I wrote a play for children about integrating the arts into STEM fields − here's what I learned about encouraging creative, interdisciplinary thinking

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Rob Roznowski, Michigan State University

(THE CONVERSATION) Often, science and art are described as starkly different things. That narrative can start early on, with kids encouraged to pursue a STEM – short for science, technology, engineering and math – education that may or may not include an arts education.

As a professor of acting, I’d never thought much about the STEM fields until I received a fellowship to integrate the arts into STEM educational models. I used the opportunity to write and direct a play for elementary schoolers that showed how the arts can improve upon and extend work in STEM fields when properly integrated – but it wasn’t an easy process.

STEM or STEAM?

Whether STEM should be augmented to STEAM – science, technology, engineering, arts and math – with the addition of the arts remains something of a debate.

The origins of STEM education can be traced to as early as the Morrill Act of 1862, which promoted agricultural science and later engineering at land grant universities. In 2001, the National...