STEAMpunk Adventures Holiday Programs
Around YOUR World in ONE Day
Calling artists, performers, creators, technologists and inventors!
Around YOUR World in ONE Day gives students the freedom to explore the world around them as a team through fun and engaging activities, which expose them to design thinking underpinned by project and inquiry-based learning.
Inspired by the STEAMpunk movement, we invite students to use their imagination to discover real-world problems that they can solve by applying technology, props and costumes in novel and original ways.
Leading with Arts and Humanities with focus on real-world problems we look at STEM through a different lens to create the STEAM required to power our future.
Students will be guided through activities of forming teams > exploring their world for problems > selecting their project > designing & inventing solutions > presenting their solution > optionally entering a draw to win access to our comprehensive programs.
Ideal for students years four to nine, and can be tailored for any school age.
Are you interested in running these programs at your school?
Program Outline for Students
Calling all creators, technologists & inventors!
STEAMpunk is an inspired movement of creativity and imagination. Use clothing, props & technology in new and unique ways to explore & change your future (or past). Present your ideas and inventions using art, film, writing, images, audio or other media.
The WHY
In our world today, it is hard to imagine how we would survive without technology. And to figure out what we can do to improve the outcomes.
We invite you to come with us on an adventure to learn more about how human intelligence and technology intersect and interact. What is the right balance? Is there a right balance? Where do arts, creativity and other 21st Century skills fit in.
Some people feel a bit lost and don’t understand STEM or technology. Let’s explore and have some fun with STEAMpunk.
The WHAT
Put your own dream team together & come along for a ride. Your team can be any size, but we believe 4 – 7 is ideal. Invite your friends.
Find a problem that you as a team are passionate about and come up with ideas & inventions to solve.
Use your imagination, change things around, add seemingly unrelated information and props. Does that make for a better world?
Decide how you want to pitch our present your idea and submit your pitch with a chance to win team access to the comprehensive Around YOUR World in Eight Weeks STEAMpunk Expedition.
The WHO
We believe this program will be most fun for students in years 4 to 9. Adults. e.g. parents, teachers, youth workers, can participate to help guide, but not contribute.
The guideline is that the young people are given free rein to invent and explore together, come up with inventions and to present their journey in any way that they see fit… drawings, story telling, audio, interviews, video, images, an essay, song and dance… their preferred method of expression as a team.
Don’t have a team? We will find a team for you on the day.
The WHEN
The face-to-face program is available through select schools during the school holidays in Western Australia.
Each day will be a standalone program and aligned with school days.
The programs can be customised for other formats and we are planning to set up an online version for students who are not associated with a participating school.
Contact us for more information.
The HOW
It’s a fairly simple process
- Explore & form team
- Explore your world for problem(s)
- Invent & design solution(s)
- Present your invention
Your presentation is what we will use to select the winners. There are no wrong or right answers. This is exploratory and we look forward to seeing how you map out this journey and present it.
We have no doubt that you will have fun and come up with plenty of ideas, but to help you along the way, we will provide a suggested approach, guiding questions and samples every day.
All you need is LOW-TECH
Think you need advanced tech to participate? Think again.
We want everyone to be able to enjoy this, so the only thing you need is an email address and one device per team so you can participate online and do your research. We will be suggesting a couple of easy to use digital platforms, but they are not mandatory.
What you will need is:
- Can-do attitude
- Collaborative team
- Creativity & critical thinking
- Communication skills
- Paper, post-it notes
Program Resources
Are you interested in running these programs at your school?
Why STEAMpunk?
STEAMpunk is an inspired movement of creativity and imagination, where people use clothing, props and technology in novel and original ways. It invites images of the Victorian era and the Wild West, ideas of fascinating machines and fanciful costumes, etiquette and wit, playfulness and adventure.
It is a wonderful backdrop for inspiring youth to develop research skills, learn about history, engage in collaboration, and gain numerous other essential skills for 21st century learning.
STEAMpunk incorporates ideas such as retro-futurism and anachronisms. It imagines certain discoveries never happened and impossible or unknown inventions exist. It dresses up gadgets and makes them fashionable, it runs with illogical designs, and invites creativity and play. Technology as we know it progresses in a logical way, with each discovery building on previous discoveries. But what would happen if something changed – what would the impact be on future discoveries and events?
Books and movies have expanded on these ideas, with a fascination in machines, gadgets and weaponry, that are innovative, creative and out of this world! These classics include The Golden Compass, Back to the Future, BladeRunner, Dr. Who, Studio Ghibli films, and Around the World in 80 Days, by Jules Verne. Verne’s novels are often called the earliest versions of STEAMpunk literature. They imagine different pasts and futures than the ones we have experienced. They contain a spirit of discovery and adventure, with an individualistic “can-do” attitude, and a belief that anyone can do anything with enough science and nerve.
By playing with these ideas, understanding the advantages and disadvantages of technology, learning about cause and effect, and adding creativity and imagination, we will have a fun and accessible journey of learning and discovery. We will offer opportunities to see the benefits and shortcomings of technology and create innovative solutions that harness the best qualities in humans and technology, through inventive projects, daily check-ins, and powerful questions to stimulate ideas. We will be the heros in our own STEAMpunk adventure!
There are unlimited possibilities for creating new futures, innovative technologies and funky fashions while learning important skills for 21st century learning.
Are you interested in running these programs at your school?
Program Rules
1. Organiser
The program is being run by STEAM Engine Global, a social enterprise that aims to bridge the gap and develop career pathways for disadvantaged population groups. Part of the challenge is that a lot of young people feel disengaged and alienated in a world underpinned by technology. The goal is to inspire, enable and empower the learners through bringing in 21st Century skills in a fun, personalised project-based learning environment where the learners have agency in their own learning through relevance and choice.
2. The Program
“Around your world in one days – a STEAMpunk Excursion” is part of the STEAMpunk Adventures Series of affordable, low-tech, blended programs inspired by the STEAMpunk movement. Participants are encouraged to think outside the box and not be limited by time and space while they explore the interaction between human skills and technology, Arts and STEM in their own world and try to come up with “inventions” that can improve the outcomes.
3. Program Dates
The program will be run face-to-face through participating schools during Australian School holidays.
An online version of the program is being planned for future holidays.
4. What will Students Get out of the Program
All participants will be provided with a certificate each for their participation, copies of cheat sheets, templates and references, a team workbook a STEAMpunk Adventures gift.
If the team chooses to submit a video pitch, they will enter a draw with a chance to win free team entry to the “Around the world in eight weeks – a STEAMpunk expedition” program, which commences later in 2020. The team is free to invite additional members or gift the prize to other teams.
The teams will have an option to be featured on the STEAMpunk Adventures videocast to be launched later this year.
There is no payout in cash. Prize must be collected in one transaction.
5. Teams and registration
- Participants can only register through participating schools
- Teams will be set up as the first activity on the day
- Each team can consist of 2 or more members and we recommend 4-7 as a great team size.
- The online program is designed for ages 10-14.
- The team must be led by youth and can be supported or facilitated by adults if required.
- During registration, we will ask for information about the team members, including age
- Submissions must be online through a mechanism that will be made available during the competition.
6. Purpose of collection of information
STEAM Engine Global Pty Ltd collects personal information only as part of the entry in order to conduct the competition.
By submitting an entry, entrants agree that the STEAM Engine Global may, for an indefinite period, unless otherwise advised, use the personal information collected from the entry for promotional, marketing and publicity purposes for the competition, for internet posts and/or for future communication.
Details are documented in our Privacy Policy.
Would you like this program at your school?
If your school does not offer holiday programs like this, feel free to let us know and we will contact the school to see if we can make it happen.
Contact Info
Perth, Western Australia
steampunk@steamengine.global