STEAM

Jay (Starship Nebula) STEAM and Universal Design

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Not art and science alone, Patience will be in the works.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, 1806

What is STEAM?

STEM uses the applied learning approach to teach students how to develop problem solving skills, content knowledge, critical thinking, and literacy through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The purpose of teaching STEM is to prepare students for the future, and is a scientific educative approach that helps with transformative technological advances.¹ STEAM takes those idea, and adds the usage of Art within those modules (art can encapsulate many things under its category, such as studio/fine arts, music, theatre, dance, media, etc.). The usage of art in STEM is a more recent thing (Rhode Island School of Design began to advocate changing STEM to STEAM back in 2010²), but is something that is still just as an important thing to learn as the typical STEM teachings. STEAM, alongside with what is already being taught in STEM, encourages and incorporates creativity, as well as novel problem solving.³

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Universal Design

The purpose of universal design is to make things universally accessible to most, if not all, people. UD (universal design) promotes the idea of finding ways to accommodate the needs of people who might have a harder time in an environment that most people are able to work in; by making things easier for those who need it most, in turn, the environment affects everyone else positively and makes things better for everyone.