In the Netherlands, they’ll study robotics. In Asia, they’ll learn the basics of computer programming. In France and Spain, they’ll explore art and music. In just six weeks, they’ll travel the globe — without ever leaving home.
The trip begins on June 10, when the “Around the World” STEAM summer camp opens at Addlestone Hebrew Academy. Addlestone uses a journey through planet’s various countries and regions to teach the tenets of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math, all in a fun, hands-on atmosphere that emphasizes problem solving, creative thinking, and working together in teams.
The opening weeks takes campers to the Netherlands, where they’ll explore robotics using Legos. Weeks spotlighting Spain, France and Portugal will focus on art and music. A week on England and Scotland will center on castles and Harry Potter books. In the week visiting Asia, campers will delve into programming using basics like Scratch and Raspberry Pi.
STEAMing ahead
STEAM grew out of the emphasis on STEM studies, championed by former President Barack Obama in his 2011 State of the Union address, which urged the United States to become more competitive with other nations in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math. The “A” was eventually added as more experts realized the arts were central to developing the design, communication and critical-thinking skills that help cultivate technical breakthroughs.
“The antiquated idea that scientists are isolated workers huddled away in laboratories is a falsehood,” New York educator Jennifer Gunn wrote on the website of Concordia University of Portland, Ore. Today’s innovators are creative beasts, working collaboratively in open workspaces, sharing ideas globally with other thinkers, and combining their STEM powers with some killer STEAM talents.”
The aim is to use art not to detract from the sciences, but rather, to augment them. Adding art and design to the mix has real-world applications even at the school-age level — from sketching parts of the body, to using theatrical skills to better articulate complicated problems, to building robots of the type children will explore at Addlestone summer camp.
“The arts are a great learning tool and can serve as an on-ramp to STEM for underrepresented students,” artist, educator and STEAM advocate Ruth Catchen told Education Week magazine. “Engaging students’ strengths using art activities increases motivation and the probability of STEM success.”
Cooking and robot claws
The relationship between art and science will be evident over the six weeks of Addlestone’s STEAM camp, where attendees will cook food and learn sports from each country or region they explore, organize and conduct their own Olympic games, build programs with the Scratch language built for children by MIT, and get hands-on training with a Raspberry Pi microcomputer capable of powering robotic claws created by a 3D printer.
Experiences will be tailored to the campers’ age ranges, with kindergarteners through second graders in one group, and third- through fifth-graders in another. The camp will run three weeks, break for the week of July 4, and then resume for the final three weeks. It will be held at Addlestone’s West Ashley campus at 1675 Raoul Wallenberg Blvd.
For more information on the Around the World STEAM summer camp, call Addlestone Hebrew Academy at (843) 571-1105, visit their website at Addlestone.org, or contact Jessica Bennett at jessica.bennett@addlestone.org.