dance, steam, & dancing PHD’S

Have you heard the acronym STEM? How about STEAM? If these are new to you, STEM refers to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, and STEAM adds a fifth magic ingredient - the ARTS.

So what do right-brain arts have to do with left-brain science and math? I invite you to take a moment to consider any parallels that occur to you… Maybe this includes critical thinking, flexible thinking, creativity, and innovation. Maybe it includes art making as a tool to help students comprehend complex concepts and processes, giving them a way to make abstract ideas tangible and concrete. Or maybe, you are envisioning the aspects that the arts can add - which STEM might not otherwise include - such as intuitive thinking, empathy, story telling, and meaning-making.

As a lead teaching artist with CoTA, science is my favorite academic content to integrate creative dance with. The creative thinking needed to translate such phenomena as atoms changing state, a plant’s leaves breathing air, mountains growing over a billion years, or an elephant herd standing around a a fallen companion, into movement is IMMENSE.

And it’s not just in classrooms that dance is being seen as beneficial for science learning. Dance Your Ph.D began in 2008 with scientist John Bohannon. His modest proposal that dancing your Ph.D can help scientists better articulate and explain science to everyday folk by translating it into accessible and enjoyable dance has become an annual competition, held by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science, and Primer.ai.

Watch the dance with the scientist who began it all and maybe you will get hooked on integrating dance with science too…