STEAM with MissK
Opportunities for K-12 Transdisciplinary Education through Architecture & Building Engineering
What is STEAM?
STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics - an approach to teaching and learning that is a combination and collaboration between the different disciplines as opposed to addressing the subjects separately.
Art and science were not always separate disciplines. For example, we know Leonardo da Vinci as both an artist and a scientist. After World War II there was an emphasis on intellectual specialization that created two separate cultures - the scientific, and the artistic (McNamee, 2001). Disciplines were taught in silos for years and years before STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics - came about around 2001. The idea of adding the “A” to STEM developed at the Rhode Island School of Design in response to the 2008 economic crisis and the national focus on STEM subjects.
In 2015 the House Representatives “Expressed the sense ... that adding art and design into Federal programs that target the [STEM] fields encourages innovation and economic growth in the United States” (House Resolution 51), and more funding was invested into STEAM education and research programs.
Multidisciplinary? Transdisciplinary?
What's the difference, if any?
The terms cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary can be used interchangeably, and the terms multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary are often used interchangeably as well.
In an article entitled "Co-Measure: developing an assessment for student collaboration in STEAM activities" (Herro et al., 2017), the authors suggest that transdisciplinary teaching is problem-based, while multidisciplinary teaching is often thematic. For example, a transdisciplinary unit may examine a specific social issue from which learning opportunities and projects would be developed. A multidisciplinary unit may center around the theme of social justice in general.
My Approach
Architecture & Building Engineering
Since my last teaching practicum, I have always endeavoured to create learning opportunities involving multiple subject areas through architectural design. I was fortunate enough to be hired as an art teacher after graduation and continued to develop architecture design and inquiry units each year with different grades.
I would categorize the units created before my Masters of Education degree as 'multidisciplinary' and new units presented on this website as 'transdisciplinary' in a conscious effort to incorporate more real-world connections and facilitate important discussions.
These units have been created from a visual arts perspective to provide a means of engaging students in critical and creative thinking across several disciplines through project-based and problem-based explorations within the context of an art class.
Because these units were not created in collaboration with teachers of other disciplines, I do not consider them as truly transdisciplinary STEAM experiences without the expertise and equal emphasis of other specialists to deepen conversations and inquiries into subject matters and topics.
It is my hope that sharing my units, which include potential links to competencies in different disciplines, will be a catalyst for future collaborative planning and implementation opportunities.