How Does Visual Art Relate to STEM?

RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) has developed a program called “STEM to STEAM”, contending that art is an essential part of the STEM equation. Their website: / http://stemtosteam.org/highlights many of the ways in which art and design are an essential component to STEM.

Central to STEM is innovation. Innovation is central to art. In art class, students learn to innovate, to create things that haven’t been created or thought of before, to test out ideas, to experiment with materials and ideas.

Here are just a handful of ways that visual art education relates to STEM:

• In art class, students learn to plan out an original work of art or design. This skill is essential to Engineering and to innovating new Technology. You can not build anything truly great (e.g. a machine, a building, a park, a website) without art and design. You need to design things before you build them and you need an understanding of the principles of art and aesthetics to build anything in which form and function meet. Let’s face it, people want beauty in their lives. It’s part of why Apple products are so popular.

• In art class, students learn about the chemistry of paint and the science of color.

• Ratio/proportion in color mixing utilizes and strengthens mathematical thinking.

• Exploring and thinking about texture strengthens students’ sensitivity to the world around us, both natural and engineered.

• Especially in collage, students explore different shapes and how to create them. For example, as they cut a square into two triangles they are developing and sharpening their understanding of geometry. That’s just the beginning - the relationship between art and geometry is HUGE.

• Collage is especially good at developing students’ understanding of part to whole/whole to part relationships.

• Observational drawing, painting and sculpture: observing the natural world develops students’ understanding of science.

• Drawing is a huge part of engineering, science and geometry (and other kinds of math). Art education introduces students to many types of drawing; there are MANY different kinds and purposes of drawing and many are directly related to STEM. Drawing things out helps students understand math and science and is needed to plan out structures to build.