Cultivating Curiosity by integrating art in science through photography

Abstract

Arts-integrated science is a tantalizing educational approach that captures the attention of scientific learners through the lighter side of science. This study highlights the findings of a school-based applied research study conducted to develop public school students' curiosity and their aesthetic qualities by exploring scientific knowledge by using photography. This study incorporated photography as a learning aid in STEAM workshops for 386 high school students, including 220 males and 166 females from 19 schools, and tested methods for enhancing the curiosity or interest of students to explore the workshop context more deeply. The analysis of our methods discusses the results using pre- and post-method questionnaires and the evaluations of 816 scientific images captured by the students. The key aim of this research involves cultivating curiosity in students as they analyse captured images, which results in positive outcomes, such as increased engagement in scientific workshops, thereby inspiring them to more thoroughly explore the science behind each image.