Innovative Arts Programs Require Innovative Partnerships: A Case Study of STEAM Partnering between an Art Gallery and a Natural History Museum

ABSTRACT

The arts animate learning because they are inherently experiential and because of their potential to develop creative and critical thinking skills in students. These same skills are valued in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, but the arts have not been consistently included in STEM lessons. We transformed our STEM programming into STEAM programming (STEM plus arts) by creating an innovative partnership between two informal learning environments, the Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery and the Garth and Jerri Frehner Museum of Natural History at Southern Utah University. The partnership resulted in a STEAM learning program that integrated art and science for K-12 students. We incorporated an art exhibition, a hands-on lesson in art, and an immersive lesson in science that culminated in a student project that merged concepts from both art and science. Through programs each fall from 2012 through 2014, we helped over 6,000 students from southern Utah use concepts from art to deepen their understanding of caterpillar defenses, fish ecomorphology, and pollinator biology.

KEYWORDS:

• Arts integration
• informal STEM learning
• science education
• STEAM
• museum education

Acknowledgements

The authors deeply thank Deb Snider, Reece Summers, and Rachel Bishop for supporting and encouraging the Fall Education Program at Southern Utah University (SUU). The authors also thank graduate students in the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program at SUU, especially Kari Heaps, Rachelle Bonnett, and Chelsea Kauffman for assistance during the program. We are grateful to the many SUU undergraduate volunteers and docents, particularly Moriah Guy and Ivy Kiley, who helped make the program a success. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Data will be made available upon request.

Funding

This work was supported by the Walter Maxwell Gibson College of Science and Engineering, a grant from the Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Program (UGRASP) at SUU, the iUTAH EOD Catalyst Grants Program, and National Science Foundation cooperative agreement EPSCoR IIA-1208732.