Creating a Culture of Art in an Engineering Education
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Paper ID #34857 Building STEAM: Creating a Culture of Art in an Engineering Education Dr. Katherine Hennessey Wikoff, Milwaukee School of Engineering Katherine Wikoff is a professor in the Humanities, Social Science, and Communication Department at Milwaukee School of Engineering, where she Is a member of the UX faculty and teaches courses in communication, film/media studies, and political science. She has a B.A. in political science from Wright State University and an M.A. and PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Mr. James R. Kieselburg, Milwaukee School of Engineering Director and Curator, Grohmann Museum at Milwaukee School of Engineering Adjunct Professor, Visual Design, Milwaukee School of Engineering Margaret T. Dwyer, Milwaukee School of Engineering Margaret Dwyer has been a faculty member of the Milwaukee School of Engineering since 2007. Before coming to the classroom, she spent 15 years working for the state of Wisconsin as a publications edi- tor. She received a Bachelor’s Degree from Marquette University, a Master’s Degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her teaching credentials from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She lives in the Milwaukee area. Dr. Candela Marini, Milwaukee School of Engineering Candela Marini is an Assistant Professor at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, where she co-directs the University Scholars Honors Program and coordinates the Spanish minor. She specializes in 19th- century Latin American history, with a focus on visual culture. She has published numerous articles on Latin American visual culture and literature. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2021 Building STEAM: Creating a Culture of Art in an Engineering Education Abstract This paper discusses an ongoing, successful effort to create a culture of art at a STEM-centered university, not only within the engineering curriculum but also throughout campus life and its physical spaces. In a paper presented at the 2014 ASEE conference, we discussed how an art museum on the campus of Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) worked with professors in engineering and humanities/communication disciplines to incorporate art into the engineering curriculum. In summer 2019 we conducted IRB-approved research into student engagement with public art surrounding our urban campus. A walking tour of the sculptures was followed by a focus group discussion in which student participants explored how art might intersect with their engineering course work and how art could be integrated on campus to further reinforce connections between engineering and aesthetics. Our paper for this year’s conference reports on progress made to date, summarizing our summer 2019 research findings together with the results of innovative learning strategies and art-related partnerships and developments across campus. A Qualtrics survey of faculty and academic staff conducted in 2021 rounds out the snapshot of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) at our institution. The paper concludes with potential future directions for implementing changes in curriculum and bringing art more fully into our campus life. A focus on art as something communally experienced in public places and legitimately connected to engineering coursework serves to highlight its importance as an intrinsic, exciting part of engineering design. Integration of art in engineering education fosters critical and creative thinking, allowing students to conceive alternative approaches in problem-solving and communication of ideas. Introduction This paper discusses an ongoing, successful effort to create a culture of art at a STEM-centered university, not only within the engineering curriculum but also throughout campus life and its physical spaces. In what follows, we will offer an overview of the educational model of our university and the questions and concerns we seek to address. We then offer detailed information of three different lines of inquiry we have pursued to gather data on the current culture and mindset guiding pedagogical and career decisions: a 2013-14 longitudinal study which examined four cohorts of honors students, a 2019 focus group study, and a 2021 student/faculty survey. The results present a fairly consistent outlook in spite of the diversity of data-collection methods and the temporal difference: they show the coexistence of two disparate views on the place and importance of the arts and the humanities both within STEM education and society at large. In his 1959 lecture, C.P. Snow famously brought to light this detrimental divide between STEM disciplines and the arts and the humanities. At our STEM-centered university, “the two cultures” take a slight variation: these competing views are coming from faculty, staff, and students working in STEM (with only a few exceptions, as we will explain). The question is how to build a STEAM- oriented curriculum (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) on a campus where there is no strong presence of the arts and the humanities in terms of academic majors and associated liberal arts departments. The second part of this paper presents examples of successful integration of STEM with the arts and the humanities, i.e., STEAM, at our institution. Exposure to the fine arts has been encouraged to specifically address this problem since at least the 1950s [1]. It is, for instance, at the origin of MIT’s Committee for the Study of the Visual Arts, established in 1972: “As MIT president, [Jerome B.] Wiesner transformed the Institute, recognizing that being the best in science and engineering was not enough–that tomorrow’s leaders also need to integrate the arts and humanities into their thinking about engineering, science, technology and policy” [2]. The initiatives we are presenting here follow a similar focus on the visual arts, but in no way does this mean that we advocate for the visual arts to be the primary area of integration nor the one better suited for initial attempts in the curricula and campus life. Rather, we recognize that funding critically limits this kind of interdisciplinary efforts and that each institution’s options are therefore different. In our case, we are fortunate to be able to work with the university’s own arts museum, which is at the heart of our STEAM project. In other words, there is no prescribed set of activities, content and resources that can guarantee a successful growth of STEAM. What we offer are a set of options that hopefully will inspire other initiatives. Creativity is needed to find paths of integration, as it is pointed out in the report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine arguing for the integration of STEM with the arts and the humanities [3]. Lastly, as the social impact of technology and science becomes more pervasive and complex, the need for a more integrated, post-disciplinary approach to their understanding grows in urgency. This paper is ultimately part of a larger conversation about the educational system at the college level and the impact this model has on the conception and application of science and technology in today’s world. 1. Two Cultures: STEM, the Arts and the Humanities at an Engineering School Our reflections are based on our experiences at a small university that offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering, business, user experience, and nursing. Unlike a liberal arts college, students at Milwaukee School of Engineering generally declare their majors upon acceptance. Programs are designed for students to start their specialization almost immediately, with the guarantee that if they do so and stay on track, they will be able to graduate in four years. The advantages of this model are clear, mainly financial (the faster students graduate, the less money they will spend). There are however some unintended consequences of this institutional design that we believe need to be addressed. The following are the most salient traits of the current campus culture: Utilitarian approach to learning: “if it doesn’t count towards my major, then it’s a waste of time and money.” Specialization without creativity: lack of exploration and curiosity outside their fields. Students mainly handled as future workers: intense focus on preparing them for industry jobs. Students are trained within a very limited worldview, networking with the same people in the same kind of companies, etc. Students are persuaded to think about their future careers within the realm of what is already in place. STEM education without attention to the arts, humanities, and social sciences: practitioners trained to approach problems with a very narrow focus. As it is well known, a solution will only be as good as the definition of the problem. This framing problem creates technological solutions where a socio-technical approach is needed [4], [5]. The humanities and the arts are not intellectually respected: electives are treated as less than, which seriously affects efforts in creating a more inclusive, socially conscious and civically engaged campus culture. This division also nurtures the false conviction among students (and faculty) that STEM studies are apolitical [5], [6]. Misjudgment of those whose careers and role in society are based in the arts and the humanities: our students become citizens with a value system that places certain disciplines above others, citizens that are less inclined to respect forms of knowledge they do not understand. Art as a privilege: a belief that this is a form of spiritual (or superficial) enjoyment reserved to those with the time and money (and knowledge) to afford it. The divided culture of our university is not an isolated case, but part of a larger trend echoed at the state and national levels. Funding for the arts and humanities is very much dependent on private initiatives and donors, while teaching institutions organize their budget around the financial—and not necessarily educational—revenues: “Humanities professors are quick to note that their departments play crucial roles in general education for students from a range of majors.