On September 5, 2012, the National Science Foundation announced a $2,654,895 Art of Science Learning Phase 2 grant titled “Integrating Informal STEM and Arts-Based Learning to Foster Innovation.” Harvey Seifter, Art of Science Learning founder/director, is the project’s director and principal investigator. Balboa Park Cultural Partnership in San Diego is the project sponsor.
Over the next four years, the grant will fund the development of a new arts-based STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) innovation curriculum for adolescent and adult learners; three arts-based incubators for innovation in STEM learning and practice; experimental research to measure the impact of arts-based learning on the creativity skills, collaborative behaviors and innovation outputs of STEM learners; a traveling art/science exhibition; and public programs that use the project’s activities and outcomes to advance civic engagement with STEM.
Starting in October 2013, the incubators – hosted by San Diego’s Balboa Park, Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry and Worcester, Mass’ EcoTarium – will bring together 30 cross-disciplinary innovation teams, each comprised of STEM professionals, artists, educators, business leaders and students. Expert faculty will teach participants arts-based techniques for generating, transforming, prototyping and communicating creative ideas, which they will apply to STEM-related civic innovation challenges and the development of new “STEAM” educational projects that integrate the arts into STEM learning. The civic challenges chosen-by each community include water resources (San Diego), urban nutrition (Chicago) and transportation alternatives (Worcester).
The general public will be engaged through events such as innovation festivals, art/science innovation symposia and prototype demonstrations linked to the incubators. A culminating interactive exhibition, created by the Rueben H Fleet Science Center in San Diego and traveling to each incubator site, will reach national audiences with compelling stories about the civic impact of innovation at the intersection of art, science and learning.
Art of Science Learning Phase 2 national partners include Association of Science-Technology Centers, American Association for the Advancement of Science and Americans for the Arts. The project is supported by a distinguished national advisory council and a network of local and regional partners and advisors from each incubator site.
