Constructing Ninja Sculpture Pants: Indigenous STEAM education at the intersection of art and science

This article describes an approach to STEAM education in which art is viewed as a unique discipline with distinct ways of thinking. The researchers developed and evaluated a STEAM education programme to explore how art and science work together to expand and accelerate inventive thinking among Native American middle school students who participated in American Indian Services (AIS) Pre-Freshman Engineering Program (PREP). An important focus of this project was the unique local environment and culture that included Diné culture in Gallup, NM. We hypothesize that integrating culturally responsive, transdisciplinary art into an existing STEM summer programme will increase student engagement and understanding of art and science as ways of inquiry, personal exploration and constructing knowledge. We assumed that art thinking can enhance students’ sense of autonomy and competence. Our primary research question was: How does a culturally responsive, art-integrated STEAM curriculum influence student thinking, learning and understanding of connections between art and science? The research contributes to developing and evaluating out-of-school-time STEAM learning opportunities, adds to the knowledge of how to connect culture to STEM education through arts integration and contributes to improved educational outcomes through art and design integration in rural Indigenous communities.