By Patrick Donachie
In the basement of the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Jamaica, Terence Dew, the founder and lead program developer of STEAM Academy, demonstrated the dizzying array of devices, hardware and software the students in the program were utilizing. He said he wanted the class to have an open, supportive atmosphere.
“We get them comfortable with failure so they can try again,” he said. After just a few short weeks with the students, Dew said his “biggest challenge was trying to keep up.”
STEAM, which is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics, is a spin on STEM learning, an approach to curriculum that emphasizes and integrates those four modes of learning in other disciplines. Dew, who founded STEM Academy seven months ago says adding arts into the equation helps students to develop their own individual voices.
“If you take STEM and apply the arts to it, I think all the kids in this room can express themselves in how they choose,” he said. “It’s all about finding that for each student. It kind of just clicks.”
The program, which included a few dozen students from ages 10 to 16, will last throughout the summer until Aug. 27. Children and teenagers sat at a table with several computers and experimented with graphic design programs and an Oculus VR headset, while Dew and other STEAM employees and volunteers prepared gloves and circuitry that would be used in an upcoming game of laser tag.
Registration for the free program started May 18. Dew said they had planned an advertising campaign, but word-of-mouth among parents meant the program filled up extremely quickly, with Dew noting that he had approximately twice as many applicants as available spaces. Dew said Reverend Patrick O’Connor was supportive about using the basement as a STEAM classroom, and the basement would be in use as a STEAM classroom and after-school center throughout the year.
“Churches are a great conduit of technology,” Dew said. “They often have unused space and are seen as a positive space in the community.”
Alexandra Laury, an 11th grade student at Young Women’s Leadership School in Jamaica, is an instructor-in-training for the class. She said she was first introduced to computer design and technology during a tech class Dew taught at the local YMCA.
“It’s hard finding these kinds of opportunities that are free, and that’s what’s amazing to me. It allows you to use everything you have in your imagination, which is why I really like it,” she said. “Kids get really creative with this, and that excites me because they have aspirations.”
Dew said an ancillary benefit to the promotion of STEAM classes in areas like Jamaica would be to bring start-up and innovation resources, education and talent to the community.
“We have this really cool potential to have different startups. You see a lot of (technology) booms in Manhattan, but there’s nothing in Jamaica,” he said. “We would get a lot of great technology in Jamaica if we’d just cultivate the talent.”
Reach reporter Patrick Donachie by e-mail at pdona
