STEM gets a lot of coverage nowadays, even as the acronym is decades old. This quick stand-in for “science, technology, engineering and math” gets stamped on all kinds of things: kits you can order for kids, festivals for students to attend or big initiatives to develop interest. Since I was brought up as a “STEM person,” you might be surprised to know that I get grumpy about how we apply the term. Sometimes it’s promoted to sell something, advertise a quick fix or cater to the demand of industries, and in those cases, I feel like what I love about science is being abused. A competition or recruitment doesn’t always have our best interests in mind.

What I genuinely love about the scientific perspective, what I think STEM should represent, are creative solutions, curious wonders, the human capacity for betterment and collaboration. I developed a lot of this in research labs, but to really learn science requires soaking in a spectrum of perspectives. I’m fortunate to work in a place where scientists across the college work together, creating new programs, collective community projects and initiatives to mentor and work with new researchers and teachers. But we can also reach beyond our STEMified walls.

Probably the best course I ever took to develop myself as a scientist and teacher was Acting I. That was an elective my last semester of college, taken alongside quantum mechanics and a thesis on fluid dynamics. I learned more about representing complex ideas and empathy than in any other course of my academic career, STEM or otherwise.

Long walks in the mountains teach me to notice the sublime. Rocket launches are exciting, but a dewdrop nestled in the fold of a leaf provides a chance to marvel at the ridiculous cohesion of water and lensing of light, not to mention the wily ability of plants to collect moisture. Treks through forest or desert teach me patience and noticing. Awe is something we all benefit from, but it doesn’t get portrayed in a slide presentation or science fair posters.

Some of the best engineers I’ve ever worked with are dancers and choreographers, many of whom have never taken a physics course. While I’d be very happy for them to enroll in one of my classes, it’s stunning to see what designs they’re able to produce in the space of a studio or stage. They design works with precision timing, magical balance and improbable motions, all of which make skyscrapers and bridges seem mundane.

Students often come to my office looking for advice about the best courses to take to complete their science degree or hone their STEM plans. Take art, I suggest. Literature and writing would be ideal. Understand the nature of all things scientific, including sociology, linguistics and stage lighting. Learn to draw, or at least learn how to get better at putting pencil to paper, and you’ll be a better chemist.

While you’re at it, pull a book off the library shelf. In 1952, Kurt Vonnegut wrote about artificial intelligence and how it could alter society; John Steinbeck told stories of climate change and immigration in 1939; Mary Shelly imagined the errs of technological hubris in 1816. Modern challenges are just unsolved problems of old.

Most of all, work with others. Listen in your lab group, but also in your history seminar. That other guy might be wrong, but you can better understand how to work with oppositional views. When someone contributes something you can learn from, be ready to receive that gift.

There’s lots to learn. Often, I feel like we’re in a rush to finish rather than experience. We seem to distill and rush through a checklist. To what end? There’s a full life to experience and lots to learn as a 15-year-old as well as a 50-year-old. The most thoughtful people I know aren’t so because they passed calculus as soon as possible — sometimes quite the opposite. Professionals and citizens grow best from a diversity of ideas and skills much more fundamental than solving an equation. We should take time to look around.

Adam Johnston is a professor of physics and director of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education at Weber State University, where he helps prepare future teachers and supports educators throughout Utah.

Newsletter