Nick Corston is a man on a mission. He gave up his regular job just three weeks ago, and now, he's ready to blaze a trail with an innovative project called STEAM Co for -- hopefully -- all school kids in the UK.
It's set to be a science-meets-the-arts head on type of affair, and Corston's been heading it up for St Saviour's Primary School in London, which his own two sons have attended for the last four years.
Inspired by Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk on how schools can actually kill creativity in education, Corston, as a parent and STEM ambassador for the UK, decided to turn this theory on its head, and organised his own response to the creativity crisis in schools.
According to Corston, he's set on righting the imbalance he sees as caused by a damaging polarisation between the arts and the sciences. Stressing that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) weren't enough on their own, Corston -- an engineer himself -- is set on unleashing the creative potential of the arts and sciences together. "STEM isn't enough, the world needs STEAM to solve its challenges," he told WIRED.co.uk. "STEM is quite dull and boring on its own, but when you bring the arts in it develops the skills needed for future economies where left and right sides of the brain are working together."
Quoting scientist Professor Robert Winston's words -- "you've got to get them at primary school" --Corston explained that given the unpredictability of the future, it's necessary that kids be inspired to think both creatively and collectively. And that's certainly what he's been doing for the last four years at his STEAM Co one-day, festival-like events for kids at St Saviour's Primary.
The project days comprise of 20 different activities involving both digital and analogue exercises. Kids can get stuck in to everything from clay moulding, to firing off mini-DIY rockets into the sky, to 3D printing their headmistress' head. It also gets the local community and a band of "inspirators" on board. This year Corston and his team of parents invited architects from Zaha Hadid Architects to teach children all about Lego's new architectural studio.
Corston's keen to get more creative Brits on board, and told WIRED.co.uk about arranging assemblies for children in schools in which they would get to hear some of Britain's top innovators and creatives talk about their childhoods and how they'd achieved success in their own creative fields. He envisions it to be a TEDx-style event, where ideally he'd film each speaker, and work on making these five-minute talks accessible to other schools and parents.
The main aim now is to raise funds and find sponsors so that Corston can formally set up a social enterprise/charity in order that the project can have lift off in lots of other schools across the UK. STEAM Co's aiming to "power communities to inspire children with creativity by giving them access to a range of thinking and doing activities across the spectrum of STEAM skills," and it's all about tapping into the fruitful intersections of the arts and sciences. "In the past, people like Leonardo Da Vinci were both artists and engineers," said Corston to WIRED.co.uk. "STEM can be stuffy on its own and the arts makes creativity happen. We want STEAM Co to be inclusive and for everyone. We want to build a fund so that any school can apply to us and hold their own STEAM days."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
