The Georgia Tech Digital Media program is conducting a workshop and developing a website that fosters collaborations among researchers in the learning sciences community who study informal learning, practitioners in STEM-related informal learning environments (ILEs), and professional artists whose work incorporates STEM concepts. This workshop explores how the intersection of culturally-situated, arts-based learning (ABL), informal STEM learning, and digital media can be leveraged to create higher interest, motivation and learning in STEM among under-represented minorities (URMs). The workshop investigates the potential for combining culturally-situated design tools (CSDTs), contemporary art and crafts, and STEM concepts as a means to engage URM learners in STEM.
The primary goal of the workshop is to engage a dialog among STEM and ABL experts, professional artists and cultural practitioners whose work integrates STEM concepts through its content, methodology, and technological implementation. Another goal of the workshop is to develop a professional community that can advance understanding of the potential impacts of culturally-situated design strategies and to present arts-based learning and research that can extend participation and understanding of STEM to more diverse audiences.
The 2014 Workshop for Advancing STEM through Culturally Situated Arts?Based Learning explored how culturally situated (CS), arts?based learning (ABL), informal science, technology (digital media), engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning can create more interest, promote motivation and encourage learning in STEM among underrepresented minorities. This workshop brought together experts in STEM and ABL, professional artists, and cultural practitioners to discuss and build sustained collaborations as a means to generate ideas and ways in which to encourage underrepresented minorities to engage in STEM. CSABL focused on free?choice learning, which occurs outside of the classroom, often observed in museums, community?based organizations, science centers, and in different art mediums. Keeping free?choice learning in mind, the workshop focused on three areas and aimed to develop tools within these three areas. The three areas include: cultural heritage, contemporary arts and crafts, and creative projects that incorporate cultural heritage and digital media. This includes art made and organized by underrepresented minorities for their own enjoyment using technology. Cultural forms such as hip?hop develop in urban environments, are often social, and encourage individuals to be expressive and creative. CSABL organizers aspired for the workshop to build on participants’ expertise in STEM, culture, and different creative mediums, and in turn develop new tools and techniques that would promote interest in STEM among underrepresented minorities. Organizers projected that these goals would be met through potential and ongoing collaborations between workshop participations, and that attending the workshop would influence participants’ future work and actions. Workshop organizers also expected to learn more about the effects of CSABL on STEM education and about ways in which learning environments may change specifically for underrepresented minorities.
