Ella Reiser, who teaches math at St. Joseph’s College on Long Island, agrees that popular media can
be used to engage students. Her recent book, Teaching Mathematics Using Popular Culture (2015,
McFarland & Company) honors the subject strands of Common Core, and offers educators examples
from current fictional media that students will find meaningful.
Participation in the arts fosters creativity, which is a key to innovation. With our STEAM education
movement gaining in momentum, more of us are realizing that the arts can boost engagement in
science, technology, engineering and math.
As blunt as this may sound, the success of our future economy relies on having more young people
choose careers in the sciences. Supported by our current administration’s Educate to Innovate program
which brings together private and public leaders, we must prepare for the demands of tomorrow’s work
force.
Since fiction has always served as a portal to other worlds, we must also let it excite our students
about the domains of science, technology, engineering and math. By experiencing the arts, our
students will believe in their learning.
As a music educator, Josette Abruzzini participated in several Arts Genesis Catalyst
Symposiums during the mid-1990’s and learned the value of using the arts to access and
develop multiple intelligences. She became a classroom teacher in Maplewood, New
Jersey, where she often used the arts to provide more engaging academic experiences for
her fifth graders. Along the way, Josette became intrigued by 17th century scientist Antoni
van Leeuwenhoek. Since her recent retirement from teaching she has been writing a novel
inspired by van Leeuwenhoek’s life and the animalcules he discovered with his magnifiers.
She currently lives with her husband in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania.
STEAMed Magazine
44
July 2016 Edition