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Whether for 21st century skills development such as creativity, communication, and collaboration orfor transdisciplinary knowledge creation leading to innovation, the integration of Arts with STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields is gaining popularity in higher education. However, a comprehensive survey of proven methodologies to integrate Arts with STEM disciplines (referred to as STEAM) currently does not exist. This paper presents the preliminary results of asystematized literature review done to characterize the integration of arts with STEM disciplines in higher education. It also uses these findings to analyze the most recent STEAM initiative of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Ottawa. This research finds three main rationales to integrate arts with STEM and presents the frameworks discussed in the literature to do this integration. It also examines how creativity is assessed and developed within STEAM higher education contexts. This research contributes a reference of validated arts integration and creativity frameworks which can be used to setup STEAM projects or evaluate them in relation to proven methodologies. The frameworks presented in this research can be used in classrooms and professional environments.

The Richard L'Abbé Makerspace at the University of Ottawa-Ontario, opened its doors to students in 2014 aiming to offer a creative environment that fosters interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. Since then, the Makerspace was incorporated in 10 courses offered at three faculties, held 250 workshops, 3 design challenges, and was used by more than 3000 students. This paper describes how Makerspaces help cultivate students' communities of practice (CoP). We interviewed 19 engineering students with different participation levels in the Makerspace, from different engineering disciplines to understand how they became participants in the makers' community of practice at the Richard L'Abbé Makerspace. We found that the Makerspace provided engineering students with a platform for forming a CoP that shares a common interest in making, by providing them with access to equipment, workshops, competitions, and by connecting engineering students from various disciplines to work on handson engineering projects that allowed them to translate theories learned in classroom to practice. The paper also describes the lessons learned from the interviews and challenges that face the Richard L'Abbé Makerspace.

Creativity, communication skills, interdisciplinary sensitivity, and cultural and civic responsibility are vital skills and perspectives to inculcate in contemporary engineering students. A number of studies have demonstrated the benefits of exposing engineering students to arts, as studying arts and humanities can open up their minds to creative ideas from great minds outside of science and engineering. In most cases, engineering students are exposed to the arts by taking a few non-technical courses as electives. Many students view these courses as less important and irrelevant to their field of studies. Integrating the arts into the technical engineering curriculum is challenging but critical to engineering design, particularly in early years, and represents a natural opportunity. This paper discusses the approach taken by the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Ottawa of exposing students to the arts through curricular and extra-curricular design activities. These include offering design challenges, a first-year engineering design course and summer internships. This paper also discusses the challenges that arise in delivering such curriculum and the impact of such exposure on the engineering students involved.

Collaborative Project Based Learning (CPBL) is known for enhancing deep learning, professional skills development, student engagement and motivation, cultivating interdependence in learning, thinking, problem solving, and creating interest and excitement in learning. This article describes the impact of an engineering design course on first-year engineering students. Student performance was evaluated before and after taking the course using a pre-and-post design skill assessment test, peer feedback evaluations, and thematic analysis of each student's self-reflection of lessons learned. Initial analysis of the data indicates that a CPBL environment has a significantly positive impact on the development of engineering students' ability to describe the engineering design process and relate it directly to real-world problems. Students also realized the importance of communication, team work, investigation and project management skills.