SXSWedu panel explores integrating art into science projects

He advised teachers to be flexible with their planning and rubrics for classes because often during engineering courses, new information is discovered.

"Don't have a plan that is too far into the future because if you're really doing engineering and design, you're going to learn so much in the process that you're going to rethink what you want to do," he said.

Bruce Wellman, department chair and instructor of aerospace, engineering, chemistry, electrathon and material science at Olathe school district in Kansas, agreed that nontraditional teaching methods can help students learn more effectively.

"In our space, we really want students—in their freshman design and in their sophomore year with me—to have the freedom to fail and yet learn from those mistakes," Wellman said, adding that it is important for the grading rubric to reflect this mentality. For example, if students are asked to build a tower and cannot successfully build one, it does not mean they were not successful with the assignment.

"We were grappling with that because we said if a kid should be able to fail that tower project and yet learn from it, we want to make sure our rubric balances that—the idea that you still have a level of success," Wellman said.

Students in an innovation program in Colorado get the chance to compete with college students in expositions and are causing colleges to rethink freshman curriculum, said Patty Quinones, executive director of innovation programs at the innovation center of St. Vrain Valley School District. She said because of the innovation program that teaches students hands-on STEAM learning, colleges such as Colorado University at Boulder are needing to rethink the level of advancement in freshman courses.

For more information about the panelists' student projects and programs, visit https://sfe.io/r66.