Updated: This story was updated to clarify what some of the astronauts were the first to do.
As Artemis II prepares to splash down off the coast of California this week, some educators and advocates say the mission has given them the opportunity to reinforce the importance of teaching and learning math and science while integrating subjects such as art that spark creativity.
The Artemis II mission is the first human flight to the moon since 1972. The crew—made of four astronauts, including the first woman, person of color, and non-American to fly below low Earth orbit and near the Moon—launched April 1 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
In addition to the astronauts, there is another traveler onboard the Artemis II—Rise, the Moon Mascot, a small figure that resembles a plush toy. Rise was designed by 8-year-old student Lucas Ye of Mountain View, Calif. Rise was selected from the Moon Mascot contest from more than 2,600 design submissions from over 50 countries, including K–12 students, according to NASA.
Rise was thoughtfully designed to represent the Earthrise moment from the Apollo 8 mission as well as other past and future moon missions, according to ABC News.
Teachers and advocates spoke to Education Week about Artemis II and the mascot. They said that Rise is a representation of how creativity is integrated into science and a way for students to express their excitement about the launch.
“Anytime we can draw in students to current events and science like Artemis II and ask them to think about what’s happening or create something like the mascot, we’re giving them an opportunity to think not only about what’s happening today but about the future,” said Christine Royce, professor of education at Shippensburg University and former president of the National Science Teaching Association.
The mascot “creates that lifelong statement of space and with the art in this mission,” she said.
How art becomes integrated into science
Interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects in schools has typically surged during moments when innovation in those areas was seen as critical to national prosperity and keeping up with global competition in defense, technology, and other areas. Examples include the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of the Sputnik satellite, the creation of NASA in 1958, and the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, the National Science Foundation coined the word STEM, according to the Dottie Rose Foundation, a nonprofit designed to increase the number of women in math- and science-related subjects.
In 2006, the addition of the arts made the acronym STEAM, which is common in schools today. One reason is that, “the humanities and the arts weren’t getting a lot of attention when STEM came out,” Royce said. “But the more important reason is because, very often, in science or engineering, we are utilizing visual design aspects, and the arts help out with that.”
There’s another reason it made sense for schools and math and science advocates to broaden the term. There’s a greater need for holistic skills in the workforce today that tech talent, on its own, cannot deliver, said Sally Baker, CEO of the Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM.
“The one thing that AI and computers can’t replace is creativity, and that’s the human touch, that creative, innovative spirit comes through practicing that integrated learning, especially with the arts,” she said.
“We know [the arts] challenge our brains to think about things differently through a different pathway.”
The benefits of STEAM
One of the main purposes of STEAM is to have students learn different disciplines and apply them to another, said Baker.
For example, using visual arts knowledge combined with science, technology, engineering and math is an essential skill to design a bridge in an engineering class.
By accessing different subject area disciplines, students are practicing what adults do in their jobs, post-education, added Baker.
Baker gave the example of an accountant, whose job mostly involves math, but it’s also necessary for accountants to know how to write reports to explain their reasoning and what the numbers are actually showing.
“You’re always accessing multiple subjects, and that’s what we do in our real life,” she said. “That’s one of the purposes of STEAM—to make school feel a little bit more real-life.”
One earth science teacher at Washington Liberty High School in Arlington, Va., Denise Wright, is a big advocate of the use of arts in the subject of science.
“It’s a great way for students to display their learning, because science and art go hand in hand,” she said. “They both require a lot of creativity, ingenuity, [and] curiosity.”
Some classroom projects in Wright’s class have included creating a 3–D version of the layers of the atmosphere and paintings or posters of the geologic time scale through geologic history, she told Education Week.
Design assignments that include art also increase engagement, Wright told Education Week.
“We have students who ask for extended time on projects when it’s an art project because they really want to do an excellent job,” she said.
“If you are a science teacher, you should be incorporating STEAM in your classroom—it’s fundamental,” said Wright.
