Cannon Designers man their stations as fourth grade STEAM Scholars percolate into the room
Stacey Ko (left), Alec DuMond (center), Richardson Jean-Baptiste. Images courtesy Richard Chou
Report from the CannonDesign Team
As designers, we’re educated to hone an arsenal of tools and skills to be prepared for every situation. Got a proposal to renovate 55,000 sf of a science building? Consider it done! Need to convince the ARB that your design is compelling? No problem! Inspire 48 fourth-graders to pursue a technical or design profession?
Challenge accepted! Through the FAR/Kids in Design Adopt-A-School program organized by AIABaltimore and the Baltimore Architecture Foundation, the Baltimore office partnered with Brehms Lane Elementary, a public charter school of 650+ students. We began planning in February as our relationship with the school grew in the form of sponsoring their S.T.E.A.M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) program. As we were already halfway into the school year, we decided that the best event to do would be a single-day STEAM Career Day to feature career directions in multiple technical fields.
Why not just architecture? Why five other different fields? Our goal was to showcase how design is everywhere and not just limited to a single field. As architecture is inherently design, we use the topic as a means to demonstrate how different fields are intertwined. We will be gearing our curriculum toward architecture in the next school year. We organized four stations to showcase careers and skills in each STEAM category, and directed an activity to exemplify what students may find themselves doing in that field:
Science + Technology: Homemade Lava Lamps
Engineering: K’NEX Gears & Wheels
Art: Patterns/Tessellations
Math: Interstellar Origami
We were extremely fortunate that a great deal of teachers and older students came to volunteer and supervise the excitement. The principal, Diya Hafiz, stated that this was the first time an outside entity hosted an event for them, and that the school was “blessed to have such an enriching experience for her kids.” The genuineness of those words made the months of planning and coordinating worth the huge volunteer effort the team put forth. Furthermore, enabling kids to explore and have them enjoy learning lets us remember the joy from our design jobs.
This was truly a learning experience for all of us in the Baltimore office, and we hope to continue making a positive impact in our community.
