New Classes at Huntsville STEAM Works

Do you or your kids love making, creating, inventing and, (let’s be honest) breaking things on occasion? Then read on!

We’re in the midst of some exciting changes here at Huntsville STEAM Works, with current and upcoming opportunities available for kids, teens, and adults of all ages! We’re a fun and creative environment at Lowe Mill ARTS and Entertainment Center.

Here you’ll find a community makerspace and experiential learning center for everything under the STEAM umbrella: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. This multidisciplinary approach to these topics helps kids (and adults) evolve into better problem solvers, creators, and innovators. Robotics, Art, 2-D & 3-D Design, Game Design, Entrepreneurship, Programming, and Physical Science are just a few of the topics we’ve tackled with our innovative programing.

So What’s Available Now?

Putting the ‘A’ in STEAM
In the immediate future, while most of our Fall classes are already underway, we still have a unique new 10-week art learning opportunity for teens taught by our own in-house artist Jessica Nunno. Jessica, who is a an artist trained at School of Fine Arts in New York, will be putting the ‘A’ in Steam by teaching Good Sketchbook Habits to students in grades 7-12. This is a practice that will truly help young artists take their drawing skills to the next level.

*“The Butterfly Effect” by Huntsville STEAM Works teacher and artist, Jessica Nunno.*

Fall Break Camps
We’re also looking looking forward to offering two awesome camps for Fall Break. For our younger campers in grades 3 to 8, our dynamic Shawn Sykes will be teaching a spooky seasonal Minecraft camp called Castle Dracula. Campers will learn all about vampire lore in a variety of cultures, tackle creepy Minecraft challenges, and enjoy some hands-on crafting time with Minecraft-themed creations!

It’s Cosplay Season!
For our teens, our team of dedicated geeks is particularly excited to pilot our brand-new Cosplay Fabrication Camp! Middle and high school students can join us for guided workshops and learn how to make props and accessories for conventions, parties, and more! We hope this camp can kick off a long-term relationship with the Huntsville area young adult cosplaying community.

*Prototype Light Sabers for our Cosplay Fabrication Camp, created by Huntsville STEAM Works teacher, artist, and fabricator Peter Lucker.*

These camps will be offered during Huntsville City Schools’ Fall Break, October 2nd-6th, 2017.

Growing Into 2018

Looking forward to next year, we can’t wait to move into our new 6,000 square foot space on the first floor north wing of Lowe Mill. With our new space, we plan to expand our offerings to accommodate more students with a broader assortment of classes, camps, field trips, and workshops. For our after-school enrichment and homeschool offerings, we’re going to pilot a community-driven model of course offerings. Parents will be able to peruse our soon-to-be-released Huntsville STEAM Works Course Catalog and choose from our offerings, recruit classmates, and earn discounted or free classes for their student.

We additionally look forward to hosting learning workshops, community events, camps, birthday parties, and more in our new Lowe Mill space. A variety of memberships will also be available for adult learners interested in having access to a makerspace, and learning to use tools such as 3-D printers, laser cutters, woodworking tools, metalworking tools, and more!

*Students construct a laser cut TARDIS model at Huntsville STEAM Works*

Huntsville STEAM Works School Outreach

As an educational non-profit organization, we also bring outreach and enrichment STEAM education programs to schools and organizations throughout the area. Some of these programs include FIRST LEGO® League Robotics teams, LEGO® WeDo for the K-2 crowd, Minecraft, and more! We’re also in the process of partnering with Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama to offer programs catered to GSUSA’s new STEM-based badges and Journeys. We’re trying to reach out to as many schools and programs as we can, but we welcome contact from teachers, administrators, and community leaders to express program interest as we move into 2018.

If you’re interested in learning more, we encourage you to follow us on Facebook, or you’re more than welcome to contact Education Director Jennifer Johnson (that’s me!) at [email protected].

Think it! Invent it! Create it!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jennifer Johnson is Education Director of Huntsville STEAM Works. She is also a veteran homeschool mom, youth organization volunteer, graphic designer, artist, and is currently in the process of earning P-12 visual arts teacher certification at UAH.

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As a hyper-local website focused on all aspects of parenting in and around Morgan County, and the Tennessee Valley, River City Mom occasionally asks local parents to submit their stories for publication. This is part of our continual effort to represent varied viewpoints and experiences on our site. However, these articles should not be seen as necessarily expressing the views of Rocket City Mom Media Group, LLC.