EM’s contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site took an important step in its efforts to support science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) education in Idaho with the formation of its weSTEAM program.
Office of Environmental Management
December 19, 2023
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IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — EM’s contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site took an important step in its efforts to support science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) education in Idaho with the formation of its weSTEAM program.
While the Idaho Environmental Coalition (IEC) program is new, its roots lie in EM’s longstanding STEAM outreach and focus on creating STEAM awareness in the community.
weSTEAM was formed to support science, teach technology, encourage engineering, associate art with science and magnify the importance of math to young people in Eastern Idaho.
Additionally, the program addresses a critical need in today’s market — filling the STEAM career gap. With an enormous need for people to fill technical and STEAM-based careers in the United States, IEC employees want to help Idaho’s budding minds to discover opportunities in STEAM education.
“There are a lot of employees here who would like to be able to give back to the community,” said Carl Gaufin, weSTEAM co-chair and a mechanical engineer with IEC’s engineering and design program. “weSTEAM serves as an organized gateway to doing this.”
For years, EM technical staff at the INL Site have committed support to STEAM outreach initiatives in Idaho, including Earth Day and Engineering Day events at the Idaho Falls Zoo and presentations in local classrooms.
Now, weSTEAM offers training to helps volunteers channel their passion and become effective teachers of technical subjects. They can learn how to use creative demonstrations to draw the attention of young audiences and ignite interest in STEAM.
Gaufin says well trained volunteers not only help their audiences learn, but they also leave youth with lasting impressions that the STEAM career path is worth exploring.
At the Museum of Idaho’s recent Night at the Museum event, a STEAM learning activity for kids from the Greater Idaho Falls Area, trained weSTEAM volunteers taught kids about stored energy and some uses of drones. Volunteers helped the young students construct their own stored energy rubber band drones.
“It was great to see the students unleash their own potential energy as they built the drones and let them fly,” said Gaufin. “Several of them even had alternative ideas they were going to pursue with their drones. That to me is a successful night: when an idea is shared and it grows into something else.”
Carl Gaufin, a weSTEAM volunteer, helps a student construct a stored energy rubber band drone.
EM crews have used drones to support their work, including a historic drone flight at the INL Site’s Calcine Disposition Project to collect valuable data from a safe but radiologically active storage facility.
Innovative minds breed innovative solutions. Looking to the future, programs like weSTEAM will play an important part in raising the next generation of innovators.
An intent of the program is to draw more people to science and engineering jobs through effective STEAM teaching.
As Gaufin sees it, weSTEAM is about building up young students to become the next generation of scientists and engineers while building up weSTEAM volunteers to become effective mentors and role models.
EM and IEC also support STEAM education in local schools through grants, which have been used to acquire robotics equipment, classroom science experiments, books and other supplies for local students.
-Contributor: Carter Harrison
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