The red plastic key fob that Regina Dominican High School senior Sunny Xu held up for inspection Sept. 18 was colorful and informative, its raised letters spelling out “RDHS STEAM Club,” but not immediately noteworthy.
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Not, that is, until you learn that Xu – a Chinese student studying at Regina – made the fob herself in a new 3D plastics printer that is the first major piece of equipment in the Wilmette high school’s new science, technology, engineering, arts and math laboratory. She said making the tiny tab took little more than punching a button.
“I had to go online to research which (computer) apps I could use to code and program the printer to make it,” Xu said. “Once I decided on the app, I started last week, learning how to build simple things like cubes and spheres.”
The process didn’t end there.
“The first trial (of the key chain fob) came out all weird and small. It was a failure,” Xu said. “Then I tried again. Once I figured out what I did wrong, I fixed it. Once I got it right, it only took 18 minutes (to print.)”
Xu’s trial and error travails, and her eventual success, are emblematic of the STEAM lab’s core purpose, Regina math teacher Sandy Locher said Sept. 18.
“I want them to learn through failure,” Locher said of the students who use the lab both as part their regular classes and as part of the newly christened STEAM club. “You have to be willing to learn that way.”
Locher said she expects the lab to make trying and failing, then succeeding, the kind of transformative fun that will keep her students engrossed in their studies, and empowered to take what they learn, and how they learn it, into their future world.
Regina’s STEAM project is the latest step in the school’s 10-year Vision 2020 master plan and its “Gateway to Leadership” mission. That multi-phased effort, aimed at distinguishing Regina as a leader in training young women for global leadership roles, launched in 2011.
Since then Regina, opened in 1958 under the direction of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, has introduced curriculum changes, extracurricular programming, physical renovations and improvements to its technological infrastructure.
Right now the lab – the name of which differs by one vowel and one notable concept from modern STEM science, technology, engineering and mathematics-oriented education facilities – currently comprises the 3D printer, which can layer thin sheets of plastic in predetermined patterns to create anything from a tree frog model to Xu’s fob, a complement of electronic parts kits, programmable plastic spheres and materials that Locher hopes will inspire her students to create projects that bridge art and science.
A statement in the school’s official STEAM lab rationale states it directly, when it says of newly tradition STEM education: “We believe the arts must also be included: thus creating a STEAM model.”
“We made that a conscious choice,” said Regina Vice President for Advancement Joan Kitchie. “Think about it. Steve Jobs was always thinking about the design of what Apple made. Design includes art.”
By the end of this school year, laptop computers and tablets, furniture and other equipment will arrive, along with program moderators who will help guide students. Equipping the lab will continue for two more years at a cost of $19,000-$24,000, school officials say.
The class of 1965, which will hold its 50th anniversary reunion this year, is raising money to complete the project, Kitchie said. In turn, STEAM club students are working on projects to display and operate in time for an October open house.
Even without the full complement of equipment, Locher’s students are proving her theory that the laboratory’s pull on students is its capacity to provide them the chance to mix fun with science and art.
Sophomores Lauren Westby or Skokie and Kasmira Watson of North Chicago admitted that they hadn’t been excited about science classes prior to coming to Regina and getting involved in the lab.
“I wasn’t interested in science so much, but I got interested in the problem-solving. I like being able to solve puzzles,” Westby said. She and Watson read through manuals and figured out shortcuts to create a tiny working windmill using plug-in electrical components and a purple pipe cleaner. “Solving the puzzles is neat.”
Across the room, senior Kathryn Cressy of Chicago was using an iPad program to power several colorful plastic spheres around the classroom floor. As she kept an eye on them, Cressy said the STEAM lab had inspired her.
“I’ve always liked video games,” she said. “I’d like to learn to code. I think it’s so awesome to be able to design, to be able to create anything.”
Locher said that in her math classes, students often ask her why they need to know this or that concept. Coming into the lab and wanting to create something helps them understand why those academic concepts matter in real three-dimensional life, she said.
“My job is to give them challenges. This is the place for that.”
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