Steam curriculum: Arts Education As An Integral Part Of Interdisciplinary Learning

Purpose of the Study 
STEAM is still in the process of gaining momentum as an educational model. 
According to Watson (2016), STEAM best practices are still in need of exploration, but, 
“We are beginning to see trends; anecdotally, we see successes when STEAM is blended 
with inquiry methods such as Project-Based Learning and metacognitive constructs such 
as Design Thinking” (p. 9). The seemingly disparate disciplines have similarities that 
would make integration a possibility. Bequette and Bequette (2012) claim that art and 
engineering both require complex cognitive processes and that, “
Art, like engineering, is 
concerned with finding answers to problems and seeking visual solutions using the design 

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RUNNING HEAD: STEAM CURRICULUM PLAN 
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process” (p. 44). There are some schools that are beginning to implement a STEAM 
program, but it is still a new and growing concept. For educators, there are no cohesive 
curriculum plans, nor are there specific STEAM program frameworks available to build a 
STEAM program or curriculum in secondary schools. Ghanbari (2015) stated that, “…at 
this point there is minimal research sharing the process of creating STEAM based 
curriculums and partnerships” (p. 2). Due to this need for more STEAM curriculum 
resources, the purpose of this project is to create a secondary education STEAM 
curriculum plan that utilizes a STEAM framework. This semester-long curriculum plan 
has units that contain cross-curricular standards and goals for projects that will foster 
creative, innovative, and critical thinking. Each unit of the curriculum plan integrates art 
and/or design with a STEM discipline. The overall plan creates a true collaboration 
amongst disciplines and promotes holistic learning by including the Arts with logic-
driven content areas. Since there are not many STEAM tools or resources readily 
available for educators, there are many STEM lesson plans that include an Art element as 
an after-thought to a project (Quiggley & Herro, 2016, p. 411). In contrast, this STEAM 
curriculum starts with an authentic, meaningful Art component that is enhanced with one 
or more STEM components. The overall goal is to demonstrate intentionality in the 
combination of disciplines in order to meet curricular standards and objectives of more 
than one content area.