From Stem to Steam in Engineering Design

Abstract

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.

Implementation of Interactive Books Based on Local Wisdom and STEAM as Creative Learning in Islamic Early Childhood Education

“…Students are invited to design their toys with the help of environmental materials. Learners must think creatively about combining Engineering materials and creating functional and attractive designs (Rodier et al, 2019). This process teaches learners about engineering, problem-solving, and the ability to design and create something from scratch.…”

STEAM – Arts Integration Frameworks for Transdisciplinarity

“…Since 2017, University of Ottawa has consistently brought artists and engineers to work together as equal collaborators within interdisciplinary projects. See Rodier et al [1] for a complete account of the progressive integration of arts with STEM. Our latest initiative entitled STEAM Creation, is an interdisciplinary course where 12 students in arts and 12 in engineering conceive and design small-scale functional prototypes of interactive art installations about key environmental issues.…”

“…Whether for 21st century skills development such as creativity, communication, and collaboration or for transdisciplinary knowledge creation leading to innovation, the integration of arts with STEM fields is gaining popularity in higher education. In order to pursue those objectives, the University of Ottawa has created STEAM environments where artists and engineers work together as equal collaborators since 2017 [1]. The lack of a comprehensive survey of proven methodologies to integrate arts with STEM disciplines is the motivation behind the current research.…”