The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘I saw it as a problem that I wanted to address’
Milford educator aims to make STEAM education awesome
MILFORD — When Diana Lockwood-Bordaña founded her organization STEAM Kids Awesome, the goal was to let students know there are people in the STEAM workforce that look like them.
“It’s my little small business. I want to bring it to my local community, give back and have access to STEAM,” said LockwoodBordaña.
Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics, otherwise known as STEAM, is a concept that has been around for years, but Lockwood-Bordaña said it has recently started spreading broader and faster.
“Most people know STEM, but in my own experience, when I integrated the arts, I saw more student participation,” said Lockwood-Bordaña. “I would say now is when STEAM is catching the most buzz because researchers like me have documented it, published it, and put it out there in the academic world.”
After teaching in Atlanta for 14 years, LockwoodBordaña decided to get a doctorate in STEAM after hearing her fourth grade students saying they didn’t like math and science.
“It was disheartening,” she said. “I saw it as a problem that I wanted to address.”
Graduating in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she saw an opportunity to educate children stuck inside.
“I started making little activity kits for them at home and gave them away because I wanted people to have activities,” LockwoodBordaña said. “I started making videos on TikTok and YouTube and shared them with people with other people who were interested in doing experiments using their bathtub, or in the kitchen or the basement. It just started to catch on.”
Lockwood-Bordaña later took her research from her dissertation and wrote and published the “Kid Scientist Handwriting Activity Book” and the “STEAM Kids Guide 2 Awesome!”
“I taught them how to set up their own maker space in their house and then using basic things in their house how they can do the activity and then relate it to an actual job in that field,” she said. “If kids know they can focus on birds or fix the ocean or study sharks, then more kids might buy into science at an earlier age.”
Through her consulting business, STEAM Consulting, Lockwood-Bordaña has worked with many organizations, including the Discovery Channel, and most recently, she participated in Shop Small Saturday on Nov. 26.
“I was at the Thomas Building here in Milford, and I sold out of my explosion kit, my eruption kit, invisible ink, and my robots kit,” she said. “I was shocked and couldn’t believe it.”
Lockwood-Bordaña also tries to remain inclusive, donating over 100 books last year, including to Milford-based Boys and Girls Village, the Milford Library and the Milford schools system.
“I’m just trying to get as many kids access,” she said. “It’s so close to my heart to ensure people who can’t afford books still have access to them.”