I attended the California STEAM Symposium this weekend, an annual professional development opportunity that brings together educators, industry experts, program providers and students from across the state and the country to explore advancements in STEAM education. I attended two keynote speeches; the most memorable speech was delivered by Miral Kotb, a POC entrepreneur, coder and artist. She spoke about the importance of breaking barriers in STEAM, especially for underrepresented groups and the importance of encouraging girls to pursue careers in computer science. I saw many parallels between the overarching theme of the symposium "You belong in STEAM '' and Burke's motto of "educat[ing], encourag[ing], and empower[ing] girls". It is our role as educators to nurture student agency, identity and inclusion through engaging and joyful learning experiences.
Some other key takeaways include:
I attended a breakout session on "project-based learning in science" which I found highly relevant to the strategies that we are currently using in 7th/8th grade science. The guest speaker provided excellent examples of projects from her classroom and how they were able to connect to real world issues such as global warming and extreme heat in California's central valley. Looking ahead to the next trimester, we are in the process of creating a culminating project for 7th grade that investigates the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and the onset of climate change. I am excited to implement some of the techniques and strategies that I learned from this session into our upcoming project.
I was able to meet and network with other teachers from diverse backgrounds, a handful of them worked in the public school system in either more rural or suburban areas in California. It was jarring to learn about how different the private and public school systems were and the disparities between the two.
Something that stuck with me from one of the breakout sessions is the emphasis on joyful learning, regardless of the outcome. No project needs to be perfect. Even if the students are only building cars or models out of cardboard and duct tape, they will go on to do so much more in college and beyond if we equip them with the skills and mindset needed to exceed.
Overall, I had a wonderful time at this year's STEAM symposium and I look forward to participating in the next one!
I'm glad it was a good conference and I would love to come join class for your 7th grade culminating project if you can let me know some dates/times - it sounds exciting! The sessions and speakers sound like they shared great information and the opportunity to talk with others from the public and private schools is always valuable!