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After learning about the movement of air, we put the wind in our sails with kinetic wind sculptures. After learning about the movement of air, we put the wind in our sails with kinetic wind sculptures.

Home  /  Articles  /  STEAM Powered Explorations

STEAM Powered Explorations

Marlana Hodgkinson

September 15, 2015

By now, you've probably heard of STEM: science, technology, engineering and math. It's a good thing. But STEAM takes a good thing and makes it better by using the lens of ART to focus on potentially dry studies, bringing them to life in creative, hands-on, team-building, connection-making, eureka-moments.

After learning about the movement of air, we put the wind in our sails with kinetic wind sculptures.

After learning about the movement of air, we put some wind in our sails with colorful, kinetic


wind sculptures.

We've gone bone deep and sky high examining anatomy and astronomy. We inclined our brains and geared up to experiment with simple machines. We built our ability to think creatively as we built bridges and designed a life-sized inflatable sculpture. We learned about lasers and the colors of the light spectrum, we even (virtually) traveled the speed of light. Yet there are plenty of ideas yet to explore.  Kids 8-12 years old are invited to join us on third Sundays each month for Gathering STEAM where we take STEAM powered steps in a journey of life-long creating and learning.

Teams work together in designing bridges.

Here, a team works together to design a strong, stable bridge.

This is the inflatable dragon sculpture we made to demonstrate the math involved in making a pattern.

This is the inflatable dragon sculpture we made to demonstrate math skills involved in making a pattern.

If you've got 8 minutes, check out this TED talk where Océane Boulais illustrates the the benefits of transforming STEM into STEAM by integrating art into science, technology, engineering and math.

 
Marlana Hodgkinson

Marlana Hodgkinson

Public Services Specialist

Marlana is a youth services specialist who has worked in the Kids Library for the last 15 years. She enjoys creating and learning with kids of all ages. Her favorite books all have strong heroines, dragons, and magic. When not at the library, you can often find her riding her trusty bicycle, hiking with her dog Lily, playing board games with her family, or reading another great book.

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