When STEM becomes STEAM

For the last two years I’ve been invited to staff a table at a local STEM Saturday event for school kids, and to present at the most recent one last year. These are great events and I get to interact with a lot of very smart kids and their parents. Part of what I talk about is Linux. Of course!

But I submit that STEM is too limiting and ignores completely the role of the arts in modern technology. So I always use the acronym STEAM in which A is for Arts. I believe that including the arts in any “STEM” curriculum is important because it can help technologists of any kind perform many of the tasks required in a modern work environment.

Elegance

Everyone working in STEAM must solve problems. No exceptions. Problem solving is a process that requires a significant amount of creativity and that should result in an elegant fix.

The best solutions are the elegant ones. They tend to be simple, they resolve the root cause of the problem not just the symptom, and they integrate seamlessly into the device or software they are fixing without a need to resort to bubblegum and shoestrings.

One example is my own computer lab. One of my computers was having display problems but the display itself was working fine. The processor had integrated graphics which were being used to drive the display. That integrated display device had failed. I thought about replacing the processor but the expense was far greater than installing a display adapter I had sitting in a drawer. So I disabled the integrated graphics chip using BIOS configuration. I installed the graphics adapter in one of the motherboard PCIe bus slots, moved the display cable to the new adapter, and rebooted the system. Since it’s Linux, the new display adapter was detected on the fly and it all worked fine. That system is still running after several year using that adapter.

The arts teach elegance and creativity, both of which are needed to be truly successful in today’s world.

Visual arts

It may surprise you to know that the visual arts are important in every aspect of STEAM.

Development of the User eXperience (UX) interface depends on knowing how people perceive things and creating a user interface that allows all users to interact effectively. Creating computer graphics images (CGI) for movies, TV, and other video streams requires a knowledge of how to create still and animated images and how to manipulate them in ways to create the desired effects.

Seth Kenlon, a friend, and technical editor for many of my articles and books, is deeply involved in video production and streaming. Not only does he have credits for many popular and Indie movies for sound and visual effects as well as editing, he also supports Slackware, a Linux distribution that’s designed specifically for the film industry. Check out Seth’s IMDb page.

Music

Music and sound in general is necessary for sound track creation, sound mixing, studio synthesis, and more. All of these are produced using advanced technology, computers, and software.

For a look at the first film of any genre to have a synthesized sound track, check out ‘Forbidden Planet,’ a literate 1956 science fiction production that is considered by some to be a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s, The Tempest. This is also one of my top 10 favorite films and is one of the reasons I first started working with STEAM before it was called that.

There is some overlap here with the performing arts as most music curricula require students to perform in front of an audience.

Performing arts

Experience in the performing arts is an important part of any STEAMer’s repertoire. It teaches ease in front of an audience such as those you might find in executive presentations and job interviews.

I think my own story is a good example of why this is important. I promise to keep it short.

In high school in 1963, I was that kid with the Physics and Chemistry books under my arm, along with the slide rule I still have. On an impulse, I stepped into the drama class when they were doing auditions for the Junior play. I got a leading part and had a blast doing it. The summer of 1964, after graduation, I did Shakespearean repertory in a summer stock theater. Years later, I put those skills to use when presenting proposals for projects to IBM executives, creating and teaching technical classes for IBM products, and more recently, Linux. I’ve also presented at what used to be Ohio LinuxFest and is now known as OLF, POSSCON, All Things Open, and more.

Standing up in front of an audience of any size is common and may be expected of almost anyone.

Writing

Many of the jobs I’ve held required good writing skills. Creating proposals and presentations, writing training documentation for hardware and software, end user documentation, eight books about Linux for Apress, and hundreds of articles for various hard-copy and on-line content providers, including Both.org.

This skill also allowed me to work as technical editor on books and articles created by others.

Thoughts

Not only are the Arts necessary in any well-rounded education, they are critical to students on the STEM track. The arts are often overlooked for STEM students and tend to be the first courses cut when budgets get tight. This is a disservice to all students but it impacts STEM students especially hard because the arts provide students with tools that are critical in today’s highly technical job market.

All students should have access to Arts classes. Ensure that your school districts provide those classes and make STEAM.