Designing a Color Aesthetic Education Curriculum Inspired by the Forbidden City: An Exploratory Integration of PBL and STEAM

Traditional color aesthetic education is vital for cultivating cultural understanding and creativity in students. This study designs and implements an interdisciplinary curriculum in primary schools that integrates PBL(Project-Based Learning) and STEAM(Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) approaches, using the Forbidden City’s screen walls as a case study to enhance students’ aesthetic perception, creativity, and cultural identity. Current aesthetic education often relies on passive learning, limiting students’ active participation and interdisciplinary exploration. This research develops a curriculum that employs PBL to immerse students in real-world projects centered on the Forbidden City’s color system, while STEAM integration bridges art with scientific and technical skills. This method increases student engagement, enhances creativity, and deepens cultural heritage connections, offering a valuable model for modern education. Implementation in diverse primary school settings showed marked improvements in aesthetic perception, artistic expression, creative practice, and cultural understanding. This work highlights the potential of interdisciplinary, project-based curricula to enrich aesthetic education, bridge resource gaps, and provide a scalable solution for cultural preservation and educational innovation.