STEAM fields are science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, together with art. STEAM is designed to integrate STEM subjects and the art of design in education. These programs aim to teach students to think critically and have an engineering or design approach towards real-world problems while building on their mathematics and science base. STEAM programs add art to STEM curriculum by drawing on design principles and encouraging creative solutions.
One early founder of the STEAM initiative is Georgette Yakman, who in addition to raising the idea of adding the arts to the STEM acronym, claims to have found a formal way to link the subjects together and correspond them to the global socioeconomic world: "Science and Technology, interpreted through Engineering and the Arts, all based in elements of Mathematics." She provides professional development training to individual educators and programs on how to use the STEAM framework. In 2009, Senator Mark Warner announced Yakman's nomination as NCTC’s STEAM Teacher of the Year 2009.
A joint resolution was introduced in the United States House of Representatives expressing the sense that adding art and design into Federal programs that target the STEM fields encourages innovation and economic growth in the United States. John Maeda co-hosted the kickoff briefing of the bipartisan Congressional STEAM Caucus.
Sesame Street's 43rd season continues to focus on STEM, but finds ways to integrate arts. They state: "This helps make learning STEM concepts relevant and enticing to young children by highlighting how artists use STEM knowledge to enhance their art or solve problems. It also provides context for the importance of STEM knowledge in careers in the arts (e.g. musician, painter, sculptor and dancer)."
The Rhode Island School of Design has a STEM to STEAM program and maintains an interactive map that shows global STEAM initiatives. Relevant organizations are able to add themselves to the map. John Maeda, (2008 to 2013 president of Rhode Island School of Design) has been a leader in bringing the initiative to the political forums of educational policy.
Wolf Trap's Institute of Education, as part of a $1.5 million Department of Education grant, trains and places teaching artists into preschool and kindergarten classrooms. The artists collaborate with the teachers to integrate math and science with the arts.
The University of Florida created an infographic to show the benefits of both STEM (left brain) and STEAM (right brain) functions.
