This is my second week in Madrid, a major city, and at this point, I was expecting to see a lot more "STEM in action" than I have. I started to think that maybe most major cities are the same. Maybe there wasn’t too much of a difference in STEM influence between cities.
Remember in my autobiography when I asked if you have ever looked up at the sky from time to time?
Well, that is how I found exactly what makes Madrid or the country of Spain or maybe even all of Europe substantially different than the United States. The answer is carved on to buildings and the most famous landmarks: architecture.
Architecture is not usually seen as a STEM field because there is no ‘A’ for architecture in the acronym ‘STEM’. However, that is not the case and architecture is influenced by STEM. In fact, architecture is a combination of all four acronyms.
Let us think of the ingredients behind making a building. An architect needs math to understand the proportions of a building. They also need engineering to verify that the building has structural integrity - which means that the building is strong and safe. Architects also need science to understand what advancements have been made in the materials that make up a building.
