Do Students Need to Learn Art to Succeed at Science?

To begin, one student would yell like a unruly cowboy towards the student to their right, and that student would then "pass on" the yelp to the next student in the circle; anyone who didn't give their all might lose their spot.

The yelping was an exercise in an acting and improvisation session designed by Irondale for middle-school students enrolled in the Science of Smart Cities summer program at the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering. It's one of 10 Irondale programs taking place this summer for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) students throughout the city. Irondale actors and educators say that the presentation skills students cultivate during the course of these sessions will embolden them as they embark on further education and careers in STEM

"In science, I don't care if you're an academic or an innovator." he said, as the students grew more emboldened with their personalized yee-haws. "The ability to get in front of people and present is incredibly important."

Amanda Hinkle, Irondale's director of education, said that the development of students' presentation skills wasn't always emphasized in the course of a school-year STEM education.

"A lot of it is self awareness, presenting your best self," she said. "It's about being able to authentically say why the STEM material means something to you."

Irondale's STEM workshops were born out of a collaboration between the theater company and a robotics class at Fort Greene Preparatory Academy in Brooklyn. In robotics competitions, Fort Greene's team scored high marks for its academic comprehension but struggled when tasked with publicly presenting its work. The school principal contacted Irondale to work with the robotics students on improving their presentation skills, and the team subsequently won first prize in Research at the 2013 FIRST LEGO League Brooklyn Qualifier.

The classes Irondale offers are considered STEAM programs, a variation on the STEM acronym with an added ‘a' for the arts. STEAM advocates argue that integrating art and design lessons into STEM education benefits the students' educational development and career prospects.

Critics worry that while the arts may be a vital discipline in their own right, incorporating them into a STEM education could dilute the core verities of science and engineering that students must understand.</div>