Fine Arts

A tire designer uses art, math, and engineering to create safe, cost-effective tires.

Students solve a real-world mathematical problem involving the area of a triangle and learn about how energy conservation is applied to architectural design using video from Treasures of New York: Hearst Tower. Utilizing text-dependent discussion questions and classroom activities called “teaching tips,” students have an opportunity to take a deep dive into mathematics, STEM content and the arts.

Explore the field of animation with an artist who creates graphics using computer software. Animators work in a variety of media, including movies, television, commercials, and video games.

KET animators Sara O'Keefe and Allison NeCamp Day talk about how they approach the production of their animations.

An associate principal of an architectural firm that designs stadiums and athletic facilities talks about his love of drawing from a young age and how he thinks "outside the box" to make a client's vision a reality.

Blossom and Snappy learn about scale models and how they are used in the design and construction of buildings. They visit an architectural firm, a construction site, Clark Atlanta University Art Gallery, and Clark Atlanta University Science Center. They learn how to build their own scale model of a house.

Max’s imagination takes viewers on amazing adventures. In this segment of KIDS Clubhouse Adventures, Max discovers his most important prop is broken on the eve of opening night. He decides to engineer a stronger, fancier prop and finishes just in time!

Meet the Applied Imagination team, visit the workshop, and witness the process of creating intricate garden railway displays. Each building in these tiny towns is historically accurate, architecturally correct, and constructed of plant materials.

50 years ago this September, one of the most popular shows in the history of television premiered. Star Trek has inspired generations of scientists, astronauts, and engineers, and introduced many technologies that have gone from science fiction to science reality. Boldly go on a voyage with STEM in 30 as we explore the Star Trek universe, including the studio model of the starship Enterprise on display in our Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall.

Learn about the fundamentals of sound as student teams create percussive and stringed instruments for a local band, in this video segment adapted from DESIGN SQUAD—a PBS TV series featuring high school contestants tackling engineering challenges. In the process, the teams learn about the physics of sound and music and then apply this knowledge to the construction of their own instruments. Watch to find out which instruments the band finds worthy of debuting in their next live show.

Did you know that the first aeronautical object in the National Air and Space Museum collection is a kite acquired in 1876? Kites aren’t only fun objects to fly at the beach or on the National Mall, they have a long and important history. The Wright brothers tested their wing warping theory with a kite and kites have also been used during wartime. In this episode of STEM in 30 we’ll look at not only how kites fly but their importance to aviation history.

Learn how Jan Elftmann’s penchant for collecting objects shines through in all of her work. She makes art approachable for the every day person in her playful assemblage work and eye-catching art cars.

Elftmann helped found the Minnesota ArtCar Parade after she completed her first art car–a pick up truck covered with 10,000 wine bottle corks. She’s currently working on her third art car.

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This video segment from Building Big highlights the Clifton Suspension Bridge, one of the earliest of its kind. Though it was completed in 1864, when pedestrians, animals, and horse-drawn carriages were its main forms of traffic, its iron chain-link cables and stone piers today carry four million cars and other vehicles a year.