I have been teaching in District 27J since 2006 and am extremely excited to be leading the STEAM program at Quist MS. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) is a program where students are presented projects, challenges, or problems to solve and then typically work together to build, create, explore, engineer, and program their ideas for a physical result such as an app for a smart phone or a model car to race. The class is very hands on, approachable, exploratory in nature, and typically collaborative for a result or finished product. I like to think of it as learning and thinking outside the box by creating, trial and error, and pushing ourselves to accomplish things that at first seem difficult--with some play mixed in too. Students learn that they have the power to be creators and find success at creating and this is a big driver for me personally.

Teaching STEAM comes down to me really enjoying watching and guiding students in finding success at things they never thought they could do such as designing code for a computer or building and programming a robot. Being a part of the process of "doing" STEAM is very inspiring for me and my goal and inspiration is for students to feel that they have the power to create something that comes from ideas within them.

"...To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." by Carl Sagan