From Indiana STEM Grows Indiana Initiative
For the past several years, there has been an aggressive push for the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects in our schools and community. Emphasis on these subjects often overshadow other subjects.
The STEM subjects have also morphed to now be labeled as STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics plus Art + Design) in order to recognize the importance of the role that art and design play in a community, and how they are often related and interact to the original STEM areas.
Indiana has many pioneers and leaders throughout its history that championed STEAM before there was such a formal designation. The automobile industry expanded with Studebaker in South Bend. Indiana toolmakers invented new ways of farming and helped manufacturers. Although the telephone is credited to Alexander Graham Bell, several inventors in Indiana helped to shape the modern telephone with new technology. Indiana architecture is illustrated in New Harmony as part of its creation of an ideal community.
The Crown Point Community Library Indiana Room celebrates Lake County and Indiana STEAM innovation with its collection. There are numerous volumes documenting the efforts and achievements of Hoosiers in the STEM/STEAM fields and many others. A few titles are featured below; however, a trip to the Indiana Room will result in many more.
Indiana Built Motor Vehicles by Wallace Spencer Huffman
Indiana Toolmakers and Their Tools by Jack Devitt
The Telephone and Its Several Inventors by Lewis Coe
Indiana Scientists by Stephen Sargent Visher
Divided Paths, Common Ground: The Story of Mary Matthews and Lella Gaddis, Pioneering Purdue Women who Introduced Science into the Home by Angie Klink
Harmonist Construction by Don Blair
