2021 Conference Details

The 2021 NV STEAM Conference explored theme around “Design Thinking,” a strategy used by artists, designers, and scientists alike. The “Design Thinking Process” (Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test) is an approach that can be used across all disciplines and is critical in developing 21st Century skills that translate from the classroom to the workforce.

 

The 2021 NV STEAM conference was presented virtually, enabling us to expand our reach and unite educators from across the state. The NV STEAM conferences will featured keynote presentations by Dr. Danah Henricksen and Dr. Punya Mishra encouraging educators to think about arts integration by applying STEAM and design thinking concepts in the classroom. An additional keynote by Dan Goods, Visual Strategist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory included a look into the work of artists and designers in NASA’s “The Studio” and their valuable collaboration scientists and engineers. Workshops included artist Kal Spelletich who explroed the process of ideation and prototyping to inspire citizen artists and citizen scientists, NASA educators will encouraged experimentation in a rover prototyping workshop, Desert Research Institute’s Tiffany Pereria looked at the history of the dromaeosaur and how we can using fossils to build narratives and uncover new discoveries. Additional workshops were facilitated by the Discovery Children’s Museum and the Smith Center for Performing Arts.

 

In addition to the virtual conference, the Museum installed a backdrop exhibition supporting the themes of the conference. Drawn from the permanent collections of the Nevada Museum of Art with several key loans from contemporary artists, the NV STEAM exhibition will highlighted the various ways that artists and scientists tackle difficult concepts making the inaccessible, accessible and the invisible, visible. Featuring artworks by NASA JPL’s “The Studio,” Trevor Paglen, Leo Villareal, Katie Peterson, among others, the exhibition focused on way in which scientists, artists, designers and engineers work across disciplines to apply concepts of innovation, question existing systems and seek visionary solutions to help us navigate and inform our future.

 

2021 NV STEAM CONFERENCE SPONSORS AND SUPPORTERS

Hosted in partnership with the Desert Research Institute’s Science Alive program. 

 

LEAD SPONSOR

Tesla, Lead Sponsor of the Museum’s STEAM education programs

 

MAJOR SPONSOR

Nevada Gold Mines

 

SUPPORTERS

Nevada Department of Education
Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation, and Technology
Nevada STEM Advisory Council
NV STEAM Subcommittee

 

EVENT COLLABORATORS

Discovery Children’s Museum, Las Vegas

NASA
Nevada State Museum
The Smith Center for the Performing Arts

2020 Conference Details


In 2020 the NV STEAM Conference theme was Where Art and Tech Collide. The theme focused on the T in STEAM, highlighting, celebrating, and critiquing the ways that artists and interdisciplinary practitioners are leveraging new and emerging technologies to change the way we see the world. Art about technology, art made with technology and art made by technology all help us explore our human relationship to the increasingly digital and artificial world of the future.

 

Linda Liukas, founder of Rails Girls, a global movement to teach young women programming, opened the keynote address for conference reminding teachers about the power of creativity, technology and entrepreneurship.

Hosted in partnership with the Desert Research Institute’s Science Alive program. 

Lead Sponsor Tesla 

Event Sponsors Nevada Gold Mines; Odyssey Foundation; City National Bank | An RBC Company 

Event Collaborators Discovery Children’s Museum, Las VegasNevada Arts CouncilNevada Department of EducationNevada Office of Science, Innovation, and TechnologyNevada STEM CouncilNV STEAM CommitteeSierra Arts FoundationThe Discovery – Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum; The Smith Center for the Performing Arts

2020 WORKSHOP DETAILS:

How do computers learn? And what are we teaching when we teach machines? Join Liukas for a workshop focused on creativity and computing in primary school education with crafts and computers intended for total beginners in the world of artificial intelligence.  If computer code is the Lego block of our time – a tool of creation – how do we teach curiosity, joy, and wonder to our kids? Join us for a workshop to learn the basics of how to bring creative technology education to your classroom.

 

Finnish author & illustrator Linda Liukas

Utilizing SketchUp! and recycled materials participants will create their own piece of Art-chitecture with purpose. This unit includes aspects of art history, technology, research, design thinking and the CORE art standards.  Bring your own internet ready device or share with a friend.

 

Jen Johanson, STEAM Lab Facilitator Depoali Middle School

The Nevada Museum of Art Educators bring the technology of the moving image to life.  Explore how historical developments influenced moving image technology and create a range of projects that highlight this evolution, from the zoetrope to the GIF. Designed to meet interdisciplinary STEAM standards in grades three through five but adaptable across the learning spectrum.

 

Nevada Museum of Art

For the past 3 years The Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation, and Technology (OSIT) has been awarding STEM designations to schools throughout Nevada. The next chapter in STEAM education is to create a Governors STEAM School designation.  Join Craig Rosen, DRI ScienceAlive Community Engagement and Professional Development Administrator along with OSIT, STEM Advisory Council, and NV STEAM Committee Leadership to help guide the future of STEAM in Nevada.  Participate in collaborative discussion, engaging activities, and workshopping of the guiding language that will help establish the new STEAM School framework and create an avenue for schools to bring fully integrated STEAM Education to generations of Nevada students.

 

Craig Rosen, Desert Research Institute – Science Alive

While science, technology, engineering, and math give us lenses to explore how and why the world works, art reminds us what is at stake. What happens when we allow these fields to cross-pollinate and harness the power of STEAM?

In this workshop, we will explore how students can learn core curriculum content from an interdisciplinary angle, with an emphasis on engaging both the left and right sides of the brain. Instructors will come away with resources for using spoken word as a vehicle to process and recall complex information across a range of content areas.

From painting to photography to film and now even virtual reality, artists have always been able to adapt and adopt ever evolving technologies for expression. As participants shall see, the exhibition artists have utilized technology to push the boundaries of art and self-expression by fusing the two seemingly different mediums. In this workshop participants will utilize the app “Procreate” on iPad Pros to mold their own creative responses in the form of digital art to a specific piece in the gallery or the exhibition as a whole. Attendees will be given instruction on the various tools available in the procreate app to effectively illustrate their own views and opinions about their desired subject. This creative experience highlights how artists can begin to see the world through a different sometimes digital lens.

 

Joe Morales

Join the educators of the Nevada Museum of Art to discover how action and motion help influence art making.  Create art

inspired by the Abstract Impressionists using a range of tools from marbles to robots.

 

Nevada Museum of Art

Ignite your passion for providing your innovative learners with hands-on opportunities! In this workshop designed by art teacher & Nevada Arts Council Roster Teaching Artist Elizabeth Brooks, participants are empowered with techniques from the art room. Beginning with attention to the skill of observation, participants will become immersed in a hands-on STEAM lesson using familiar classroom materials and varied artmaking techniques.  You will examine instances where technology, built upon interdisciplinary skill sets from math and the elementary art room, are used to solve modern problems. Experience Elizabeth’s instruction and replicable strategies to managing students and materials simultaneously to cut out chaos and maximize discovery.

 

Elizabeth Brooks

Join us as we explore digital art projects designed to spark creativity in students and discover how science and technology influence creative industries involving art, design and fashion. Learn how circuitry, conductivity and photography intersect in this engaging STEAM style workshop. Design “flashy” wearable LED accessories and capture your creations using a unique light painting technique! This engaging workshop places creativity at the forefront, with technology playing a powerful supporting role.

 

The Discovery – Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum & Discovery Children’s Museum Las Vegas