Georgia Students – smARTer with the ARTS!
It’s the math teacher going to the art teacher saying what can we do together.
Across the country, teachers and administrators are coming to a similar conclusion: art informs science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and vice versa. Consequently, they are pioneering new methods of teaching that combine disciplines which have been isolated from one another under traditional educational models. And they are just getting started.
Nettrice Gaskins, a media & technology expert based in Georgia, is pushing this learning approach to new heights. Gaskins targets student populations that have traditionally under-performed in STEM using a unique method that she calls “culturally situated art-based learning.” It starts by first engaging students with art that speaks to their ethnic or cultural identity and ancestry.
With the help of digital media designer Laurie Marion, Gaskins in 2012 introduced high schools students in Albuquerque, N.M., to ancient Mimbre designs, which are indigenous to the Southwest.
The next steps: Teach students about the math embedded in the ancient Mimbre artwork, then have them use software to design and create an interactive mural based on the mathematical concepts they identified in the Mimbre artwork.
“Art helps engage students who are not rote learners,” Gaskins says. “We have got to give credit to all the teachers who are making this happen.” Gaskins ’ research, she says, is less about teaching a class, and more about identifying what “particular types of work engage students who have been historically marginalized.”
Gaskins’ novel approach to interdisciplinary learning is but one component of a new movement-science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics, or STEAM – that has caught on in recent years.
Championing this new philosophy is the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), which launched the website stemtosteam.org.
February 25, 2014
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Tags: advocate, creativity, partnership · Posted in: Advocacy, All, Arts Ed
