STEAM Visits EF Tours

Students in the STEAM Lab, along with candidates for the Global Studies Diploma program and students in Cecelia Pan's Evolution, Ecology, and the Environment class visited the EF headquarters in Cambridge in January. Last year, Global Studies Director Kelly Neely and STEAM Director Chris Hardman decided they wanted to find a way for the two programs to collaborate, and thought that water would be an excellent lens through which to do this work.

While at EF, students attended a lecture overview about water from acclaimed science textbook author Joe Levine, who presented a history of the effect of water on human development and the effect of humans on water and ecosystems. George Stewart, Director of Education at EF, ran a short workshop on using design thinking to solve problems. Students then formed interdisciplinary groups and worked to identify some specific global water issues with the Global Studies and science students thinking about the environmental and sociopolitical issues and the STEAM Lab students thinking about the technical and engineering problems. 

Groups identified a variety of global challenges including waterborne illnesses due to poor sanitation, consequences of major damming projects, and water shortages in the American Southwest. They worked for ninety minutes to identify what they already knew about their issue and information they needed in order to work on a solution.

Students will be continuing with this project in STEAM Lab and Geography. Kelly Neely, Cecelia Pan, Head of Upper School Joe Iuliano, George Stewart from EF, and Chris Hardman presented their work at the NAIS conference at the end of February.