Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics all have one thing in common. They all are areas which encourages innovation. Whether it’s building a robot, working with simple machines or seeing how a beam of light can be changed while going through prisms, they are all in the STEAM area.
When President Obama made the call to action to improve our work in the science area in 2011, a group of educators went into action. We started an after-school science club that first year, and since that time we have added the other STEAM elements to our educational efforts.
Since our inception in 2011, our club has seen hundreds of students join us in enjoying scientific projects. The after-school group was established by former high school science teacher, David Palmieri. Mr. Palmieri was the leader of the group and came up with the laserbeamsandrobots.com name. Mr. Palmieri retired in 2018 after a 32-year career in teaching. Mr. Palmieri is greatly missed, but we thank him for his tireless work in getting our group up and running.
A few years ago, Mr. Palmieri went to the other school districts in our county and sold them on a competition that we called our Science Fair. While there are no prizes for the winners that first year, it did the trick by encouraging students to be innovative and come up with science projects. Since then we have started awarding trophies for the best in several categories, and last year we also came up with the David Palmieri Award for best overall project.
But our group would not exist without a dedicated group of educators that help lead the students. Our educators are from our elementary, middle school and high schools in our area. Here is a listing of a few of the professionals that help our group.