All aboard!
American education is moving forward with full STEAM, and Disney has hopped on board with a special challenge.
In anticipation of their upcoming movie "Tomorrowland," the Magic Kingdom has teamed up with Xprize to launch Disney’s Create Tomorrowland - Xprize Challenge. The competition asks kids ages 8-17 to harness their best STEAM skills (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) to create an idea for a new invention that may exist in the future. Contestants are then challenged to present this imagined idea and explain the impact their innovation would have.
STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) has been in the forefront of U.S. education most prominently since President Obama launched “Educate to Innovate” in 2009, but the acronym has since been amended by some educators to add an “A” to the equation, and include arts in its mission.
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) has advocated for this addition with its STEM to STEAM initiative, which provides resources and case studies that support why adding the arts to STEM is necessary. "Innovation needs the arts education component to truly flourish," RISD President John Maeda told the Wall Street Journal.
To learn more about the challenge and how to enter, click here.