PDS STEAM EXHIBIT: Digital and physical displays of student-created shoes are one of many STEAM projects on display at the Anne Reid ’72 Art Gallery at Princeton Day School now through January 11.

An exhibit of STEAM-based student innovations is featured at Princeton Day School’s Anne Reid ‘72 Art Gallery through January 11. The Gallery is open to the public and all are welcome to explore the exhibit during school hours on days when classes are in session.

User-centered design thinking is at the heart of the innovations on display, which were developed to solve real-world challenges and user needs in multiple STEAM courses offered at PDS (along with a few independent projects submitted by students). The School’s STEAM faculty team has developed a curricular approach that relies on facilitating students to empathize with end-users and their challenges, desires, and needs, then ideate possible methods and solutions, prototype ideas into physical or digital form, and test their designs to observe, collect feedback, and refine their efforts.

Among the exhibit highlights are an automated garden hydration process using Arduino programming, based on watering and habitat research; Arduino-program-based thermostat innovations; LED displays programmed to dim and brighten using multi-meters; eyewear designed using Adobe-based vector graphics that guide laser cutting and engraving; a series of drawing styles to facilitate design development, including point perspective, orthographic, isometric, mechanical, exploded view, technical packaging, and color material finish drawing techniques; presentations on innovations of some of the most creative user-centered industrial designers, including Peter Behrens, Le Corbusier, Henry Dreyfuss, Luigi Colani, Charles, and Ray Eames, and others;  and athletic and other shoe designs, including digital and physical models, from a project that included Google-hangout sessions with Nike Jordan footwear designer Israel Mateo.

The STEAM Innovation exhibit was conceived of and installed by STEAM coordinator Jonathan Tatkon-Coker, with a focus on some of this fall’s hands-on student projects utilizing circuits, computer programming, computer graphics, art, design, and physical materials and engineering. Tatkcon-Coker says, “A key goal of the exhibit is to convey particular information about the excitement of STEAM innovation and make sure that the students are engaged with the possibilities. By showcasing this STEAM-related student work, we want to raise awareness not only among those at PDS but in the community beyond the School about what has been going on here and where we are going.”