THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ARTS IN STEAM

Education:

The arts in STEAM education is arguably the most significant feature of the
framework. STEAM education, as a concept, emerged from the existing
STEM initiative, which was originally designed to emphasize the academic
subjects that teach the most important life skills, while also encouraging more
integrated lessons.

What is the Arts?

The arts is a collective term, which is used to describe a range of different subject
areas that are broadly considered to be artistic or otherwise creative in their nature.
When the STEAM concept was originally created, the arts were divided into a
number of sub-categories by Georgette ,and these can be briefly summarized as
follows:

 Fine Arts – The areas that are commonly covered by traditional art classes
and based primarily on aesthetics, with examples including drawing,
painting, sculpting, and photography.
 Language Arts – Arts that revolve around the use of language and which
are concerned with communication, with some key examples including
English, foreign languages, sign language, and creative writing.
 Physical Arts – Subjects and topics focused on physical activity, such as
dance and sport.
  Manual Arts – Art-based subjects that are centred around physical skills
and the manipulation of objects, with some of the main examples including
architecture and landscape design.
 Liberal Arts – The broadest of the five sub-categories, covering some of
the more typically academic subjects, with examples like philosophy, ethics,
sociology, history, politics, civics, and theology.

The Importance of the Arts

It is worth taking the time to understand the importance of the arts in providing
students with a rounded education. The subjects contained within this field are able
to teach people the value of creativity, innovation, communication, and
contemplation. In addition, the arts can help to provide individuals with a greater
appreciation for culture.

The skills developed through the arts are often in high demand within the
workforce, where creative solutions to problems may be needed and where
different perspectives can be useful. The language arts are also vital for
communication and, in the case of things like sign language, can help to provide
people with greater accessibility.

The Arts in STEAM Education

While the importance of the arts is clear, one of the big focuses of STEAM
education is to facilitate integration. A good way to view this is via a quote from
the late CEO and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, who said the following:

“It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough – that it’s technology
married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results
that make our hearts sing.”

This quote essentially explains STEAM in action. Photography is another good

example of an area where the arts clearly crosses over with the field of technology.
After all, modern photography relies not only on a camera for capturing the images
but also often on a computer and the right monitor for photo editing purposes.
Much of photography is also concerned with images of the natural world, and this
has a potential link to science and, in particular, biology.
Final Thoughts
STEAM education highlights the arts as one of its five fields and its inclusion is
important. After all, the arts can help learners to develop the kind of creativity,
ingenuity, communication, and performance skills that will assist them throughout
their education, but also with employment opportunities too.

FROM,

SRINIVAS K

ECE SEC-D.