By Emily Roden
When reading this title, you may have thought, “Whoever typed this up accidentally added an ‘A’ to ‘STEM.’ ” This “A” is purposeful and is a recent addition by the Florida Department of Education to incorporate “art” into the fields of “science,” “technology,” “engineering” and “math.” Although this term has only recently been coined, Dr. Guy Harvey has been combining art with STEM for the past few decades. His work in marine research and conservation has been greatly influenced by his use of creativity to inspire passion about the ocean and marine animals.
Starting Aug. 27, Dr. Guy Harvey began hosting STEAM conferences with scientists, marine conservationists, artists and more on Zoom through the Discovery Education platform. Prior to this, an annual live gathering called STEAMposium allowed 600–800 science teachers, supervisors and more to come together and share experiences of delivering STEAM in a classroom. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, STEAMposium has transformed into these STEAM conferences, which will still allow for the same number of people to be in attendance for a shorter period of time once a month, all from the safety of their homes. The purpose of these conferences is to give teachers a forum to learn new ideas from experts, as well as their peers, and share best practices for incorporating STEAM into their local school systems. These meetings are a lively and engaging forum that safely allows for a sense of community for teachers, despite the ongoing virus.
Stay tuned with Guy Harvey’s Facebook page to learn more about upcoming STEAM conferences.
