finished piece, a T-shirt design to wear into Lego Robotics
competitions.
At Pretty Brainy, we source an
8-inch square sketchbook
hailed as a “sketch pad for
every artist.” Our supplier
enjoys telling me that, among
engineers at Hewlett Packard,
this is the sketchbook of
choice. Our students use this
design notebook from the
outside in, designing their own
cover, creating a table of
contents, labeling and
numbering their pages, and
filling it with project ideas and
plans. Recently when the art
warehouse from which we
source supplies was late in
filling an order, we substituted
an 8 ½- by 11-inch sketchpad
procured at the local Dollar
Store. It was a disaster. Students disliked it, using it only when
told to, then quickly closing and put it aside.
in getting your hands dirty, in understanding why you made what
you made, and owning the impact of that work in the world. It’s
what artists and designers do.” Indeed. And the design notebook
is the beginning.
1
For information on the origin of STEAM, as well as discussion and resources, see http://
stemtosteam.org/.
2
Rhode Island School of Design. (2011, Jan.). Archive of NSF/RISD Bridging STEM to STEAM
Workshop. Retrieved from http://www.stemtosteam.org/archive/nsf-risd-workshop.
Heidi A. Olinger is an American social entrepreneur, educator and
the author of Fashionably Mashed: The STEM of Fashion
Design, hailed by leading educators as “a 21st century
learning goldmine.” For teaching excellence, she has been
honored by the Boettcher Foundation and others. She is the
founder and chief executive of Pretty Brainy, a 501(c)3 nonprofit
organization that designs STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math)
curricula to excite students about learning and to prepare them, especially girls, to
pursue the broadest of career options. Her work in STEAM-inspired apparel for girls
has won the highest honor from the Mom’s Choice Awards® and was featured in an
international design showcase by the World Trade Center in Denver. Olinger has
been named as a Woman to Watch, and in 2012 InnovatioNews named Pretty
Through Pretty Brainy I design STEAM learning that respects girls
as thinkers, problem-solvers and innovators, and continually I am
inspired by these words from John Maeda, former president,
Rhode Island School of Design. STEAM, he says, “is an education
Brainy “An educational leader for STEM education.”
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