Ohio STEM Education Leaders Value Arts Learning
Ohio's leaders are acting to broaden students' access to high-quality education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The state's 2007 budget includes over $200 million for STEM-related education initiatives within the Department of Education and Board of Regents. A major portion of those funds will be used for grants to regional consortia with plans to create STEM schools and K-8 "programs of excellence."
Requirements for the STEM school grants, which are administered by the Ohio Partnership for Continued Learning (PCL), include roles for the arts and humanities. "Governor Strickland emphasizes that STEM education is for all children and it is for the whole child," says PCL Executive Director Julie Schaid. "So certainly the arts will play an essential role." The PCL is a statewide group of leaders from education, business and industry, economic development, government and local communities. Its focus is creating a seamless education and workforce system and producing the talent base needed for the 21st century economy.
"Business leaders often talk about the need for STEM professionals with creative, innovative, collaborative skills," says Shaun Yoder, executive director of the Ohio Business Alliance for Education and the Economy and a leading advocate for Ohio's STEM policy initiatives. "I think that suggests a critical role for the arts. Creative, innovative, inventive thinking in the STEM disciplines and in the arts work in much the same way," he says.
The Dayton Regional STEM School (DRSS), one of the first STEM consortia to receive the state grant, will exemplify this emerging intersection of fine arts and STEM disciplines.
"We think the arts absolutely go hand in hand with being a good critical thinker," says Gregory Bernhardt, dean of Wright State University's College of Education and a leader in the DRSS consortium. "We believe art and music are languages for today's young people."
DRSS students will be required to complete at least a year of music and a year of visual arts. Also, the school's eight-member curriculum committee will include a humanities or arts educator. Since all the classes at DRSS will be interdisciplinary and interrelated, Bernhardt also envisions extensive arts integration.
He is excited about the arts as a way to engage and motivate students in math and science, but the intrinsic value of the arts also figures largely in the school's vision: "Whatever path students end up choosing," he says, "we want to make sure that they will be ready to participate fully in the human conversation."
This article was published in April 2008, Volume 4, No 2.
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