A Review of ACD-STEMM Integration
Teil 3: controlled studies of
additional transdisciplinary bridges
for arts-science pedagogy and
general conclusions

Robert Root-Bernstein, Ania Pathak
and Michele Root-Bernstein

This is Part 3 of a three-part analysis of studies concerning
useful ways in which visual, plastic, musical and perform-
ing arts; crafts; and design (referred to for simplicity as
arts-crafts-design, or ACD) may improve learning of sci-
enz, Technologie, engineering, mathematics and medicine
(STEMM) and increase professional success in these subjects.
Teil 1 outlines eight “bridges” that STEMM profession-
als say they use to link ACD to their work and why they
so do. Teil 2 summarizes pedagogical studies that test the
efficacy of Bridge 1 as to whether ACD exercise of certain
“tools for thinking”—described by Root-Bernstein and Root-
Bernstein in their book Sparks of Genius (1999)—improves
aspects of STEMM learning. Teil 3 analyzes whether the re-
maining seven bridges that enable STEMM professionals to
utilize ACD professionally have similar pedagogical benefits.
Bridge 2. ACD-derived implements, methods and mate-
Rial. Many physical implements (e.g. classical or electronic
Instrumente, brushes, lathes, looms), methods of using them
(e.g. visualizing or recording sound, lace-making, silk screen
printing, annealing) and materials (e.g. Klang, paints, plas-
ters, thread, wood, metal) tie ACD historically to STEMM
disciplines. According to highly successful STEMM profes-
sionals (see Part 1 of this analysis), any of these may form
useful connections between ACD and STEMM practice. Un-
fortunately, we can find no formal, well-controlled studies
of the pedagogical use of this bridge in STEMM education.
Bridge 3. ACD-generated phenomena. Sometimes art-
ists, working as artists, discover or invent new phenomena
that STEMM professionals have never encountered before,
which then become the focus of STEMM research. The in-
vention of perspective drawing and its broader application to
anamorphic transformations are excellent examples of how
geometry and the arts have fruitfully benefited each other. In-
deed, because many STEMM educators draw upon these and
other ACD-generated phenomena in their teaching, there is
an extensive and robust literature about the connections. Noch

Robert Root-Bernstein* (Erzieher), Department of Physiology, 567 Wilson Road,
Room 2201, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
Email: rootbern@msu.edu.

Ania Pathak (Forscher), Michigan State University Neuroscience Graduate Program,
Giltner Hall, 293 Farm Lane, Room 108, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
48824, USA.; Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, East Fee
Hall, 965 Fee Road, Room A136, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
Email: pathakan@msu.edu.

Michele Root-Bernstein (Erzieher), Department of Theatre, Michigan State University,
East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. Email: rootber3@msu.edu.

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed

Supplemental files associated with this issue are available at
www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/leon/52/5.

again we find no well-controlled formal studies of the efficacy
of this pedagogical approach.

Bridge 4. Novel ACD principles and structures. Artists
working as artists sometimes discover basic principles un-
derlying natural phenomena or invent novel structures in the
course of their work. These principles and structures can and
do provide valuable insights for STEMM professionals and
sogar, in manchen Fällen, underpin Nobel-prize-winning research.
Jedoch, the use of such principles and structures has rarely,
if ever, been used for teaching purposes and never in well-
controlled studies.

Bridge 5. Experience with the creative process. Some
STEMM professionals have asserted that avocational prac-
tice of ACD helps prepare them to understand and utilize the
creative process more effectively in their STEMM professions
(see Part 1). We found only three sets of well-controlled or
well-documented studies of how formal training in ACD-
related creative processes impacts STEMM learning, all of
which demonstrated clear benefits in terms of increased
flexibility, improved learning outcomes and transferability
of skills to new problems.

Bridge 6. Transdisciplinary aesthetic principles.

STEMM professionals often utilize aesthetic criteria in the
development and analysis of STEMM research. Only one
well-controlled study has been carried out using ACD-based
aesthetics to inform STEMM learning, but it reported highly
significant effects: “Teaching for transformative, aesthetic ex-
perience fosters more, and more enduring, learning of sci-
ence concepts. Investigations of transfer also suggest students
learning for transformative, aesthetic experiences learn to see
the world differently” [1].

Bridge 7. Mnemonic devices; recording and communica-
tion techniques. Tools and techniques that improve memory
or the ability to record experience and retrieve knowledge
and that enhance communication are highly valued in all
disciplines. No surprise, the arts provide a good many meth-
ods of use to the sciences. These have been demonstrated by
several dozen well-controlled studies to be effective across
the complete spectrum of STEMM subjects.

Bridge 8. Recreation leading to re-creation. While many
STEMM professionals describe their ACD-related activities
in obviously utilitarian terms (Bridges 1–7), some view ACD
as simple recreation, as a means of freeing their minds from
professional ruts and concerns. Like play (a Bridge 1 thinking
tool), recreation has no direct vocational role. Jedoch, beide
recreation and play can function indirectly as learning or
problem-solving strategies, hence as re-creation. We found
no formal studies of the use of play or recreation to improve
STEMM learning.

We identify significant lacunae in the pedagogical re-
suchen. The best and most abundant studies of ACD-STEMM
integration are in the medical and engineering fields, meistens
at the college or professional school level. A broad, but not
deep, set of studies exist for college sciences but not for col-
lege mathematics. There is a paucity of well-controlled stud-
ies for K–12 students but also some outstanding models for
future “gold standard” studies.

496 LEONARDO, Bd. 52, NEIN. 5, S. 496–497, 2019

https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_01581 ©2017 ISAST

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Our review of attempts to utilize ACD as nonspecific po-
tentiators of STEMM cognition (that is to say, as capable of
generally benefiting IQ, or mathematics ability, or creativ-
ität) reveals their inevitable failure. Simply adding ACD in
pastiche fashion does not improve STEMM learning. Inte-
gration based on connecting skills, Materialien, principles and
processes does. In der Tat, a handful of “gold standard” studies
demonstrate that transfer between disciplines only works and
works well when both teachers and students understand the
point of bridging ACD and STEMM. Daher, the first step in
any pedagogical integration must be to make explicit its spe-
cific purpose, its particular methods and its expected results,
including how transfer is to be implemented and assessed.
The second step is to beware the limitations of any par-
ticular type of ACD-STEMM integration. Mnemonic devices
improve acquisition and retention of specific knowledge
but not the transfer of learning to new situations, wohingegen
abstractions and analogies do not improve acquisition and
retention of knowledge but do improve transfer and applica-

tion of learning. Drawing can improve observing, Bildgebung,
Musterung, modeling and many other STEMM skills but only
if taught in such a way that the drawing skill connects with
the particular learning goal.

The need for integrated learning cannot be overstressed.
Real-world problems demand creative thinkers able to con-
nect knowledge and know-how from many different fields
into real-world solutions. Effective ACD-STEMM integra-
tion can pave the way for the kind of transdisciplinary educa-
tion that can meet tomorrow’s challenges.

Reference

1 M. Girod, T. Twyman and S. Wojcikiewicz, “Teaching and Learning
Science for Transformative, Aesthetic Experience,” Journal of Science
Teacher Education 21, NEIN. 7, 801–824 (2010).

Manuscript received 31 Marsch 2016.

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