Written by Madison Johnson

Oftentimes, art is forgotten as an aspect of STEM education. However, art helps to foster current skills that students gather from science, engineering, technology, and math already and also creates additional ones. Through art, innovators can advance their compositional talents, enhance their creativity, and find another medium with which to express themselves. Furthermore, art comes in a multitude of forms, such as drawing, painting, sculpting and weaving; each helping to enhance different technical skills. Even learning seemingly small concepts, such as the principles of shading or proportions can help construct an artistic eye that can be used to approach STEM-related problems.

How can art apply to the other areas of STEM?

Although sometimes undetected, art is naturally found in the different STEM subjects. In science, creative thinking is often required to formulate experiments that answer scientific questions. In the world of technology, art is vital for creating graphic designs. On a basic level, a user interface, the screen that users interact with, must be organized, appealing, and easy to use. From an engineering perspective, art not only helps engineers familiarize themselves with using different materials but also helps them better understand the concepts of building. For example, three-dimensional art forms, like sculpting, can highlight the importance of weight distribution, attention to detail, and overall structural integrity in engineering. Lastly, in mathematics, many equations and theorems have visual representations that are often disregarded. However, the ability to visualize these representations enhances an innovator’s understanding of how and why certain theorems work. Altogether, proficiency in art substantially contributes to a high-level comprehension of STEM because of its numerous applications.