Since our opening in 2013, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Design, and Mathematics) has been at the foundation of our efforts to inspire transdisciplinary research and discovery connecting technology and communities. We believe the framework of STEAM offers the greatest potential for advancing learning at all levels. But at ExCITe, STEAM is more than education. It’s the belief that the creativity and “maker” spirit that is common to both the Arts & Design and the STEM fields provides a relentless source of inspiration and innovation. Most importantly, the convening of diverse perspectives spanning STEM and the Arts offers unique opportunities to share ideas, form new connections, and sow the seeds of transformation. 

The third annual STEAM Education Workshop took place on February 20, 2017 at the ExCITe Center. In addition to the stellar presentations, this year we discussed how prevalent it was to share learning materials (70% of participants), but how that's not yet a practice that's well supported by existing online platforms (used by 24% of participants). Of the 30% who did not report sharing materials, over half said it was because they have yet to find a good way to do so. This will definitely be something we'll follow up on with participants and beyond as we continue to explore the best ways of supporting and advancing STEAM education in the Philadelphia region.  

Thank our extraordinary workshop presenters:
Amy Cline, Science Teacher, AIM Academy
John Kamal, Engineering Teacher, Science Leadership Academy
Andrew Bennett Jackson, Graduate Assistant, Roxborough High School STEAM Lab
Laura Blankenship, Dean of Academic Affairs and Chair of Computer Science, The Baldwin School
Jessica & Grace, students, Philadelphia Performing Arts
Ryan Barnes & Stephanie Greer, DREAM Lab Coordinators, The Baldwin School

 ... and our incredible keynote speaker, Dr. Nettrice Gaskins, Director of the STEAM Lab at Boston Arts Academy!

Hear Dr. Gaskin's interview with Dr. Youngmoo Kim as part of the ExCITeCast

Dr. Gaskins is the Director of the STEAM Lab at the Boston Arts Academy. She received a BFA in Computer Graphics with Honors from Pratt Institute in 1992 and a MFA in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1994. She worked for several years in K-12 and post-secondary education, community media and technology before enrolling at Georgia Institute of Technology where she received a doctorate in Digital Media in 2014. Her model for ‘techno-vernacular creativity’ is an area of practice that investigates the characteristics of this production and its application in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics). Her essays are included in Meet Me at the Fair: A World's Fair Reader, Future Texts: Subversive Performance and Feminist Bodies, and Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Astro-Blackness. Gaskins presented at We Are City 2014 in Indianapolis, ISEA2011 in Istanbul, co-facilitated Augmented Reality in Open Spaces (AROS) at ISEA2012 in Albuquerque, and was an artist-in-residence at the Taos Paseo Festival in 2015. Gaskins was a Digital STEAM research intern at the Smithsonian Institution (2013) and received funding from the National Science Foundation for Advancing STEM Through Culturally Situated Arts-Based Learning (2014).