We’d love for you to get to know the SteamHead team better. In this series of posts, we ask the great people behind SteamHead some questions about the organization, the pandemic and their hobbies!
Starting it off with our co-founder, Carrie Leung.
What’s your proudest SteamHead moment?
Hard question, it’s like asking what’s your favorite movie! If I really had to say one thing, it’s that I know we created lasting change in the education community of Shenzhen that can be evidenced today - still going strong and continously evolving on it’s own (without us being there). The SteamHead community as a network has put makerspaces in schools, carved out roles for educators in the Maker Movement, celebrated student work at the School Maker Faire and MakeFashion Edu Runway events, inspired teachers and students (and these can be anyone - moms to grandparents to students) through opensourcing our methods, playbooks, resources and just simply by getting people into the same space. I experienced first hand through all the challenges and successes, that a group of people with a shared vision can definitely make a lasting difference.
What’s your favourite student project and why?
The first season of MakeFashion Edu left an immense impression on me. The season one cohort was magical for all of us. We felt like we were a team, we felt like our individual stories were being heard, we felt like each challenge made us stronger, we felt like our academic learning had relevant real world meaning behind it. Lucas, loved design, hid his talent for the fear of ridicule (bc boys shouldn’t like to design clothes) became an essential go to for help among his peers. Hayle, HATED math, started applying it to get her runway piece off the ground (by season two she conceded she needed math). Angela, Amy, and Lily learned not only to code and solder, but also finding their voice to speak about what their piece symbolized and why it should matter to all sorts of adults inlcuding the media. Coco became our engineering guru - helping everyone (including boys and older students) with their pieces. Peers that weren’t friendly before were now on the same team. While all of this magic was happening on the classroom level, the same was going on with the adults. It was a multi-school effort and the teachers, parents, and experts came together to share, learn, and put on the extravenganza. Socio-economic walls were broken down and a lot of great memories were made.
What’s the best part about working in SteamHead?
Hands down the people. Without the students, parents, educators, industry leaders, researchers, media folks there would be no SteamHead. SteamHeaders span across the globe, topics, skill sets, age, backgrounds and we support each other as needed. We are all moving in differenent ways toward the common goal of making relevant education assessible.
What are some things you’d like people to know about SteamHead?
- SteamHead runs 100% on volunteers donated time, expertise and resources.
- Until 2020, we operated with no exchanges of money. It was a thoughtful decision to help us and those who want to engage with us to focus what was important. This takes an immense amount of work and time to faciliate. In 2020, we decided to take money donations and exchanged our expertise for income in aid of emergency situations in schools in a timely manner.
What do you miss the most that you weren’t able to do during the pandemic?
I miss the SH makerspace in Shenzhen. I miss the SteamHead residents that come and stay for months at a time. We learned so much from each other. There are so many fond memories of that open space of meeting folks from all walks of life. We’d tinker together, ponder change together, and if things were aligned sprouted actions together. So many great things came to be with just being in an often hot and crowded space and some tools create together.
What is one positive thing that came out of the pandemic?
So much of what we do is hard to articulate. The world often wants metrics and evidence to prove things are achieved. I understand that. But there are so many things we do, our goals, and our vision - how does one accurately measure it? How do you measure the impact a teacher has on a student just by believing in them? How do you measure the agency a child develops by being allowed to run their own project? How do you measure the affect a mother has on her children as she starts to understand project based learning folds in a plethora of under valued critical skills for her kids? How do you measure the pivot to- one of understanding and questioning- instead of fear and insecurity when a student is posed with a challenge or a person that is unfamiliar? The most important takeaway from the pandemic is that it showed what we are doing at SH works. It proved to me that the things we build, teach and share whether tangible or intangible makes us positively contributing human beings. We acknowledged the situation and tried one solution after another. And when I say we I mean everyone in our network. I had young students confidently step up to the challenge of being head of household because their parents were essential workers. Citing the project management skills came in handy! I had students asking for help because they become local community leaders while their guardians worked. There were teachers sharing methods and resources. We had experts like Mike Shaw spin up a quick video on how to maximize online tools to help teachers that weren’t technical. We had a business donate a car so we can deliver kits to schools kids stuck at home. All the skills and mindsets we advocate at SteamHead, yea, it was utilized in full force in 2020.
How has the pandemic affected the way things in Steamhead are being done?
We’ve always had a “cloud community” our network being loosely connected online - this is now stronger. Support in the form of materials and tools are now donated with money equivelants. We believe a degree of online learning is here to stay forever, we have reallocated a bulk and time of resources in bringing our content online for free. This in fact has creately positive affects due to the fact we can reach more teachers and they can build on our materials. Our events like the School MakerFaire and MakeFashion Edu runway shows have pivoted us into the realm of the metaverse and virtual reality. It has been really fun and having a timeless showcase is a great way to share. This will be a component that SH will keep forever as it has the same positive affects of putting our content online for free.
What’s one topic that you could talk about for hours and hours?
History, humanities, and current events through the lens of economics and finance. I feel economics, monetary protocols, etc are a huge contributing factor in how it has shaped us as a species - I can talk about this forever! (People just glaze over when I start, and my friends kind of roll their eyes at me lol)
What’s your favorite season and why?
Oooh, I know this isn’t an answer, but it really depends on where I am. For example, if I’m in SF then it’s during Indian Summer Sep/Oct/Nov. If I’m in Shenzhen then Fall or Spring. Dry season for sure if I’m in Costa Rica. Wet season if I’m in Thailand.
What show/video/thing are you bingeing on right now?
Inside Job. An adult cartoon on Netflix. If you like Ricky and Morty - this tracks!
Learn more about Carrie by reading her profile here.