Youth STEAM · Ages 12–14 · 8-Week Cohort
Spark is where curiosity becomes creation. She Builds: Spark is an 8-week STEAM cohort for Black girls ages 12–14 that uses arts as the entry point into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — not as an afterthought, as the architecture.
When a girl codes a music visualizer, calculates the math inside a quilt pattern, or designs a solution to a problem she actually lives with, STEAM stops being abstract and starts being hers. Spark is exploratory by design. There are no wrong answers here, only better questions. Girls leave Spark with expanded curiosity, a STEAM foundation, and the understanding that building things — ideas, tools, solutions — is something Black girls have always done.
| Week | Theme | What We Do |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Meet the Makers | Who builds things? And who gets left out of that story? An introduction to the history of Black women in STEAM — inventors, engineers, scientists, coders — and what it means to be a maker. |
| Week 2 | Science Through Story | Science is a story about how the world works. Using narrative writing and visual art, participants explore core science concepts through the lens of their own lives and communities. |
| Week 3 | Tech and Creativity | An introduction to coding through digital art and music. Basic programming concepts by creating something visual and sonic — because code is just another creative language. |
| Week 4 | Engineering Thinking | Engineers identify problems and build solutions. Hands-on building activities and design challenges using everyday materials and creative constraints. |
| Week 5 | Arts in STEAM | Arts and STEAM are the same conversation. How design, aesthetics, and creative thinking live inside every STEAM field — and always have. |
| Week 6 | Math as Beauty | Pattern, symmetry, rhythm, ratio, and proportion. Mathematics through quilting, music, architecture, and African geometric tradition — math as a creative and cultural practice. |
| Week 7 | My Spark Project | Each participant begins her own STEAM + arts project — a solution, a creation, or an exploration of something she genuinely wants to understand or build. Facilitators provide support and direction. |
| Week 8 | The Spark Showcase | Participants present their Spark Projects to peers, family, and community. The showcase celebrates curiosity, process, and creation — not perfection. |
Eight weeks of facilitated sessions, all materials and supplies, snacks at in-person gatherings, and the Spark Showcase celebration.