We are very proud of Mrs. Pate and the advanced art students. They recently were featured in the Johnson City Press. They received an award from ETSU for Barbara the Robot. See text below from the article.
Eleven Sulphur Springs students have teamed up to prove that art and STEM can not only coexist, but actually compliment each other.
The result of their hard work and creativity was ‘Barbara the Robot’, a cardboard creation that stands over three feet tall and encapsulates the elements of Science, Technology Engineering, Art and Math all at once.
“A year or two ago, we were named (a) STEM school in Tennessee, and so our STEM teacher, Mrs. O’Neal, she wanted us to work on something like this,” said Levi Barlow, one of the students from the project.
The students from Art Teacher Spicey Pate’s Advanced Art class entered Barbara in the ETSU Center of Excellence in STEM Education’s STEM Art Contest, a competition that sought to highlight STEM and art integrations.
To everyone’s surprise and delight, ETSU selected Barbara to be a grand prize winner in the contest.
Pate said that Sophia Johnson, one of the students in the group, was responsible for writing a description of the project to include with the submission, which read:
“Everything around us is STEAM–from the devices we carry in our pockets to the chairs we sit in. Science makes technology possible. Technology makes engineering possible, so on and so forth. They all connect. Art helps, most importantly, as it allows for creativity. Every object around us started as an idea, then went through a design process, was manufactured and made available to the public. We art students have illustrated the art of working together and how ideas are shared, connect and change. We illustrated a sample of each aspect of STEAM as well as the strong contribution of robotics today.”
ETSU officials will go to Sulphur Springs Friday to present the team with an award. Afterwards, Barbara will be transported to her new home on ETSU’s campus to be displayed.
“I am incredibly proud of their collaboration and their ability to work together, which is very important for our future,” Pate said.
