Work in Progress: Multidisciplinary Learning between Engineering, Communication, and Fine Arts Majors through the Creation of Movie Special Effects

Over the past two decades, there has been an increased interest in using multidisciplinary learning as a means of addressing twenty-first century skills to remain globally competitive in the knowledge economy. These twenty-first century skills can be fostered through design-based learning (DBL), a pedagogical approach where knowledge and skills are developed through the construction of a design-based task. Recent movements towards multidisciplinary learning in higher education have called for the design process found science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to be blended with the artistic and creative process of the arts. Often referred to as STEAM or STEM + Art, this approach aims to pique student interest through opportunities to engage in creative thinking and artistic techniques while simultaneously exploring mathematics and scientific concepts. Due to the wide variety of disciplines that engage in design, DBL has a great deal of untapped potential as a pedagogical approach to address the calls for multidisciplinary learning between the arts and engineering. This study followed 23 undergraduate fine arts, communication, and engineering majors who worked in multidisciplinary teams to design, create, film, and edit practical movie special effects (i.e., a special effect produced physically without the use of computer-generated imagery.) Pedagogically framed as DBL, participants engaged in traditional fabrication, such as sculpting clay, casting/molding, metal working, vacuum forming plastics, and woodworking, as well as digital fabrication, including 3-D printing and laser-cutting, to bring their special effect to life. Participants were followed over a period of 14-weeks in multiple fabrication environments, including a theater design studio, fine arts makerspace, and engineering makerspace. Preliminary findings from this work-in-progress qualitative study found that this multidisciplinary project provided an outlet where both engineering and fine art majors could put theory into practice in a safe environment where the outcome did not have to be perfect. Working in multidisciplinary teams provided an opportunity for both engineers and fine art majors to gain an appreciation that both majors work hard but in different ways. The artists described how the experience humanized engineering, but gatekeeping did emerge when it came to engineers painting and making creative choices on the project. While the project did provide opportunities to exchange skills and knowledge between the majors, it also lead to some resentment from the artists about the abundance of resources provided to engineering majors by the campus. Based on these findings, instructors teaching a multidisciplinary courses should be aware of the existing stigmas, possibility for resentment from artists towards the resources available to engineering, and potential gatekeeping that may take place between the disciplines. Introduction Over the past two decades, there has been an increased interest in using multidisciplinary learning as a means of addressing twenty-first century skills to remain globally competitive in the knowledge economy [2], [3], [14]. These twenty-first century skills, which include critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity [6], [12], can be fostered through designbased learning (DBL), a pedagogical approach where knowledge and skills are developed through the construction of a design-based task. Often, DBL is challenge driven, where learners seek to find a solution to a complex problem through a project-based approach [5], [7]. The use of DBL tends to be within a single discipline (e.g., only electrical engineers) [4] or as means of “unifying” or mixing sub-disciplines (e.g., electrical, mechanical, and civil engineers) [11]. Recent movements towards multidisciplinary learning in higher education have called for the design process found science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to be blended with the artistic and creative process of the arts. Often referred to as STEAM or STEM + Art [1], [8], this approach aims to pique student interest through opportunities to engage in creative thinking and artistic techniques while simultaneously exploring mathematics and scientific concepts. Due to the wide variety of disciplines that engage in design, DBL has a great deal of untapped potential as a pedagogical approach to address the calls for multidisciplinary learning between the arts and engineering. This study followed 23 undergraduate fine arts, communication, and engineering majors working in multidisciplinary teams to design, create, film, and edit practical movie special effects (i.e., a special effect produced physically without the use of computer-generated imagery.) Pedagogically framed as DBL, participants engaged in traditional fabrication, such as sculpting clay, casting/molding, metal working, vacuum forming plastics, and woodworking, as well as digital fabrication, including 3-D printing and laser-cutting, to bring their special effect to life. Participants were followed over a period of 14-weeks in multiple fabrication environments, including a theater design studio, fine arts makerspace, and engineering makerspace. This work-in-progress paper focuses on the preliminary results of participant perceptions of working in multidisciplinary teams. These teams consisted of three or four participants and included at least one engineer (electrical or mechanical) and two members from an arts-based discipline (arts, entertainment, and technology [AET], radio, television, and film [RTF], studio art, or theatre and dance [T&D]). This research is guided by the following question: 1) How did multidisciplinary learning shape the participants’ perception of the arts and engineering?