PFE Project 1: "Brewing Up Some STEAM"
Artifacts and Evidence
Artifact 1: WHY STEM/STEAM?
When I was first thinking about the type of programming I wanted to be able to offer patrons during this internship, I immediately thought of all the parents and families at home trying to work and learn remotely. I have heard more than one parent use phrases like:
-
"I am not a teacher."
-
"I have no clue where to begin with helping my child."
-
"What can I do to easily support their learning at home?"
Coming from a teaching background, I knew this was where I wanted to focus my energy and I knew that I would be able to find loads of resources for parents to easily and conveniently support their child(ren)'s learning at home. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) or STEAM (add an "A" for Art!) activities are great for engaging kids in thoughtful exploration and often don't require lots of special equipment.
Before I started looking for activities, I decided to see what peer-reviewed research had to say about what I wanted to focus on. There was no shortage of articles about this topic. I culled several articles for the best, most helpful ideas and shared with the staff of the York Public Library.
Importance and Significance of STEM/STEAM Related Activities
Artifact 2: Master Supply List
Once I had had a chance to talk with the Youth Services Department at the York Public Library, I found out they have been handing out various activity bags at curbside pick up. I got some samples of summer activity bags to get an idea of what the curbside activities have been like in the past and decided this would be a great avenue for distribution for my STEAM activities.
Upon discovering many activities, I decided to create the above master list that named the materials needed for each child to be able to participate. This spreadsheet evolved to include possible literature connections, comments back and forth between the YPL staff and myself, whether the activity was going to get a video, and other general information. It has gone through several drafts and incarnations, but the above was the most recent.
Artifact 3: Teaser Video
Once we had decided I would develop STEAM activities for curbside, the Youth Services Department at the York Public Library wanted to know if I would do a "teaser" video to post so that patrons would get an idea of what was coming. This is by far one of my favorite portfolio products. It represents me taking the time to learn and play around with something that was far out of my comfort zone- videography! Enjoy!
Artifact 4: STEAM Activity Fliers
When I had looked over the sample materials from the summer curbside activities, I had noticed that the directions came printed on what looked like a template. When I asked the staff about it, they told me the fliers were developed on a platform called Canva. I had never heard of or used Canva before so I taught myself how to use it and started making the directions fliers for the activities we had decided would be going home to patrons. The library has a Canva Pro account, so they were able to play around more with the basic layouts of the activities that I had developed.
Artifact 5: Playlist of 10 videos
For 10 of the 23 Brewing Up Some STEAM activities, I created tutorial videos for the York Public Library YouTube Channel. I chose activities that I felt needed a little more of an explanation and visual representation. I had to teach myself how to use iMovie to edit together video clips, add intro and outro segments, add transitional slides at the beginning and endings with music, and add a voiceover track. In addition, I needed to edit some of them for time and had to teach myself how to put clips through the "speeding up process" twice. Like the teaser video, I feel like these really represent my willingness to try new things and push myself to learn how to make these into the very best versions possible for the patrons of the York Public Library.
Brewing Up Some STEAM Tutorials
Brewing Up Some STEAM Tutorials
Brewing Up Some STEAM: Alphabet Addition
Brewing Up Some STEAM: Straw Rockets
Brewing Up Some STEAM: Fizzy Surprise Eggs Recipe
Brewing Up Some STEAM: Mobius Math Art
Artifact 6: Suggested Reading Fliers
At first, the staff at the York Public Library wanted curated titles for each STEAM activity that I developed. However, with the sheer number of activities and the depth and detail of the direction fliers, this was not a feasible idea. Instead, I decided to use the LibraryAware program to create general reading suggestions in three main categories: Science Extensions, Math Connections, and Engineering and Creating. These booklists were also cross referenced with what was available through the York Public Library catalog. These fliers were included in the activity bags that were distributed to patrons at curbside. These fliers represent how I was willing to make changes to my plan and push myself to use a platform that was not intuitive or familiar to me in order to make this even better for patrons.