Is There Room For Creativity In The World Of Stem?

Apart from the need for air, water, food, clothing, shelter, belonging, and intimacy, every person has the need for creativity. Humans are creative creatures as displayed in painted caves more than 40,000 years ago. With the need for more students to pursue STEM education, will this longing for creativity be filled?

Image source: edweek.org

Most people think there is little to no room for creativity in STEM for its nature being highly analytical. However, experts say that creativity is the secret sauce for fields such as science, technology engineering, and mathematics, which alters “STEM” to “STEAM” with the letter “A” for arts. Just like a special ingredient to one’s favorite meal, STEM without creativity would be lacking in flavor. Researchers observed that play is crucial for productive thought, and that playing with ideas increases learning.

Educators must encourage students to play with concepts to nurture creativity in them, as it offers them numerous entry points and countless ways of engagement. For STEM subjects to not be terrifying for not-so analytic students, teachers sometimes build metaphorical bridges that can help students find confidence in learning subjects they are not exactly gifted in.

Creativity is expressed and experienced in the classroom when metaphors are used effectively, as they are great tools for teaching and learning. The need to use figure of speech when describing scientific terms only proves that a huge chunk of STEM belongs to creativity. Scientists, teachers, and students can understand phrases that could otherwise be otherworldly because of metaphors, as these are thought-mappings. Educators and students must learn to be confident and comfortable with concepts to see and play with them in new ways.

Image source: creativeeducator.tech4learning.com

Peter Zieve is an inventor with 23 patents and the owner of an innovative business. He is the founder and CEO of Electroimpact, Inc., a world leader in design and manufacturing of aerospace tooling and automation. For more updates like this, subscribe to this blog.