IndigeSTEAM’s mission is the provision of Indigenous-led and culturally-relevant programming in STEM/STEAM to support a better future for Indigenous youth in STEM. They do this with spaces that are ethical and respect Indigenous culture and Ways of Knowing. They bring in Indigenous STEM role models and train non-Indigenous and Indigenous STEM professionals how best to work with Indigenous youth and youth in general. They also provide Indigenous STEM professionals with networking and support that recognizes their need to walk in two worlds.
Their vision statement is “Two-Eyed Seeing in all directions enabling us to walk together”. Two-Eyed Seeing refers to learning to see with one eye the strengths of Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing, and with the other eye the strengths of western knowledge and ways of knowing, and to learn to use both eyes together to gain a clearer understanding of the world.
STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Founder and CEO explained, “When we want to talk about the connections of STEM to social enterprise, humanities, arts, innovation, entrepreneurship and more, we put an ‘A’ into STEM to get STEAM. The A can reflect Arts, Architecture and Agriculture – all areas that Indigenous peoples have been innovators in for thousands of years.”
This non-profit organization hosts a camp at the University of Calgary during the summer and they have grown their robotics program during and after camp. They have started robotics within four reserves in Alberta. They have a team within Calgary as well with five members, three in which are indigenous youth. IndigeSteam is competing in the FIRST Robotics Tech Challenge so they reached out to the Electronic Recycling Association for support in further building their robotics program. We were happy to donate a projector that will be helpful for their camp presentations and they will also receive five laptops for coding robotics once they become available. ERA is working to fill this request but we need all the help we can get. We are finding it extremely difficult to obtain enough donations from individuals to fulfill every charitable organizations’ wish so we are calling out to all companies disposing of their unwanted obsolete devices. Book your pickup with us today and have a positive impact on the lives of these children!
To learn more about IndigeSteam’s programs and camps visit their website here.