STEM & ARTS INTEGRATED LEARNING

Field Notes: Impact STEM and the Case for Teaching Scientists to See

On June 5 and 6, STEM educators from community colleges across Wyoming gathered in Casper as part of the Impact STEM transfer initiative — and ALCES was glad to be in the room.

Working in conjunction with LAMP, the Learning Actively Mentorship Program, we continue to support and provide guidance on arts-integrated pedagogy: the practices that bring close looking, creative risk, and open-ended inquiry into STEM classrooms. The premise is simple but easy to forget. Seeing carefully, thinking out loud, and wondering without a fixed answer aren't soft skills tacked onto science — they're how science gets done in the first place.

In Casper, we arranged group outings to ART 321 and the Nicolaysen Art Museum, inviting educators to step out from behind the lectern and make something themselves. Practicing artmaking while they practiced seeing, thinking, and wondering gave them a felt sense of what they're asking of their own students — the productive discomfort of not knowing yet, and the attention that good observation requires whether the object is a sculpture or a slide under a microscope.

Educators who make are educators who can teach others to make. We're proud to keep showing up for this work, and for the teachers building a more curious, more creative STEM education across the state.

Partners include: Impact STEM transfer, LAMP, ART 321, The Nicolaysen Museum, Natrona County Health Trust