“Art with Ash” provides a fun, safe and relaxing space for teens to find an artistic outlet and tap into their creativity. Recently, Ash decided to bring something new to the table — bionics. So how did it go? We spoke to Ash to find out.
Festo Didactic: Ash, you recently introduced bionics at art night, how did it go? What was the reaction?
Ash: We have regularly scheduled art nights every other Thursday at River Bend Church in Austin, Texas for teens in foster care. What we've done recently is open up a bionics table. We received a bionic flower and two bionic fish from Festo. Two weeks ago was the first time we introduced the bionics and I was incredibly nervous because, to my understanding, when I talked with the kiddos they said they don't do STEM stuff like this at school. But to my surprise, everybody went nuts when they saw it! They were so excited, everybody wanted to do it.
As we were trying to get the activity going, I felt this pressure like, oh, we have to get it assembled then let the kids tinker with it. But what happened was the kids wanted to help figure out how to get it going. They were so into figuring out why is it not connecting to the wifi? What is the IP address? Where's the toggle? And so I realized, oh my gosh, this is part of the activity. This is what we want them to do - problem solve! We want them to work together. It was really amazing in that moment to realize that this in fact is part of it. I don't know why I didn't think about that from the beginning. I was more thinking like, oh, we have to get it all ready and then let them figure out how to use it.
When we got it going, it was like a big celebration. Everybody was so excited that we got it turned on and got it moving. It was really interesting to see how the kids interacted and responded to the fish. I just wasn't expecting all of it. And so it was really fun. And as a group, we were cheering together and the kids were already thinking, "Okay, when I come back to work on this next time, we need to do this and this and this." One kid even said, "I have a fish in my room and I'm going to study the way it swims because there's something we're doing wrong."
Festo Didactic: It sounds like the bionics were a good fit and not too intimidating for a STEAM exercise?
Ash: The truth is, there's a lot of problem solving in art. I never realized that the bionics could be so creative and fit in with what we do. At first, I was intimidated by the concept. I was like, I think this could go well. But a small part of me was also like, I don't know how this is going to go. Let me just introduce it. But they were so excited. So the plan moving forward is to always have bionics at the table.
On art night, our activities are meant to be fun, relaxing and a time to unwind and have a good time. We are not presenting the bionics in a school curriculum type setting. We're presenting them in a creative setting, if that makes sense. It's more of an artistic and creative time than a structured educational setting for school.
Festo Didactic: Do you think being hands-on with the bionics will inspire curiosity and conversation around STEM career choices?
Ash: I have one kiddo, she wants to be a marine biologist so she was really into it. And she already called dibs on being at the bionics table next time. Those conversations will absolutely come up, and we'll absolutely talk about those things.
We’re still right out of the gate but in two weeks time we saw engagement, we saw interest, we saw team building, we saw creativity, we saw encouragement, we saw all of that. But I think we still need to become more familiar with it. Keep repeating it, and repeating it, and repeating it. I think once we all become a little more familiar and comfortable with the operation of it, we'll really hit on all those conversation points.
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