HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	168
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

URGING THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO ADOPT A STEAM CURRICULUM BY IMPLEMENTing ARTS-BASED COURSES INTO THE EXISTING STEM CURRICULUm.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, many of Hawaii's public schools have implemented courses in science, technology, engineering, and math, also known as the STEM fields, in their curriculum; and

 

     WHEREAS, many curriculums are designed to solely focus on outcome-based results and potential economic impact, which may compromise innovation and creativity when applied to the STEM fields; and

 

     WHEREAS, studies suggest that including arts education in STEM-based curriculums can improve and enhance the curriculum, and assist students in creatively solving problems in the STEM fields; and

 

WHEREAS, arts education is not confined to traditional methods of teaching art, such as instructing students in how to paint, create pottery, or build crafts; and

 

WHEREAS, arts education can include the use of artistic expression to teach other subjects, such as using music to teach social sciences, poetry to teach languages, or art history to teach math; and

 

WHEREAS, in Hawaii, arts education can include visual arts, music, theatre, dance, Hawaiian and Polynesian studies, Hawaiian language, native Hawaiian culture, native Hawaiian traditional and customary practices, and physical education; and

 

WHEREAS, the Hawaii Department of Education website states that adding arts into the STEM environment provides powerful pathways for learning and is a natural component of the engineering design process; and

 

WHEREAS, some Hawaii schools have already taken steps to add arts education into STEM-based curriculums, thus adopting the acronym, STEAM; and

 

     WHEREAS, STEAM curriculums function on the goal of instilling the belief that every individual should contribute to personal and global successes, or the common good, in ways that are personally meaningful and fulfilling and to the best of their individual capabilities; and

 

     WHEREAS, if the goal of curriculum development is to facilitate a more creative, future-oriented, and progressive world, the State would benefit from less outcome-driven thinking and a movement toward the inclusion of arts education in curriculums; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2016, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Education is requested to adopt a STEAM curriculum by implementing arts-based courses into the existing STEM curriculum; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Education is requested to encourage middle schools and high schools to incorporate arts education into at least twenty per cent of their curriculum; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, Superintendent of Education, and Chairperson of the Board of Education.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

DOE; STEM; STEAM; Arts Education