Like toothpaste and orange juice, some things are just not meant to go together. It has become a popular belief that STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and the Liberal Arts should be included in this category of things that just don’t mix. As a graduate with two liberal arts degrees and a persistent love of, and fascination with, the STEM fields, I couldn’t disagree more. I’d say STEM and the liberal arts are less like toothpaste and orange juice, and (continuing on the breakfast theme) more like milk and cereal.
My name is Alex Anthony and I am the Design and Communications Officer here at Sci Chic. Though this is my first blog post, I’ve been with the company since last November. A lot of people wonder how someone as decidedly right-brained as me can also be passionate about STEM education and outreach. To them I say, the alleged gap between these two subjects is not as wide as most believe.
All too often it seems people take one side or the other in the division between liberal arts and STEM. It’s a commonly held stereotype that artists are terrible at math, and another that engineers are terrible at writing. I feel this spectrum is inherently flawed, however. Being good at one thing doesn’t detract from being good at something else. Engineers don’t have to be poor writers because they’re more formally trained in math and science, just as artists don’t have to be useless at math because their education lies in a different form of critical thinking.
The way I see it, every skill in life builds on every other. Everything is fluid and constantly intermingling. To further our food metaphors, think of yourself like a giant crockpot and each skill you learn is another ingredient placed inside. Everything inside the pot lends some of its flavor to each other thing.
Thus, every skill we practice helps us, to some degree, with every other skill. Now, I’m not saying my degree in Creative Writing makes me better at math. As well, nowhere in the studies for my Communications degree did we discuss the core elements of engineering. But I don’t see that as a negative. These degrees have taught me skills that aid in my appreciation of STEM, as well as my ability to educate about its merits.
An education in the liberal arts has taught me to look for meaning and beauty, in everything around me. In the STEM fields, I see beauty. I see the elegant simplicity of Bohr’s Atomic Model. I see the fruits of innovation and curiosity in the diodes and oscillators of every printed circuit board. I see the pure, unrestrainable spirit of exploration in the messages carried by the Voyager probes. Science is beautiful, you only have to look.
I believe Sci Chic is a wonderful example of what can happen when you combine STEM and the liberal arts. Through showing the world the beauty and fashion in STEM fields, we can remove the stigmas attached to these fields. Stigmas that say STEM is primarily for men. Stigmas that say STEM is boring or too difficult. Stigmas that say STEM is only for left-brained people and artists aren’t able to be good at math, or science, or engineering.
I believe an artist’s art can be improved through a greater understanding of science, just as an engineer’s work can be improved through a course in art appreciation. Put simply, everything we learn is valuable. It might not be obvious, but it’s there, you just have to look. So the next time you hear two things that don’t go together take a moment and think about it. Maybe they do and it’s just not immediately apparent. Except for toothpaste and orange juice. Do yourself a favor, and never mix those.
