Adding Art To STEM

By Dr. Marciene Mattleman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Five hundred years ago you couldn't tell the difference between artists and engineers according to James Michael Leake, director of engineering graphics at the University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign. They were not separate disciplines. Think of Leonardo da Vinci.

Leake, whose first degree was in art, requires his students to take art, while in most other schools, education has become balkanized and engineering is more specialized and complex - computer and math oriented.

STEM - science, technology, engineering and math - have been pushed for the past decade to meet industrial needs. But colleges like Delaware and Brown where engineering is taught in a broader societal context are changing approaches.

The Rhode Island School of Design in particular is spearheading a national initiative to incorporate art and design - calling it STEM to STEAM - and perhaps it will draw females, greatly lacking in STEM fields.

Read more about engineering in The New York Times.