Design for STEAM: Creating Participatory Art with Purpose

Innovation is simultaneously reflected in the variety and diversity of art. Over the past century, art forms have progressed along a continuum from static to dynamic, and then to interactive and participatory. The therapeutic value of creating and engaging in all of these art forms has also been identified. Furthermore, educators have recognized the profound value of art and design within the context of scientific and technical learning, and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) has emerged as an educational philosophy with a strong base of support. This paper defines and articulates participatory elements of STEAM projects, and provides guidance for how to design art installations for learning that are fully participatory. To do this, we 1) present emerging social and organizational models that align with STEAM, and then 2) develop a design framework for creating new participatory art that meets the goals of STEAM learning

From STEM to STEAM: Reframing What it Means to Learn

Although involvement in art and design have been shown to play an essential role in catalyzing STEM research, true integration is still an area of active research. The realization of STEM education via STEAM lends itself to interactive and participatory dialogic art; this juncture provides a nonjudgmental space to cultivate the question-making aspect of inquiry, the ability to comfortably hold uncertainty, and a sensitivity to the process of discovery. Even though STEM education can (and often is) inquiry-based, assessments still tend to focus on whether knowledge or skills have been obtained, and this is no different than the current general practice in the arts. Consequently, what does it mean to learn in a STEAM context? This article presents a multifaceted view which can be used to organize meaningful assessments for STEAM learning

Foundations for Quality Management of Scientific Data Products

The costs of making incorrect scientific inferences based on faulty data can be substantial and far-reaching: errors can be subtle, inappropriate conclusions can go unchallenged for years in the literature, and follow-on research may be critically jeopardized. Because most scientific research in the United States is federally funded, the propagation of errors through research studies imbues high costs to taxpayers over time; errors in scientific conclusions, and any technologies based on them, will require rework at some point in the future. Better scientific data quality means more accurate conclusions can be made more quickly, and benefits can be realized by society more readily. To improve scientific data quality, and provide continuous quality assessment and management, the nature of scientific data and the processes that produce it must be articulated. The purpose of this research is to provide a conceptual foundation for the management of data quality as it applies to scientific data products, specifically those generated by the large-scale instrumentation and facilities that will populate the data centers of the future. Definitions for data product and data quality tailored to the context of scientific decision making are proposed, given two typical scenarios: 1) collecting observational data, and 2) performing archive-based research. Two relevant extensions to the total quality management (TQM) philosophy, total information quality management (TIQM), and total data quality management (TDQM) are then examined to determine if the management of scientific data quality differs from the management of other data or information. Recommendations for planning, assessment/assurance, control, and continuous improvement are proposed, focusing on designing quality into the production process rather than relying on mass inspection

TWiki as a Platform for Collaborative Software Development Management

The software development process in Green Bank is managed in six-week development cycles, where two cycles fall within one quarter. Each cycle, a Plan of Record is devised which outlines the team's commitments, deliverables, technical leads and scientific sponsors. To be productive and efficient, the team must not only be able to track its progress towards meeting commitments, but also to communicate and circulate the information that will help it meet its goals effectively. In the early summer of 2003, the Software Development Division installed a wiki web site using the TWiki product to improve the effectiveness of the team. Wiki sites contain web pages that are maintainable using a web interface by anyone who becomes a registered user of the site. Because the site naturally supports group involvement, the Plan of Record on the wiki now serves as the central dashboard for project tracking each development cycle. As an example of how the wiki improves productivity, software documentation is now tracked as evidence of the software deliverable. Written status reports are thus not required when the Plan of Record and associated wiki pages are kept up to date. The wiki approach has been quite successful in Green Bank for document management as well as software development management, and has rapidly extended beyond the bounds of the software development group fo