promise – by adding value to a student’s education in ways that are beyond the scope of traditional discipline-specific learning? I attempt to address this question with a case study of Theatre of Will’s “Save It Now,” a pilot program for 4^th, 5^th and 6^th graders at eight Los Angeles public schools that integrates theater arts, music and the STEM …

The Steam Inherent In Stem: A Mathematical Example, Aaron S. Zimmerman

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

STEAM education is intended to integrate a creative and aesthetic dimension into STEM education. By drawing on John Dewey’s philosophy of aesthetic experience and by exploring a simple mathematical problem (Is the graph of a given function increasing at a given point?), I argue that STEM education already has an aesthetic dimension inherent within it. Furthermore, I argue that by recognizing this dimension of STEM curricula, STEM teachers will more easily be able to facilitate aesthetic experiences for their students.

Science And Sentiment: Affecting Change In Environmental Awareness, Attitudes, And Actions Through The Daily Nature Project, Elizabeth D. Haynes Poronsky

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Knowledge about what motivates pro-environmental behavior is important to organizations that seek to encourage environmental stewardship. Research suggests that targeting emotions and beliefs about nature can be more effective in changing environmental actions than increasing knowledge. Daily Nature, a site on the social media platform Facebook, features a daily nature photograph, a quote from a notable historical person and a related lyrical written passage. The popularity of this site lends credence to the appeal of interdisciplinary formats, and underscores the benefits of encouraging emotional and aesthetic ties to nature.

Creating Steam With Design Thinking: Beyond Stem And Arts Integration, Danah Henriksen

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This article suggests the value in a broad view of STEAM beyond arts-integration, as well as the potential of design thinking for STEAM. Despite much interest in STEAM it is often challenging for many teachers to integrate into their teaching of school subject matter. I suggest that as an interdisciplinary crossroads, design thinking provides a natural bridge between the arts, sciences, and other subjects. In this it can offer guiding flexible structure and in-road for teachers to design STEAM-based lessons, and to incorporate as an integrated aspect of students’ STEAM learning. I discuss an example of an elementary Spanish teacher, …

Getting Girls In Stem & The Dangers Of Forgetting That Science Is Art - Someone Made It Up, Heidi Therese Dangelmaier, Camilla Hermann

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Encouraging girls to participate in STEM is a hot topic that has captured the concern of the world’s academic, business and scientific communities. The intention is noble, however the strategies being deployed are reinforcing the very bias society seeks to eliminate. If we wish to advance our evolutionary journey as a species, a shift from “feeling sorry for disadvantaged girls” to “fearing STEM without girls’ reformation” is imperative. This piece discusses the rise to an initiative to redesign culture: Girlapproved.

Creativity, Laterality And Critical State Balance In Learning, Jenny Rock, Asher Flatt

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Understanding the intersecting cognitive pathways that are integral to ways of thinking, creating and functioning in both art and science is an important grounding for a STEAM educational approach. We combine three divergent concepts, including creativity, hemisphere laterality, and critical state theory, to argue for a more balanced approach to learning as part of a modern meaning-centered education in STEAM. Reviewing the concept of hemisphere laterality, or how the two hemispheres of our brain have different (though not disconnected) ways of processing sensory information, we note how these two means of interpreting the world have become unbalanced in traditional modes …

Into The Woods - Environmental Problem Solving Through Steam Lesson Planning, Laura Rachel Fattal

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Title - Into the Woods – environmental problem solving through STEAM lesson planning

Abstract

The STEAM conversation takes on new urgency in the preservice university classroom due to its potential for synergistic problem solving of real world problems. The visual and performing arts invite creativity to be understood as social practice and aesthetic flexibility and the assessment of the practice through student/student and student/teacher curiosity building. In this article pedagogical praxis is centered on the critical issue of climate change caused by global warming. The praxis addresses:

• University preservice candidates’ arts-integrated teaching and learning focusing on climate change,
• Provocative rewriting …

Using Steam To Increase Engagement And Literacy Across Disciplines, Robert L. Long Ii, Stephen S. Davis

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This paper explores STEAM as a solution to improving student engagement and helping students improve functional literacy across the curriculum. While STEM is a fairly established approach to curriculum, researchers and practitioners are continuing to develop and understand STEAM and its place in school curriculum. It is important that educators foster this holistic approach to education and strive to participate in active research associated with STEAM. It is also most advantageous for stakeholders to understand the importance of arts integration and its use to support collaboration, innovation, and creativity within students. Key strategies can be used to support arts integration …

Blowouts, Bricks, And Lines, Kenneth Fandell

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This essay shares the interdisciplinary insights from three projects

A Brief History Of Stem And Steam From An Inadvertent Insider, Lisa G. Catterall

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This article traces a history of STEM and STEAM from the perspective of someone involved in arts integration research for the last 35 years, and proposes a vision for the next steps. It also provides an assessment of the risks inherent in current trends of STEAM roll-out in schools, from the lack of resources for professional development to the burgeoning market in STEAM kits and activity books that do not lead to the original learning goals of STEAM.

What Remains? Dedications And Sediments…, Sara Kapadia

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

A dedication to James Catterall and Alfie Christiansen.

Sediment - Behind The Cover Art, Melanie Moore Bermudez

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Ideas of mapping, topography, erosion and evaporation have been loosely connected to my work for several years now. In my latest series I have put more of a focus on those ideas. In particular I am interested in the movement of sediment pushed by a flow of water and then left, stranded in a new location, as that water source dries up and diminishes. The pigments of the ink in the paintings are my sediment that I build up layer after layer to create a mini geological world caught in a moment of shift, pause and flow.

Sediment, Melanie Moore Bermudez

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Ideas of mapping, topography, erosion and evaporation have been loosely connected to my work for several years now. In my latest series I have put more of a focus on those ideas. In particular I am interested in the movement of sediment pushed by a flow of water and then left, stranded in a new location, as that water source dries up and diminishes. The pigments of the ink in the paintings are my sediment that I build up layer after layer to create a mini geological world caught in a moment of shift, pause and flow.