A fresh air of art in Silicon Valley
Last post, we reflected on our youth outreach with eight-graders of Ocala STEAM Academy. They experienced a taste of our fresh-picked vegetables and tried composting from the scratch. I shall go on to clarify the STEAM elements in our youth program, as we welcome this new wave of education to the low in-come neighborhoods of San Jose.
STEAM is Art & Design at the heart of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It was a movement led by Rhode Island School of Design and later joined by prestigious universities in the East Coast. In the West Coast, we have seen the STEAM outspread in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. Student-led projects, 3D printing, virtual reality as well as material science and design are some of the popular methods in STEAM.
San Jose is not on the map yet and Silicon Valley could grow stronger with more artists and designers in the workforce.
The shift from traditional STEM to STEAM is essential since it promotes teamwork and creative problem-solving. As children get out of school and into the real world, they will encounter people of different skillsets and backgrounds. Being able to embrace this diversity is what we are looking to inspire kids in our youth programs. It cements the sense of community and belonging in the low-income population that we serve.
As we brainstormed activities for the students in our Eastside Explorers program, we stumbled upon a big question: “How do we communicate science to the kids in a more creative way?”. How can we make composting fun and simple? Can they visualize it by themselves? Truth be told, the way that we cater information to our audiences is an art itself.
So we came up with a comprehensive experience for our little guests. Sensory tour of the farm, taste test of hand-picked vegetables, composting competition, food science in our green dome, role play to understand each cycle of bioaccumulation…
By putting a pinch of aesthetic in every technical aspect, we want to show the students that science can be beautiful too. How we perceive the world is not only determined by logic and reasons, but also by the senses that we were born with. Appealing to these senses is also an art.
In the coming years, we hope that STEAM would be viral in the Bay Area. This is the change that will open a new era of possibilities of career paths for our students.
To wrap up this thought, I sincerely invite you to check out the photo project TECHIES to see more colors of the underrepresented workforce in Silicon Valley, how art and science crossed paths in their life.
If you are in the Bay and looking for a place to create, check out the Exploratorium in San Francisco. They also have free STEAM resources online for our children.
Meanwhile, I will keep munching on this article to see how Microsoft is teaching our plants to talk back with sensory systems. I’m dying to know how our pumpkins are feeling as Halloween is coming to town.
Written by My Pham — Storytelling Intern
