The Power of Transformation
According to the dictionary, the definition of transformation is “a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance.” That is exactly my goal when students are with me during STEAM class! I want students to understand that they have the power to create new inventions or transform existing products or services for the better.
This year our annual Family Day of Code, Tinkering and Play √36.0 aims to communicate that message to everyone attending; the power we all have to transform. The inspiration for this year’s event came from four pioneers who made significant transformations in their respective fields.
Thanks to Susan Kare we can use computers the way we use them today. She began her career at Apple, Inc. as the screen graphics and digital font designer for the original Macintosh computer, initially advertised as “the computer for the rest of us.” According to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Susan Kare is “a pioneering and influential computer iconographer. Since 1983, Kare has designed thousands of icons for the world’s leading companies. Utilizing a minimalist grid of pixels and constructed with mosaic-like precision, her icons communicate their function immediately and memorably, with wit and style.”
Milly Zantow pioneered the plastics recycling movement and invented the numbered-triangle system used for identifying different kinds of plastic. Milly Zantow was born in 1923 on an Oklahoma farm. After high school, she gave up several college scholarships to care for a sister who was sick. She took night classes, sometimes going without eating to afford school; and when World War II broke out, she went to work for the federal agency now known as NASA. On a trip to Japan in 1978, she was impressed by their system of recycling after watching people set out sorted waste materials every day. After studying the waste materials at landfills in Wisconsin where she lived at the time, she noticed how much plastic there was so she developed a system that is now used worldwide to identify and separate the seven different types of plastic for recycling.
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs need no introductions. They were rivals, competitors and eventually became friends. Both are known for their roles in the revolution of science and technology. They have enabled individuals to have a comfortable life because of their useful inventions. This is because their inventions have simplified methods of carrying out various tasks.
Four people with different backgrounds, different interests succeeded to transform products or processes that have changed lives forever: that’s the power of transformation.
We invite you to join us for our Family Day of Code, TInkering and Play √36.0and get inspired to transform tinkering materials into toys in our “What’s your Forky?” Family Challenge, to code with your kids, to try out our escape room, and to play with our robots in our Robotics Olympic Games. Everyone with children ages PreK-8th grade is invited to participate at no charge, although registration is required to receive a light lunch and free children’s T-shirt (while quantities last). To register, please click here.
As always I am an email away. See you on Sunday, November 17th (or sooner at school).
Shabbat Shalom,
Vanina
