There is perhaps nothing more inspiring that seeing young children engaging in progressive education with enthusiasm and accomplishing great things. Take Gabrielle Nafie and Miles Pilchik for example, at the tender age of just 8 years old their film ‘Full S[T]EAM Ahead: How Technology Rocks the Classroom’ was featured at the inaugural White House Student Film Festival just over a month ago. Their mini-movie was picked for the event and U.S. President Obama himself spoke about the duo’s inspiration and aspiration.
The film, narrated by Gabrielle and Miles, shows how SciTech Kids afterschool, weekend and summer programs are rocking the classroom with STEAM programming. STEAM Lab focuses on the fusion of science, technology, engineering, art, math and other 21st-century skills. The kids, along with Kim Magloire, President of SciTech Kids, created the three-minute film for submission. SciTech Kids and its students are using Makerbot 3D printers in different capacities.
In his remarks, President Obama, said, “You’ve got Gabrielle Nafie and Miles Pilchik from SciTech Kids in New York. They showed us that their class isn’t just dreaming about going into space, they’re actually going into space. They designed density experiments and used a 3D printer to build tiny satellites to hold them. And then they actually launched a giant balloon that carried their satellites up to the edge of space – very cool – so they could collect the data. When I was in elementary school, I was not launching satellites into space!”
Kim Magloire of SciTech Kids said: “SciTech Kids gives young children the opportunity to see Science and Technology without limits. Having the ability to have our students’ work showcased at the White House is truly amazing but hearing President Obama speak about our kids and their work with such excitement is beyond anything I ever could have hoped for.”
Miles and Gabrielle will be working with conductive playdoh and talking about how they created experiments housed in 3D printed satellites at the Children Museum of Manhattan’s first Meet the Makers series that will kick off two weeks of Maker activities from the 12th of April.
You can catch the Full S[T]EAM Ahead video below:
And catch President Obama’s remarks on Miles and Gabrielle here.
