![]() ![]() Lostritto noted that in pursuit of such learning STEM to STEAM urges project-based, rather than knowledge-based, models of education. “I would love to see K–12 classes that have an artistic component and inspire creativity, whatever the subject.” “Math is part of practicing architecture, but the kind of math that deals with numeric equations is minor in terms of design,” Lostritto says. program, says that a dwindling engagement with the arts in K–12-due to budget cuts and a focus on STEM and other “core” subjects-is hindering students’ path to architecture.Įngagement with art and design, Lostritto says, helps prepare young people for the profession more than math-despite the fact that guidance counselors often look at students’ math grades to determine whether they would make good architects. Carl Lostritto, director of RISD’s M.Arch. One of its main goals is to encourage the integration of art and design into K–12 education. “It’s a specific case,” says Monti, “but for tuition-driven schools with a high proportion of international students, it’s important.”Īt the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), an initiative called “STEM to STEAM” is also working to fold the arts, including architecture, into STEM. The ACSA is also encouraging its members to classify their architecture degrees under STEM categories, because the Department of Homeland Security allows international students completing STEM degrees to work in the United States two additional years-making STEM majors that much more appealing to prospective applicants. Monti says that his organization is attending STEM student fairs and student association meetings-primarily those geared toward middle and high schoolers-to show students that a college major and career in architecture is well-suited for those who want to apply STEM in a real-world context. It’s a great synthesizer of science and technology, art, and the humanities.” This liminal position has meant that architecture has not received the kind of rhetorical or financial support that traditional STEM disciplines have received, likely making it less attractive to prospective students-a situation that the ACSA wants to remedy. As Monti noted, “Architecture is a ‘between’ discipline. ![]() Under his leadership, millions of dollars from both private and federal sources were marked for STEM education.Īrchitecture, though related to the STEM fields, is clearly not part of the acronym. President Barack Obama’s STEM initiatives, for instance, incentivized a concentration on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It’s even better to work such information into K–12 classes, but recent national changes in public schools’ curriculum and areas of focus present challenges. “We want young people to understand that architects design the world at different levels, from the city to buildings to interiors to furniture,” says Michael Monti, Hon. ![]() The campaign has an Instagram hashtag-#imadethat-that shows prospective students what architects do and create. The feedback spurred the ACSA to launch a communications campaign, dubbed “ Study Architecture,” with the goal of increasing applications to and enrollment in its more than 200 member schools. It turned out that the student respondents had limited understanding of what an architect does, though they often noted that they knew it takes a long time to become one. In 2013, the ACSA hired a research firm to suss out what high school students know about the profession. Yet more fundamental structural changes are also required, and some are addressing this need by making the profession easier to join and more welcoming to largely untapped populations: women, people of color, and those from low-income families. How can architecture attract more interest from the K–12 set? Organizations, degree-granting institutions, and individual architects and teachers are working to make architecture more appealing to young people through communications campaigns and outreach programs. The problem may worsen, as education experts are predicting that the country will produce fewer high school graduates in the coming years. The trend is due to a variety of factors, including students’ lack of knowledge of architecture, the long and expensive road to becoming an architect, and recent changes to U.S. ![]() The main culprit: Other majors are beating out architecture-particularly those that lead directly to jobs, such as engineering, the hard sciences, and those related to health. The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) reported that enrollment in architecture degree programs has dropped about 10 percent in the last five years. While the profession of architecture has rebounded since the 2008 recession, with plentiful postings on job boards, the number of young people pursuing the vocation is lagging. ![]()
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