The following are activities that students can use on their own, or professors can use with their class, to navigate the projects on the STEAMFest 2022 site!

How can I use these activities?

These activities can be done as part of class time or through your class ePortfolio site. Additionally, each project has its own “comments” page where people can comment, react, and reflect. Consider using these activities for penning a response in the comments section on the STEAMFest site, so that the project creators get feedback and appreciation!
  1. Curate an interdisciplinary exhibition
  2. Create a meme
  3. STEAMfest BINGO
  4. Personal treasure hunt
  5. Class treasure hunt
  6. Theme exploring
  7. BioBlitz superlatives

Curate an Interdisciplinary Exhibition 

Goals: Explore thematic threads between Sem. 1 and Sem. 3 projects
  • Browse other students’ projects from both seminars 1 and 3.  Look for trends or resonances in content, research questions, and visuals or media.
  • Choose at least 2 projects (one from Sem. 1 and one from Sem. 3) that you think could be put into conversation with one another:
    • What do you see that links the works together? Why would it make sense to you to encounter these projects together in a joint exhibition?
    • Are there questions you would ask the authors of both projects?
    • How does each project’s approach to the topic influence what or how you learn about it?
  • Write up a brief introduction to your virtual exhibition that outlines key issues and themes and how they are approached by both projects.

Create a Meme

Goals: Engage with the work of Macaulay peers in a way that is interpretive as well as creative, and adds another layer of meaning to the projects
  • Make memes inspired by a Seminar 1 and a Seminar 3 project. Use the project’s featured image as the visual basis for your meme, or find images online. Get creative with your message, or use one of the prompts below to get started.
  • Add your meme to the comment page for the project, so it can be displayed for others to enjoy! Include a short explanation of how your meme interprets the original project.
  • Prompts
    • Sum up the project in your own terms: What’s your take on the main theme of a Seminar 1 project? What’s the significance of the outcome of the hypothesis for a Seminar 3 project? Meme it!
    • Give your reaction to the project: How did a Seminar 1 project make you feel? What was surprising about the results from a Seminar 3 project? Meme it!
    • Promote a social justice message from the project: Does a Seminar 1 project say something important about representation? Does a Seminar 3 project reveal a pressing environmental issue? Meme it!

STEAMFest BINGO

Goals: Explore and engage with student projects
  • As a class, create a list of things to find. “Find someone who….” “Find something that…”
  • Play with your class during Zoom time; the first few people to get a diagonal, vertical, or horizontal line call out “Bingo” and share some of what they found.
  • Play on your own or before class until you get a diagonal, vertical, or horizontal line. Share what you found in class or on your course ePortfolio.

Personal treasure hunt 

Goals: Explore and engage with student projects
  • Answer one of these questions:
    • “Find something that moves you. Why did it move you?”
    • “Find someone who researched or created something based on a topic that also interests you. What did you learn from it, or what from your own knowledge and experience would you tell the project maker?”
    •  “Find a project that covered a topic that was totally new to you, or from which you learned something surprising.”
  • Take your answers and:
    • Discuss as a class in a synchronous class meeting.
    • Comment on the project page with your reactions based on these questions.
    • Post on the course portfolio.

Class treasure hunt 

Goals: Explore and engage with student projects
  • As a class, decide on a few things to find and discuss. For example:
    • “Find someone who helped us understand something new about going to school from home.”
    • “Find a project that provides insight into inequity and social justice.”
  • Individually or in breakout rooms, choose a question or questions and explore the STEAMfest website to find your answers
  • Share your answers in class, on your course ePortfolio, or through the projects’ comment section.

Theme exploring

Goals: Explore thematic threads between arts and sciences projects; explore and engage with student projects
  • Choose a post under a theme that interests you (or, take the opposite tack, and choose a theme that would usually not interest you).
  • To engage with the post, try asking yourself one of these questions:
    • What questions does this bring to mind?
    • What parallel STEM or arts themes might be related?
    • Brainstorm a list of words that this project makes you think of (as many  as you can in 60 seconds). How do these words relate to science and/or art? Do any overlap?
    • Each project has a category or categories it falls under. Do you see a different theme or theme for some of these projects?
  • After looking at a few posts:
    • How would you recategorize some of these projects, what projects would you bring together under a new, different theme?

BioBlitz Superlatives

Goals: Seminar 3 students practice applying the different science senses to engage with BioBlitz-based projects
  • Use each of the three science senses—Data Sense, Number Sense, and Knowledge Sense—to determine a winner and a runner-up in the following categories.
  • Announce your awardees and explain your selections in a post on your Seminar 3 class site or in the comments sections of the winning project pages.
  • Categories:
    • Best project design adapted to remote BioBlitz format
    • Most surprising outcome to a hypothesis using BioBlitz data
    • Best effort to communicate scientific findings to a wide audience
    • Most compelling data visualization
    • Most compelling title
Credit: Icon made by inipagistudio from www.flaticon.com