STEAM Carnival is a social amusement platform for all ages that uses technology infused games and immersive hands-on experiences that leverage people’s passion for music, fashion, and games to engage them in STEAM: science, technology, engineering, art, and math. This carnival is organized by Los Angeles’s Two Bit Circus Foundation.
Two Bit Circus Foundation’s STEAM Carnival
Here’s a riddle: What’s large, terrifying, at times cute and eager to learn?
Answer: 500 school age kids every hour, on the hour from 9AM to 5PM at the Port of Los Angeles during Student Preview Day at the inaugural Steam Carnival.
On Friday, October 24 I happily participated as a technician at the Steam Carnival, the brainchild of Two Bit Circus. STEAM Carnival is dedicated to STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) to demystify the design process and make technological creation accessible to everyone. We do live in the Internet era after all.
Here’s a crude outline of what went down on Student Preview Day.
Promoting STEAM Education
Starting bright and early at 9AM, a dedicated group of Steamster conductors ushered in hundreds of excited students to get a taste of an techy/arty infused day that awaited them. Once the kids (elementary school through high school students) were seated in the walkway between the MaKey MaKey workshop booths, they were treated to an electrifying performance by Austin, Texas based music and technology group, Arcattack. As I was speaking to the founder, Joe DiPrima about how they control the electrical output of their twin Tesla coils through MIDI controllers and synthesizers, he mentioned, “[w]e actually use about 100,000 volts of electricity” opposed to the 40,000 volts that the Two Bit staffers were telling the kids. Check out a video of their performance here:
STEAM Activities for Kids
One the kids were sufficiently dazzled by an electric entrance into the STEAM Carnival (har har har), it was up to the Technicians, of which I was part of, to teach basic concepts of electronics: what a circuit is, conductivity, ground, etc. Once the kids got a basic understanding of electricity, they dived headfirst into experimenting with MaKey MaKeys, a simple circuit board that we used to turn pipe cleaners, Play-Doh, fellow students and circus peanuts into game controllers. As a fun group experiment to understand conductivity, we created giant classroom circuits by holding hands in a circle, essentially using each other to create paths through which electricity can travel. Check out this cool video about how YOU can use a MaKey MaKey. (DDR anyone?)
Once they finished with learning about electricity and experimenting with the MaKey MaKey, the students were escorted into the next warehouse where there was the game arcade. There were laser mazes, hacked Kinect powered games, human pinball machines and a Hexaball game, which I had particular fun with:
I wasn’t in the other warehouse for most of the day as I was teaching in the first warehouse, but when I did pop my head in, it was utter madness…in a good way. Kids running around, having fun with the games and learning about how they actually worked from the developers and engineers that stood patiently beside their creations. I can’t speak for the developers and engineers but their games DEFINITELY went through an intense stress testing phase whether they liked it or not. I talked to the engineer of the Human Pinball Machine, Kujo, as he shaked his head and recounted his Home Depot run to fix his machine. A lot of games were out of business by the end of the day, but it was a great learning experience for everyone involved.
Two Bit Circus Foundation
Once the students had sufficiently screamed their heads off in astonishment and awe at the STEAM Carnival, they were gathered up and shuttled back to their schools. After a long and exciting day, all the Steamsters gathered for this photo underneath the green boa sculpture. I’m in the front row on the left side (not wearing a Two Bit t-shirt, it was so hot)
All in all it was a fun day and very organized considering it was Two Bit Circus’ first go at the STEAM Carnival. I met lots of cool people and enriched the lives of Los Angeles’ youth which is always a plus.
Happy steaming and stay true.