STEAM at Boston Children’s Museum
From its founding, Boston Children’s Museum (BCM) was rooted in science thanks to the vision of the science educators who ultimately brought the museum to life. We honor those original founding educators through our Science Playground exhibit, where —to this day—visitors can explore Collections items from the natural world in Investigate, as well as an invitation to explore scientific concepts through Raceways and Bubbles. Art has also been a long established part of BCM, with a classroom dedicated to art creation and exploration with visitors, and many examples of collaboration with artists throughout the exhibits.
As STEM started gaining more focus in the professional and educational world, BCM continued its trend of innovation and created a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) team. We ultimately opened our program space, the STEAM Studio, in 2018. This brought together the science and art already highlighted in the Museum, weaving them together along with technology, engineering, and math. STEAM at BCM is an opportunity to spark or deepen interest in these disciplines, giving visitors an opportunity to try new tools, materials, or processes in a fun and low stakes environment. Programs are designed to help foster STEAM skills and habits of mind, which are ways of thinking and being that children can develop by making, inventing, investigating, exploring, and experimenting. These include curiosity, persistence, and creativity. Encouraging children to ask questions, make observations, and take risks to try something new builds these foundational ways of thinking to promote potential engagement in STEAM experiences in the future.
Today, drop-in programs in the STEAM Lab and Art Lab are available almost every day of the year. Visitors to the STEAM Lab may get the chance to try making balancing sculptures, experiment with what sinks and floats, or play with light and shadow. In the Art Lab, visitors can collage birds, draw a character based on a set of eyes, try out texture rubbing, or make their own zine.
STEAM Family Workshops (SFWs) are another iconic STEAM experience. These workshops are designed specifically to engage the older children in the Museum, namely children ages six and older with their caregiver. Adults and children work together or alongside each other to take part in 45- to 60-minute workshops with projects that range from sewing creatures, to wood burning, to papermaking, to LEGO robotics, and more! The Art Lab also offers a chance to go deeper with specialized workshops, often featuring professional artists who facilitate workshops with visitors. These Family Art Workshops are an opportunity for artists or our own STEAM staff to support visitors in diving deeper into art techniques and experiences, such as felting and designing personal flags based on empathy-driven conversations.
Our STEAM programming and events are designed to inspire visitors and invite them to try, experiment, play, and enjoy. It’s never too early to begin engaging children in STEAM, and never too late to inspire an interest in STEAM for the grown-ups visiting our spaces as well!
