STEAM Engine Academics
From 2016 to 2020, STEAM Engine Academics led a Bay Area initiative to redesign and re-engineer STEAM and STEM education. Since our founding in 2016, our mission has been to accelerate learning in STEAM education.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, as national, statewide, and local safety measures took effect across Bay Area counties, I made the decision to step away from academic work and return to the technology sector.
The STEAM Engine Academics Project
Tutoring & Academic Trainers
During the early years of STEAM Engine Academics, the idea for tutoring and what we called Academic Trainers was built on the idea of going well beyond what other tutoring services were offering at the time. I believed that learning was like playing a sport. The more time you put into training for a sport the better you perform. The same is true for education and learning. Also, positive role models are extremely important for youth. We all need mentorship.
STEAM Engine Academic MAP’s (Modular Academic Programs)
MAP’s were established in 2016 as a way to develop custom modular academic experiences. It also offers learners the opportunity to jump into the middle of a subject matter and start learning at a natural pace rather than taking a linear pre-requisite approach to understanding STEAM and STEM material. Types of STEAM Engine Academic MAP’s:
The power of social media and sparking curiosity through short-form content…
The STEAM_EA journey started with a chemistry video about elemental Iodine sublimating into a beautiful purple gas. The Instagram video went viral (for the time) and became a proof of concept for how academia could be represented in social media. I started creating shorts on Vine, with the sole mission of getting people interested in science. I also maintained an Instagram account that featured daily learnings and occasionally short videos. I photographed, filmed, and sometimes even wrote music for all our social media content.
![SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) image of sputtered titanium [Ti] onto natural quartz crystal [SiO_2]. Also known in the jewelry industry as aura quartz crystals.
#STEAM_Engine_Academics #STEAM #STEM #education #science #technology #engineering #a](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/631eea8aa663a60bf619c96d/1767003234319-6WJL3BITPKZLU53XR96H/image-asset.jpeg)
![When in doubt, nitrate 🔥🤔 The synthesis of nitrocellulose [C_6_H_7_(NO_2)_3_O_5]_n AKA guncotton. Always fun at parties 🎩
#STEAM_Engine_Academics #STEAM #STEM #education #science #technology #engineering #art #mathematics #chemistry #synthesis #n](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/631eea8aa663a60bf619c96d/1767003237295-TURONCVSS232B7FIEY4M/image-asset.jpeg)