STEAMed Magazine April 2015 | Page 2

WELCOME TO STEAMed! EDITOR’S NOTES Welcome to our 2015 spring edition of the STEAMed Quarterly Digital Magazine! With the successful launch of our magazine Our cover story (pg. 22), features the work being done by the National Gallery of Art as they build workshops for high school students that balance the art and science of sculptures. What they learn might surprise you! back in January, we’ve seen news spread around the globe about We have so many tremendous stories and sample lessons being the STEAM approach and this quarter’s issue is all about building shared from a variety of educators in our “From the Field” those components for success. segment, as well as some terrific organizations who are This quarter, Jeff Mather shares his insights as a teaching artist committed to supporting STEAM efforts in schools everywhere. serving a leading STEAM school in Georgia through his piece Finally, we’ve included our spring/summer professional Unpredictability in the Overlap Zones (pg. 4). His development spread (pg.14) in this issue to help you plan for documentation of the kinds of rich, engaging processes and those upcoming “vacation” months - when most of us get our products that emerge from this collaboration are inspiring. own learning covered! No more time for delay...let’s get started. Looking for connections between math and visual art? Robin Spring forward in STEAM through 2015! Ward and Monica Wilson take us on a journey of using minimal and conceptual art as a springboard for teaching algebra in her article Crayons in Algebra Class? (pg.9). As someone who struggled in algebra class in 8th grade, this gave me so many Susan M. Riley, Editor new ideas for ways students can make meaningful connections to those foundational processes. ii