By: Paul Chon
The Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) Showcase had more than 240 students attend the event on Mar. 9, 2019, Founder of Milpitas Community Educational Endowment (MCEE) Robert Jung said. This event was made to inspire students to be interested in STEAM, Jung said.
The idea of STEAM Showcase came from trying to provide programs that were not being offered anywhere else, Jung said. So, MCEE partnered with MUSD to create STEAM Showcase, Jung added.
“This particular showcase is to really encourage kids from all ages [and] all different types of backgrounds to present a project that they’re proud of,” Jung said. “It’s not a science fair where there are judges and you’re competing. The reason we chose to set up as non-competitive is because we wanted everyone to participate.”
Doing a STEAM showcase instead of a STEM showcase reminds people of the art component in STEM that allows people to be creative, Jung said. STEAM also inspires students to be more creative in their projects, Jung said.
“When you look at strictly STEM, people tend to forget that it’s the art component that allows you to be creative and we want to make sure that we get some of that creativity into the thinking around STEM,” Jung said. “You can solve problems many ways, but making it appealing and palatable for different people can make a difference, for example from a marketing standpoint: [creativity] is a useful attribute to consider when you’re designing these things. That’s why we’re pushing STEAM instead of just STEM.”
Sophomore Darren Ung’s project was made out of boredom and experimentation, he said. His interest in literature and writing also inspired him to make the project, Ung said.
“I thought, ‘Hey let’s try [an] improv rpg or [an] improv story,’ ” Ung said. “So, I started off with something like: ‘Your shoes squeak on the floor,’ and someone else says, ‘Squeak them again,’ then I say, ‘Your shoes make a horrible sound that grates on you. [This sequence] keeps going until it takes on a mind of its own.”
This year’s STEAM Showcase felt crowded, Sophomore Michelle Ngo said. However, it was still better than the year before, Ngo said.
“It’s definitely a lot bigger and the change in location definitely gives a lot more diversity to what kind of project you can make,” Ngo said. “It’s definitely more pleasant this time because our project is way bigger and our team doubled up in size.”
The STEAM Showcase used almost every single room at the San Jose City College (SJCC) Extension and was still crowded, Jung said. The challenge is to find a way to create more space, Jung said.
“We might split up into a software symposium for those projects that are really software based only,” Jung said. “Then, we take the projects that are hardware based or mixed, where you use software or hardware, [and] keep going as is. We might spawn off some projects that are strictly software based just to make it two events and make it a nice split.”
This is the first college that Second Grader Cameron Dahi has been to, he said. He was not that interested in his project, Dahi added.
“[My project] is good for you because I’m a grown up,” Dahi said.”I had no idea what to do and I didn’t even want to do this, but [now] we have Orbeez and my mom thought of it.”