Movements: Youth, STEAM & Civic Engagement

“Who can make and who cannot, whose knowledge matters and whose does not, are all a part of making itself” (C.B., Greenberg, Tan, 2016).
This workshop will be presented as an interactive design challenge that asks the following questions: how do we increase capacity for young people to nurture their natural curiosity and creativity? How do we as educators bridge our own passion and curiosity of STEAM learning while honoring our own experience? And finally: how do we engage young people in STEAM through honoring their own unique experiences?

The facilitating team will be Susan Klimczak, Clinton Osula of the South End Technology Center, Jacy Edelman of the Scratch Foundation, and Kreg Hanning of the Lifelong Kindergarten group (MIT Media Lab)/Lesley STEAM Learning Lab.

Participants will work cooperatively to brainstorm and design kinetic sculptures that address a social justice issue or movement that is critical to them or their community. We will begin with engaging in the design thinking process, leading to multiple entry points into design materials that span from simple machines or materials you might have on hand (popsicle sticks, cardboard, motors) to digital making with the free Scratch programming language.

The session will scaffold participants to consider the activity as capacity building for young people: addressing different ways we as educators can provide youth with opportunities for identity affirmation, inquiry-based tinkering/learning, and civic engagement. Participation will also focus on the power of authentic audience and platforms that center youth voice, through both the Scratch online community as well as traditional social media channels. Several past youth participants have commented while engaging in the #Movements project: “It’s like creating your own real life Instagram boomerang loop!”