[Press Release] Project HOME Officially Opens STEAM Lab at Honickman Learning Center and Comcast Technology Lab (HLCCTL)
Project HOME Officially Opens STEAM Lab at Honickman Learning Center and Comcast Technology Lab (HLCCTL)
Philadelphia, PA (January 22, 2020) - Project HOME announced the opening of a new Science, Technology, Engineering, Media Arts, and Math Lab at the HLCCTL today, January 22, 2020. Now, students at the HLCCTL will be able to build circuits, learn code, print 3D objects, program robotic behaviors, explore solar energy, and much more.
“Quality education for every child should not be a luxury, it’s a basic need,” said Sister Mary Scullion, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Project HOME. “This lab represents an exciting new learning environment where our students will have opportunities, previously out of reach, to develop critical thinking skills, and cultivate a persistent drive to creatively solve problems in the world around them.”
The STEAM Lab is a hands-on, interactive learning environment where computer graphics, digital arts and 3-D printing are fully integrated. Some of the projects that students as young as K-1st grade can and have been working on in the lab include programming robots, learning about electricity and building circuits, and creating and building their own model vehicles. There are also projects for high school students, including advanced robotics, software engineering and building and construction.
Out of 12 students assessed, every single one of them passed the assessment, demonstrating their ability to program a robot to perform specific functions. Students who experience behavioral issues in their regular classrooms tend to not experience them in the lab. Students who are normally quiet and reserved tend to come alive when they realize that technology is accessible and that they too can build and code and create things that are of interest to them. The lab is an exciting new learning environment with over 500 projects in STEAM.
About Project HOME
Since 1989, Project HOME has helped thousands of people break the cycle of homelessness and poverty by providing a continuum of care that includes street outreach, supportive housing and comprehensive services that focus on health care, education and employment through both adult and youth education and enrichment programs at the Honickman Learning Center and Comcast Technology Labs and community-based health care services at the Stephen Klein Wellness Center. Project HOME and its partners have pledged to end chronic street homelessness in Philadelphia.
