Abstract
In what creative ways can educators cultivate ingenuity? This article features ten STEAM picture books and their possibilities in the art room and beyond. It equips educators to take on STEAM armed with engaging and inspiring picture books that foster creativity, inventiveness, and more while inspiring students to create, experiment, problem-solve, and construct. There is a focus on one substantive, integrated Art and Science lesson built on the provocative book Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian written by Margarita Engle and illustrated by Julie Paschkis. Readers will leave with one complete STEAM challenge-based lesson plan informed by this book and nine transdisciplinary student-centered seed strategies based on nine other ingenious STEAM picture books. Each STEAM lesson has a contemporary artist connection and focuses on the Studio Habits of Mind.
DOI
10.5642/steam.SATD9321
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Hovanec, Julia L.
(2023)
"Cultivating Ingenuity in Art through STEAM Picture Books,"
The STEAM Journal:
Vol. 5:
Iss.
1, Article 14.
DOI: 10.5642/steam.SATD9321
Available at:
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/steam/vol5/iss1/14
Author/Artist Bio
Julia L. Hovanec has taught art for over 35 years, beginning as an elementary and middle school art teacher in The School District of the City of York. In 2011, she earned her doctorate at Capella University with research focused on pre-service art educators, professional identity construction, and reflective practice. At KU, Dr. Hovanec inspires undergraduate and graduate art education students and general education students. One of her primary roles is supervising student teachers, and she served as department chair from 2017 to 2020 and currently is serving as interim chair. Dr. Hovanec has presented on various topics at local, regional, state, and national conferences and facilitated many professional development workshops and seminars. She shares her research on transdisciplinary teaching and learning, STEAM, literacy, visual literacy, picture books, and reflective practice in those presentations. In 2019 she was honored as the 2019 Outstanding Higher Education Art Educator Award recipient from the Pennsylvania Art Education Association. Recently she was selected to be an NAEA/Crayola Creativity Ambassador.