Our After School STEAM Program is located on the Renaissance at Mathson Middle School Campus. Our program focuses on providing opportunities for youth to find their voice by using science, technology, engineering, art, and math to create connections, build creative confidence, and inspire them to be confident learners as they complete middle and move on to high school. We provide a safe, healthy environment where trust-based relationships that reflect productivity, accountability, and mutual respect are encouraged. Programming will be implemented year round at the site, and will be free and open to the local community.
After School STEAM Program
About
Our project-based workshops engage youth in exploring design thinking processes, digital tools, and visual arts. Students will work individually and collaboratively as they use technology in a very engaging, dynamic, and innovative way. Explorations are tied to developing skills while encouraging students to think outside the box and follow their ideas in directions that their passions and creativity guide them. All activities are aligned to Common Core Standards and designed to stimulate creativity while maintaining/improving academic, social, computer, and presentation skills, as well as fostering academic skills for future career success. While the projects all have academic components, the focus is on the process and exploration rather than the end result.
Teachers are invited to visit our workshops to observe, participate in activities, and for ideas to create their own project based activities for their classrooms. We can also provide instructions and guidance on the project we implement in the program. We will also provide professional development opportunities for teachers and staff. We want to expose a greater circle of the Silicon Valley education community to the innovation happening in East San José.
Program development is ongoing and we hope to add family oriented programming including Family Maker Days, Mother/Daughter STEAM Workshops, and other innovative activities. We also want to add Design Thinking Challenges for youth, including the NASA Future Engineers 3D Design Challenge and Robotics. We are looking into partnering with local non-profits like Somos Mayfair and the School of Arts and Culture to expand existing and develop new projects and activities.
Under Construction
Schools have been closed, with students engaged in Distance Learning, since March 16, 2020. Since our program is located on a school site, we have ceased operations. We are currently implementing an Online STEAM Program that includes 2 phases.
Phase 1: STEAM Activity Instructions was developed in the fall of 2020 and we began posting activities in December 2020. The Online STEAM Activities are under our resources tab. These are simple activities that use materials that are recyclable and easily accessible (see our Materials & Supplies Resources for additional information). We will be adding new activities as they are created so check back often to see what is available.
Phase 2: STEAM Activities with Kits is currently under development. We hope to implement the program by June 2022. Check the resources page for updates.
We officially kicked off our After School STEAM Program in September 2020! Workshops were open to all students in the community, with a focus on recruiting Mathson and Renaissance at Mathson students. We collaborated with the Mathson City Year team to encourage students in their program to attend.
We collaborated with Citizen Schools at Renaissance at Mathson to implement a 10-week Design Thinking Apprenticeship which focused on understanding the design thinking process, a human-centered process that can be applied to solve problems in a creative and innovative way. The Apprenticeship started on October 1st and culminated in a student showcase on December 13th.
From September 2019 to March 2020 we provided 88 workshops with 365 attendees. There were 139 unduplicated students in the program.
March 12, 2020 was our last workshop. The following week was the beginning of the County’s Shelter in Place order, which closed schools for the foreseeable future.
In collaboration with the Mathson principal and City Year Silicon Valley, we provided after school STEAM workshops beginning in February 2018. 11 workshops were implemented on Wednesdays and Fridays serving Mathson students in the City Year program through June. We provided two one-hour blocks each day that focused on expanding students’ exposure to innovative technology tools through projects drawing upon their creativity and curiosity.
Week 1 – Stenciling [view photos]
Week 2 – Shadow Puppets [view photos]
Week 3 – Paper Circuit Lanterns [view photos]
Week 4 – Paper Microscopes [view photos]
Week 5 – Water Symbols [view photos]
Week 6 – Light Up Cards [view photos]
Week 7: Paper Thrones [view photos]
Week 8: Optical Illusion Toys [view photos]
Week 9: Cranky Contraptions [view photos]
Week 10: Light Up Spinning Tops [view photos]
Week 11: Circuit Wands