CONFERENCES

Three day-and-a-half conferences were held in the spring of 2011, in partnership with many local institutions.

June 14-15 San Diego: CALIT2

Presentations, reports, and resources from our culminating San Diego conference are available by clicking the "Highlights" button above.

May 16-17 Chicago: The Illinois Institute of Technology

The Chicago conference was a tremendous success: the "Highlights" button will take you to presentations, reports, and other resources.

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April 6-7 Washington DC:  The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History  

Click on the "Highlights" button to see Presentations, reports, resources from the very successful Washington DC Conference.   

INFORMATION ON TODD SILER'S METAPHORMING KEYNOTE WORKSHOP

Conference Design

The conferences focused on three key areas:

Educational Practice. Demonstrations by educators of hands-on workshops, new tools and resources that have proved effective, and a variety of successful pedagogical approaches that integrate arts-based learning into science education

Workforce Development. Explorations and real-world examples of the roles that creativity, critical thinking, and collaborative and communication skills play in STEM skill development. Business leaders and educators will discuss and demonstrate ways in which the arts can be used to strengthen these key elements of a competitive 21st-Century American workforce.

Research. What do we know and what do we not yet know about how arts-based learning can most effectively contribute to science education, STEM skill development, and an innovative and competitive American workforce? These sessions will outline a research agenda for further quantitative studies.

The conferences also featured interactive and arts-based plenary activities by some of the world's leading practitioners of arts-based learning. These activities gave participants first-hand experience in how artistic skills, processes and experiences can foster creative thinking and interdisciplinary collaboration.

The conferences were designed for the following sectors:

Science educators working in formal and informal settings (museums, media, after-school programs, camps, schools, and more).

Teaching artists and arts teachers in all disciplines
  
Museum Professionals 
  
Corporate leaders and policymakers interested in strengthening the scientific literacy, innovative capacity and competitive position of the 21st-Century American workforce
  
Scientists, mathematicians, engineers and artists pursuing interdisciplinary arts/science integration

 
Educational Researchers interested in investigating the effectiveness of arts-based approaches to science education.