If you missed The STEM Dreams Festival this past Memorial Day weekend, don't worry I have a full recap that's about to go down RIGHT NOW! I was honored to attend the STEM Dreams Festival hosted by STEM Atlanta Women. I headed over to the McCamish Pavillion located on the campus of Georgia Institute of Technology Saturday afternoon, and couldn't wait to see all of the STEMpreneurs and learn more about their businesses.
STEM Atlanta Women is a non-profit 501c(30) organization founded in 2016 by Atlanta native, innovator, human resources business professional and technology guru Maxine Cain. STEM Atlanta Women was created to enlighten, educate and empower women and girls to take advantage of the global opportunities in STEM while acquiring skills needed to compete and succeed in the 21st Century and beyond.
The ticket for the day included; 1. Access to the STEM Dreams festival 2. The first ever Tip-off Tailgating experience 3. A seat in the arena to watch Atlanta’s own WNBA team; The ATL Dream home opener for the 2018 season. (What a steal huh?)
Exhibitors included ladies of all ages from different organizations that are making moves all over Georgia!
Let's take a look at some of the STEMpreneurs...
COOK ME UP A NOTCH
As I made my way around the exhibit hall, the first table I came across was Cook Me Up a Notch.
I was greeted by the 14 year old self-proclaimed pastry princess Ashalah Michelle and her mother.
Cook me up a Notch is a business that focuses on cookies, cakes, and other culinary creations. 14-year-old Chef Ashalah created this business in 2016 and it has since expanded to more products and opportunities. She teaches STEAM to kids through her bakeology infused program. The experiments Ashalah incorporated in her bakeology demonstration today were focused on how yeast in chemistry is created.
Ashalah also has a STEMpreneur program where she incorporates a dream board activity to see what entrepreneur endeavors the participants are interested in pursuing. Each participant is asked to identify their goals, aspirations and talents to see what jobs they can create on their own. Chef Ashalah also has her very own subscription box also! Each box contains premeasured color coordinated ingredients and a bakeology how-to recipe. Every recipe has STEAM integrated in it which can translate into an at-home lesson for kids.
Although she is just a freshman in high-school, Ashalah informed me that she has future endeavors of majoring in Business and Minoring in Math at Spelman College. She decided to start the company because of her passion for baking she inherited from her grandmother. After looking up recipes on YouTube, she eventually decided to make them her own.
Find out more information and connect with Chef Ashalah!
Website: https://www.cookmeupanotch.com/
Instagram: @cookmeupanotch
Twitter: @cookmeupanotch
Facebook: @cookmeupanotch
Next up... Buttercup STEAM
Atlanta’s Best Coding Camp: Buttercup STEAM
Buttercup STEAM was founded in 2017 by husband and wife duo Aisha and Daniel Flores. Fusing Aisha’s 20+ year electronic engineering and software developing background with Daniel’s 20+ years of professional artistry skills, laid the perfect groundwork for Buttercup STEAM.
Buttercup STEAM is a robotics and coding camp for girls where they are taught how to code, build, and program robots. At the end of the week long camp, each young lady gets to take the robot that they build home with them. Their STEAM summer program is for elementary, middle, and high school students ages 7-14.
Not only does the Flores family give back to young girls interesting in coding, but also actively in their community visiting various educational institutions.
Why is one of the focuses centered around girls?
Aisha explains how there is a disparity with women of color participating in STEAM like activities that eventually translate into careers. That is one major pinpoint with the organization.
Website: https://www.buttercupsteam.io/
Instagram: @buttercupsteam
Twitter: @buttercupsteam
Facebook: @buttercupsteam
Jazzy Rocks!
Based on 7 year old Jasmine Thomas’ experience with STEM, Jazzy Rocks is a fresh new take on foundational experimentation measures featuring rocks. When little Jazzy starting bringing rocks into the home, her mother admitted that she was slightly hesitant at first but quickly realized Jazzy is a scientist in the making. Since the family is in a STEM community, they decided to come up with a foundational experiments incorporating rocks.
Jazzy Rocks stresses the importance that things kids see every day are apart of STEM. In her experiement, Jazzy shows other kids how to make their own sedimentary rocks by using starburst candies and their strength.
Check out Jazzy’s STE(A)M Trivia quiz on Kahoot!
1. Download the Kahoots mobile app
2. Search for “Expresso Presents”… look for Rock Trivia by “Rockstar” Jazzy
3. Select New Game, then pick the Curious Crew” option
4. Now Get Ready To show what you know!
New games with STEAM related topics are released every week
Atomic Robotic Dogs
Pictured L to R: Darlin, Daniela, Diana, Rachell and Natasha
Atomic Robotic Dog is a FRC robotics team comprised of 11 students representing Booker T. Washington High School (and is currently looking to recruit more students to join). The young ladies Diana de Leon (10th), Daniela Castillo (11th), Darlin Hernandez (11th), Natasha Ellis (11th), and Rachell Martin (10th) are just shy of 3 years competing with the team.
They have built 3 robots so far, and the most recent one pictured, earned them 19th place out of 100+ Georgia teams at the State Power Up Robotics Competition in Gainesville, Ga. The team also received the Engineering Innovation and the Innovation in Control Award. This robot lifts boxes off of the floor and shoots them out by way of a switch for gaming purposes. The accumulation of points throughout the various competition matches determines whether or not each team advances to the finals.
Electrical Engineer Natasha giving a demonstration on how to dismantle the battery
The team not only builds their own robots at the Johnson Research and Development Center (Daniela states that the MARTA is one of their sponsors...lol), but they show younger kids how to build and create their own competition... STEM robotics seems to be a great niche for these high school students!
I wanted to know a little more as to how they received the ‘Engineering Inspiration Award’ and Diana said this;
“We won that because we helped the kids and the community to build that robot. The community where we are in South West Atlanta does not receive too much help, based off of that those kids are not interested in STEM… especially engineering. We help them get interested and fuel their creativity.”
Atomic Robotic Dogs
Team Coach: Michael Howard
Contact: michowardbtwrobotics@gmail.com
Phone: (404)-441-0017
Website: http://atomicroboticdogs.wixsite.com/6177
Instagram:@6177ard.bark
Twitter:@6177ard.bark
Facebook: @6177ard.bark