Giving Compass' Take:

• Kate Yoder at Grist writes upon the importance of artistic and creative people collaborating with scientists and researchers to help solve our world's problems. 

• A study highlighted in this article concludes that these type of collaborations could catalyze “exciting and meaningful ways of communicating solutions and urgency.” What current collaborations are out there now? 

• Here's an article on using art as a vehicle for student learning. 

It’s no secret that scientists often struggle to explain their research in the most approachable way. Beakers, lab coats, and thermal cyclers broadcast “competent,” but not exactly warm and relatable. Plenty of scientists have upended this stereotype — thanks, Bill Nye — but for some, communicating is like, um, rocket science.

A recent report makes the case that collaborating with people who consider themselves artists — musicians, actors, wordsmiths — could help them out. For issues as broad as climate change, the thinking goes, these creative folks could take academic findings and translate them for people who don’t speak the language of facts and numbers fluently. Take the brainy ideas and make them visual and visceral in the way that art can.

It’s already happening in the world of education, where there’s a push to expand the well-funded focus on science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, to include art. Add the A and you get STEAM. The idea is that people would have a better shot at solving complex problems by combining the head and the heart. It’s no coincidence that successful Nobel laureates are more likely than other scientists to partake in art and other creative activities.

“Art should not be an afterthought,” said Christine O’Connell, who received a doctorate in marine and atmospheric sciences and recently worked at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. “By incorporating the ‘A’ in STEAM you’re giving truth to that. It should be part of it, not just something to make it look pretty at the end.”

Read the full article about science and art by Kate Yoder at Grist.