STEAMtank offers more than just child’s play
Engineering and design students create interactive museum exhibits
Robert Kittle, an industrial design student, assists a child at the Go! activity, one of several interactive, student-designed stations that were part of the STEAMtank exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Phoenix in May. The project, created to inspire elementary-age children to purse STEM studies, is an annual collaboration between the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, and The Design School, part of ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. Photographer: Erika Gronek/ASU
“How do you create a real passion for engineering?” Daniel McCarville asks.
McCarville is a professor of practice in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, who took up an academic role after a lengthy career as an industrial engineer in the microelectronics industry.
His journey began not on the bookshelf but on the toy shelf.
“For me, I really connected with engineering back in the second grade, when my dad bought me a rocket kit,” he says.
Fun can turn learning into an adventure — with the launch of a toy rocket, a child can blast off into an exploration of the laws of physics. For engineers like McCarville, that early sense of play transformed into a lifelong thrill of figuring out how the world works.
With that thought in mind, McCarville was intrigued by work underway in the in The Design School, part of ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, where Craig Hedges, a clinical assistant professor of industrial design, had developed STEAMtank.
Hedges leads STEAMtank, a two-semester, interdisciplinary class open to all students that gives undergraduate ASU students opportunities to design and build museum exhibits to teach young children about STEAM, or Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math, an updated acronym that reflects the need to incorporate the arts into technical education.
The program is part of The Design School’s InnovationSpace, a center that brings together students to tackle real-world challenges — not just as classroom exercises, but through hands-on engagement with industry, community groups and researchers.
A few years ago, Hedges and McCarville began to work together to ensure that both engineering and design students were participating in the program and to seek out community support. Their efforts culminated in the STEAMtank exhibition held at the Children’s Museum of Phoenix in May.
Herberger industrial design students Cameryn Franklin (left) and Jessica Marencic (right) assist a child in creating a toy racecar. The ASU students helped children build their own cars and demonstrated how changes in the designs, like using different bodies and wheel sizes, would affect the vehicle’s performance on the toy test track. Photographer: Erika Gronek/ASU
Full STEAM ahead
Like McCarville, Hedges believes that hands-on experiences are essential for learners at all levels.
“STEAMtank began with a desire to get students into the shop and encourage them to build something with their hands,” Hedges says. “While a lot of industrial design uses digital tools, it’s still important for students to see how projects are actually fabricated.”
The Design School is the home of the Prototype Modeling Shop, which has comprehensive woodworking, metal fabrication and plastic fabrication capabilities. Over the course of a year, ASU industrial engineering and design students work cooperatively in the shop to develop, design and build museum exhibits.
While the students try hard to make the exhibits visually engaging and fun, they also make sure that STEAMtank isn’t just about play — it’s a sneaky-smart way to get kids thinking like engineers.
This May, more than 300 elementary-age children from the Phoenix area visited the STEAMtank exhibition. They got to design and race their own mini cars, learning how things like weight distribution and friction affect speed. They launched air rockets and explored how air pressure and aerodynamics influence flight. It was part science lab, part imagination playground. And 100% kid-approved.
The exhibit was supported by the Richard Caris Foundation and W.L. Gore and Associates, the materials science company known for creating Gore-Tex, a breathable and waterproof fabric valued for its ability to keep people comfortable in varied weather conditions.
Fulton Schools engineering management student Sylvia Lopez helps a child assemble a toy rocket. At the Blast Off! exhibit, children designed their own rockets and launched them into a model solar system using an air pump. ASU students explained basic engineering concepts such aerodynamics as part of the process. Photographer: Erika Gronek/ASU
Encouraging little minds to dream big
The ASU students were excited to present their work and see kids interact with their creations. Jessica Marencic, a senior in Herberger’s industrial design program, says that she hopes the exhibit sparked the imagination of future designers, builders and engineers.
“We like to say that STEAMtank is about inspiring the future to inspire the future,” Marencic says.
Giovanny Buitron, a Fulton Schools engineering management student, agrees and hopes that the children left with an interest in scientific concepts.
“The exhibits are fun, and they can inspire kids to think more about physics or learn about the solar system,” Buitron says.
McCarville sees STEAMtank as providing opportunities for students to both learn and teach.
“The students were really jazzed to present their work,” he says. “And I think they learned a lot about interdisciplinary, cross-functional teamwork.”
