This is the first year the Arts will be included in our event.  The purpose of creating a STEAM Event is to showcase opportunities to apply the fine arts in STEM fields.  Students and teachers can participate in this year’s event by creating a unique display or collaborating with their site’s Innovation Fair coordinators and contributing an Arts component.  

A STEAM-centered project can focus on a specific skill, product or demonstration and should highlight the elements that connect STEM and the Arts.  This is an opportunity to teach the skill to event participants or display the product and the processes students followed.

There are two ways to approach this:

1. Highlight the science/ technology/engineering/math components of a fine arts skill
2. Use fine arts to convey STEM content

When considering the first approach

1. Focus: Select a specific fine arts skill. It’s important to have a clear focus and relation between STEM and the Arts content.
2. Detail: Select the elements contributing to successfully executing the skill.  These elements are likely fundamental to your content area.
3. Instruction: How do you teach this skill or process effectively?
4. Application: Are you able to model the skill in the project?

For the second approach

1. Focus: Select a specific STEM concept, process, or research finding.
2. Detail: Use a fine art medium to convey the key details of the concept, process, or findings.
3. Instruction: Have clear instructional goals for the artistic work or expression (what is being conveyed and what is the purpose of the work).
4. Application: Integrate practical application of the concept, process, or research finding.

The projects will be submitted and displayed in zFairs.  Students can turn in images or videos.  Slides that introduce the project and document the process of its creation will be helpful.