STEAM (STEM+Art) Institute

The Fairbanks STEAM Institute is a teacher professional development course that grew out of several years of collaboration between Alaska Boreal House, local K-12 educators, university scientists, and artists interested in inquiry-based and place-based learning from the surrounding Alaskan boreal forest.

With the STEAM Institute, we strive to create an opportunity for educators to practice STEAM education and multi-modal approaches to learning. The course is designed to emphasize multicultural learning through traditional knowledge, and to facilitate differentiated instruction. It is our hope that educators can use their STEAM Institute experiences with students in their own classes.

The 2014 Fairbanks STEAM Institute, titled "A Botanical Immersion through Multiple Lenses," was based around an observational technique using forest mandalas, described in David Haskell's book Forest Unseen. We used hula hoops to define the edges of the mandalas - our lens to investigate the forest floor micro-habitats. Participants sketched and wrote observations in Grinnell Journals, created culminating essays based on their experiences, and created visual plates of a particular subject living within their hula hoop lens.

We are currently analyzing student work from the STEAM Institute and discussed preliminary findings at the 2015 International Teacher Scientist Partnership conference in San Jose.