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This is a general talk given by John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)  www.risd.eduand former professor of computer science and media arts at MIT, in ourtown  recently. RISD is a small but well known college of arts and design in the US. Her graduates are engaged in commercial, graphics,  and computer arts and design.

STEM stand for Science, Technology, Engineering,and Mathematics. The need for STEM in modern education is without question. It is in fact part of the educational policy of the US government in her effort to improve  citizen’s knowledge and competence in the modern world. Maeda’s message is that STEM is not enough, we need to add ARTS to STEM and push for STEAM instead.  Of course, he is helping to publicize his school.But he has a point when we realize that the iPhone probably would not have been invented just by STEM but only with STEAM. Without the arts, our world will be far less interesting.

There are more materials on the web for RISD and STEM toSTEAM. Just google the subjects.