I’ve recently been involved with the inaugural STEAM Carnival that will take place this week and throughout the weekend in the Port of Los Angeles. FYI: STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math. I’m excited to be a game technician during Student Preview day on Friday, October 24th where I get to assist K-12 students understand the basic mechanics behind the games they will play.
When I went in for the training session this past Saturday where I was surrounded by an eclectic group of people with interests ranging from chemical manufacturing to flute playing. The STEAM Carnival is the brain child of a unique group of artists, engineers, programmers and tinkerers that make up Two Bit Circus, an entertainment company based out of the Artist Brewery in Downtown Los Angeles.
Two Bit’s vision for the STEAM Carnival came out of a desire to re-imagine the way we learn through tech-infused game attractions and carnival inspired entertainment.
What really excited me the most about STEAM Carnival was their inclusion of the ‘A’ which stands for ‘Art.’ One of the core ideas behind the STEAM Carnival is the inclusion of artistic expression which I believe makes the science behind the technology and games more accessible. (So maybe the ‘A’ can stand for accessible as well!) Although I appreciate the ambitions of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) research and education I often felt excluded because of my art background. By simply adding ‘Art’ into the acronym, STEM, Two Bit makes a powerful statement that education cannot be so crudely divided between what we perceive as purely science or purely art. We are increasing living in an interdisciplinary world which demands creativity and a synergy between the arts and sciences.
I share the vision with Two Bit Circus and STEAM Carnival that the world around us is fundamentally changing because of the exponential rate at which technology is evolving. I also believe that in many ways, our education is failing us because it is not able to adapt. More than ever, we need to breakdown stereotypes of the melancholy artist who is mathematically inept or the unemotional scientist who declares herself uncreative. We need this change to happen at the fundamental levels of our educational system so that we can solve the big problems: agricultural sustainability, global warming and economic disparity (just to name a few). And these problems are only getting bigger which is why this change needs to happen now.
Once we see the world not as two or three or four, but as one, true progress can be made. I am joyful and inspired because of events like the STEAM Carnival and groups like Two Bit Circus that take action to create a future they hope to live in.
And with that, please enjoy this photo of myself (lower left, sticking out my tongue) and my fellow STEAMsters wearing red clown noses in the spirit of the STEAM Carnival.
Stay tuned for a followup article about Student Preview Day at STEAM Carnival and teaching hundreds of students about basic electronics by using Makey Makeys! Cheers and STEAM on!