SUNY Broome welcomed more than 100 seventh through 10th grade students from 14 local school districts who participated in the Summer STEAM Academy 2019 from July 15 to July 25. This hands-on program engaged students in problem- and project-based learning centered around STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) through the design cycle processes.
Educators from Broome-Tioga BOCES and the 14 local school districts along with our own SUNY Broome professors, Dr. Rob Congdon (Chemistry) and Adrienne Johnson (Mathematics), teamed up with students to explore and develop projects with real-world applications. Some of the challenges included designing, building and testing cardboard castles, shields, helmets, trebuchet-launchers, balsa wood towers, terrariums, birdhouses, bat-houses, butterfly-houses, stop-motion animations and more.
As part of this program, students also traveled to BOCES for a robotics program; toured UHS Wilson Medical Center, Lockheed Martin, and BAE; visited SUNY Binghamton University; and explored the SUNY Broome campus with while taking part in demonstrations and activities led by Doug Chrzanowski (Engineering Technologies), Dr. Rob Congdon (Chemistry) and Dr. Phyllis O’Donnell (Biology) to highlight the STEM Division.
Maine-Endwell High School art teacher Shauna Stiles has worked with the STEAM Academy for several years. She indicated that SUNY Broome provides an ideal environment for students (and instructors) to develop a real sense of camaraderie within and between the small learning communities. The goal to inspire a more innovative, creative and critical thinking mindset is encouraged when students can more easily explore others’ design processes and projects that may relate to their own challenge projects.
