Danielle Boyer, the creator of The STEAM Connection and a strong advocate for equitable access to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, is dedicated to ensuring that youth have the access to learn more about science and technology.
Michigan's My STEM Advisory Council works to provide policy recommendations aimed at promoting STEAM education across the state. In 2022, they conducted a survey that revealed 36% of parents reported their children do not participate in STEM education. Boyer has made it her mission to provide students with access to STEM resources.
Interest in STEM Education
Growing up in Michigan, Boyer was deeply fascinated by the science and technology industry, drawing inspiration from characters like those in Wall-E and Iron Man. However, she found that programs offering science education for children were often too expensive. For young students, participating in a robotics team can require hundreds of dollars.
“The resources that did exist just felt very much out of reach,” Boyer shared. “It was hard watching other students who had the resources be able to get so far ahead because they could afford tutoring, and coding lessons, and all these opportunities”
Despite facing several obstacles, she remained undeterred. At just 10 years old, Boyer used her knowledge and dedication to teach a kindergarten class about science using puppets.
“That kind of opened my eyes, how there's a lot of accessibility gaps,” Boyer explained. “There was a lot of barriers to entry, and so I wanted to do something about it.”
Providing Free STEM Education
Drawing from her experience teaching younger students about the importance of technology, Boyer founded her own nonprofit organization, STEAM Connection. This organization aims to provide free technical education to students, focusing on cultural competency and robotics.
In addition to establishing her organization, Boyer invented EKGAR, which stands for Every Kid Gets A Robot, a robotics kit that cost less than $20 to produce.
“I knew for a lot of my students, being able to buy a robotics kit just wasn't doable. The Lego Mindstorm kits cost hundreds of dollars, and those are typically used in robotics teams.” Boyer said. “So, I'm going to do it myself. And so I was 17 years old…”
Preserving Endangered Languages
To date, she has distributed over 20,000 units of her robotics kit to students at no cost. However, Boyer’s desire to support students didn’t stop there. Her latest creation is the SkoBot, a small, wearable tool designed for language preservation. As an enrolled citizen of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Boyer believes that language revitalization is crucial.
“When you lose a language, you lose your culture,” Boyer shared. “You lose your ability to communicate about really important things.”
Through these robots, students not only learn the technical skills required to build a robot but also gain the opportunity to learn a new language. Through her robotic kits, Boyer is assisting in preserving the languages that have long gone endangered.
“I see STEM education as a tool, something that could help me solve the problems that I see around me.” Boyer explained. “That problem for me was the language lost in my community.”
Hear the full conversation with Danielle Boyer on the Stateside podcast.
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