People receiving Day Services explored Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) during an interactive workshop from Great Neck South High School Design Expo, Entrepreneurship, and Consumerism Association (DECA) club students at Wheatley Farms & Arts Center (WFAC) on Feb. 18. 

The workshop was part of AccessSTEAM, a DECA club initiative designed to introduce STEAM concepts to children and adults with special needs — demonstrating that arts and sciences are accessible to everyone who is supported to learn. 

At the workshop, people supported attended a STEAM presentation, a discussion on different technologies, and an explanation of how all technology used today includes components of STEAM.  

People supported later broke into groups to participate in experiments at stations, where DECA club students highlighted each component.  

The most popular stations were technology and math. At the technology station, people explored how electricity travels through a circuit board, experimenting with circuits to turn on light bulbs or run a small fan. People lit up seeing the cause-and-effect reactions. 

“I really liked the cat,” Brooke Montoya said. Brooke, who receives Day Services at the greenhouse, preferred the math station. There, she worked through a coding practice with Julia Xu, one of the AccessSTEAM presenters. Together, Brooke and Julia used Scratch, a visual programming language, and programed movements for an animated cat using code blocks. 

At the science station, people made controlled foam explosions while at the art stations they experimented with food coloring and soap to make “magic milk.” And, at the engineering station, students taught people supported how to use a remote-controlled robot built by the students.  

“It was nice. I liked it and people were friendly,” Brooke said of the workshop.  

Thank you to the Great Neck South High School DECA Club for an exhilarating experience experimenting and learning more about STEAM.