STEAM Curriculum

After we offered a talk on how to integrate STEAM into curriculum at a garden at the APGA Conference HERE my colleagues and I at the Desert Botanical Garden were ready to take the next step. We had been beta testing the STEAM curriculum we developed focusing on biomimicry. We partnered with The Art Resource Center to develop post tour kits to take back to the classroom to further develop knowledge and skills about STEAM.

Below are the tours now offered by the DBG you can visit the DBG education page to book a tour based on STEAM, download the corresponding education standards and the pre and post tools.

Nature as a Problem Solver: A STEM Curriculum
2 hours, suggested for grades 1-4
Students are introduced to an exciting new way to look at nature as inspiration for solving human problems or biomimicry. Observation and experimentation with plants and works of art will encourage discussion, wonder, and creativity. Take-Away Post Visit Activity and Materials to be completed in classroom will be provided by the Desert Botanical Garden.

Solutions Inspired by Nature: A STEM Curriculum
2 hours, suggested for grades 5-8
Students are introduced to an exciting new way to look at nature as inspiration for solving human problems or biomimicry. Observation and experimentation with plants and works of art will encourage discussion, wonder, and creativity. Take-Away Post Visit Activity and Materials to be completed in classroom will be provided by the Desert Botanical Garden.

At Laboratory5 Inc. We bring together all elements of STEAM and tie them up into a package to promote the work each individual is doing in their fields to celebrate this work. We produce experiences so that those unfamiliar with the glorious, quirky, nerdy, geeky qualities of all areas of STEAM can be explored as an adventure to explain these fields.

Laboratory5 Inc. is a small business based in Tempe, Arizona

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Contact Us at anytime – we’d love to hear from you

October 20, 2013labfive Leave a comment

What is STEAM

It started with STEM . . . A great place to begin growth.

STEM is an acronym for SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS. The term is used as an education policy and a curriculum option for educators and policy makers.

We added STEAM . . . which we use to propel the other other areas of education.

STEAM is an acronym for SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, ART AND MATHEMATICS. The initiative began so that the arts and design would be included in STEM education.

The founder of this initiative is Georgette Yakman. The idea of adding the arts to the STEM acronym, allows for a formal way to link the subjects together and correspond them to the global socioeconomic world. Yakman’s defining sentence is: “Science and Technology, interpreted through Engineering and the Arts, all based in elements of Mathematics”

Laboratory5 Inc. is a small business based in Tempe, Arizona

Visit our website: Laboratory5 Follow us on Twitter: @lab5 Become a fan on Facebook: Laboratory5

September 20, 2013labfive Leave a comment

Plants from deserts of the world

Every year on Veterans Day and my birthday means a day at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Superior, AZ. I love the mountainous area, the plants from deserts around the world, the little streams of water scattered around and the occasional small waterfall trickling. At the front of the Arboretum there are demonstration gardens that are always so lovely and welcoming. I enjoy the Arboretum for it’s roughness different from a botanical garden.

About the Arboretum: Colonel William Boyce Thompson found his greatest interest in a house he built in the Arizona hills, near Superior. This is where he built his Picket Post house. When a friend asked him how much land he owned around Picket Post House, he replied, “I own it all as far as the eye can see, because I love it.” Thompson is reported to have been happier in his Picket Post home than any other time before. He picked Franklin J. Crider, University of Arizona, to establish the Boyce Thompson Southwest Arboretum on a portion of the 400 acres he owned. The initial mission of the Arboretum was to study the plants of different desert countries and to make the results available to the public.

Garden for me is also a perfect cross section of science, feats of natures engineering and artistic expression. STEAM at it’s finest.