MIT Full STEAM Ahead Wins Gold in K-12 at QS Reimagine Education Awards

On December 10 in a virtual ceremony, the MIT Full STEAM Ahead (FSA) team took top honors at the 2020 Wharton-QS Reimagine Education Awards for innovation in K-12 education, presented during the annual Reimagine Education Conference. Sometimes referred to as the “Oscars of Education,” the Reimagine Education Awards recognize the world’s most exciting, effective new approaches to teaching and learning. 2020 saw 1,425 applications across 13 categories from participants across 81 countries.

Says Jack Moran, Reimagine Education Program Manager, “With over 200 independent judges participating in the evaluation process, our winners have received the unequivocal backing of expert educationalists across the world, and should take exceptional pride in their achievement.”

The Awards are organized by the education analytics provider QS and The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Full STEAM Ahead was created as an online resource hub to provide rich, curated content for K-12 students, teachers, and parents who were left scrambling for resources, tutorials, activities, and assistance with remote pedagogy in the wake of Covid-19. FSA offered them a robust, curated set of resources to help teach and learn effectively from a distance, including 10 weeks’ worth of specially-created, themed Learning Packages that catered to students from age groups across the K-12 span. At the end of the academic year, FSA continued with a virtual summer program (Full STEAM Ahead Into Summer, or FSAIS) aimed at middle schoolers, especially those in Massachusetts public schools who were at increased risk of “Covid Slide.” Read more about the program in MIT News.

Sponsored by J-WEL and co-led by Dr. Claudia Urrea, J-WEL Senior Associate Director for pK-12, and Professor Eric Klopfer, Education Arcade Director and J-WEL Faculty Advisor for pK-12, Full STEAM Ahead is the result of an extraordinary group effort spanning departments, labs, and centers across MIT.

Says Urrea, “Thanks to a shared commitment to leveraging MIT’s wide range of existing K-12 resources, we were able to bring this project together with great speed, and to draw on the talents of our community, especially our student teachers, to create new, engaging activities and experiences. We are so proud to have this work recognized with the Reimagine Education Award, and share this honor with the many colleagues and collaborators who helped make this project possible.”

Ahead of the Reimagine Education Conference, Full STEAM Ahead team members participated in an Innovators Week event showcasing projects competing in 13 different categories from education change-makers from across the globe. View the Full STEAM Ahead video submission below!