By Joëlle Walls
Published in GoSTEAM's A Program in Review 2018-2024
For music technology teacher Marcus Budner, each year of participating in GoSTEAM fueled his quest for deeper understanding and integration of arts in STEM. “I shifted from an instruction-focused class to an inquiry-based class,” he said. “Before, it was all about sticking to the plan. Now, when authentic learning moments arise, I’m willing to deviate and explore different topics as they come up naturally through student questions and inquiry.”
Throughout his four years of participation, students completed projects that included elements of coding, ranging from block coding to Python programming. One of the first coding projects in his classroom focused on creating a robotic orchestra.
“With Aaron Artrip as our innovator-in-residence, we learned about simple machines, mechanics, and percussion instruments, including the sounds they produce and how to actuate those sounds,” he said. “Then, the students designed mechanical machines to replicate those simple machine actions. We used an interactive microcontroller, coded to actuate the motors, to move the levers and create a drumbeat.”
Budner began collaborating with Sara Konecny when she joined Meadowcreek High School as a mechatronics teacher. She had previously served as an innovator-in-residence at Paul Duke STEM High School. “GoSTEAM was important to me as an innovator because I was able to combine two of my passions, costume design and STEM, and show students that it is possible to engage your right and left brain together to accomplish great things,” she said. “Now as a teacher routinely implementing STEAM project-based learning in my classroom, I see how important arts engagement can be. Reinforcing manufacturing technologies concepts through art-inspired projects pull in students that a traditional STEM curriculum may not reach.”
One of their first collaborations, which included theater teacher John King, involved sound design for the play “Our Shining Lives,” where time and clocks were key themes. “This project served as a great sound design unit. The theater students communicated their needs, and our students figured out how to best meet those needs based on their capabilities,” Budner said. “All the disciplines came together for a truly powerful performance. The mechatronics and music technology elements added a lot to the production.”
Last fall, Budner and Konecny teamed up again for a Halloween-themed project which involved building a pneumatic haunted chest complete with scary sound effects. “Students were able to express their creativity by customizing their animatronics, and every student received hands-on experience assembling, measuring, and calculating various pressure values of the pneumatic circuit,” Konecny said. “The payoff was worth it. When we put our final display in the cafeteria, everyone was amazed at the hard work the students had put it.”
