by Zane Grenoble ’19
Crystal Flores has begun her position as STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) coordinator at the Middle School.  She supervises the Engineering Club’s 13 members.  The club meets on Fridays from 3:15 to 5:15 p.m. to engage in different STEAM activities.  Flores is not new to the school as she taught the summer camp program on lego robotics and scratch programming.  She said she is excited to work at the North Faring Campus during the school year.
“I love the [school] environment that is so supportive and caring, and the students are great,” Flores said.
Flores became interested in STEAM-related activities while she was living in San Antonio.  Her first experience with a STEAM related activity was when her father taught her to add in binary at age five.  She said she hopes to share her passion for STEAM related projects and activities with students.
“I am really excited to see what projects we will make and see how that will impact the choices students make in their educational careers,” Flores said.
While Flores is an engineer by training and enjoys promoting STEAM, she also loves working as a managing editor outside of school. She believes that her knowledge of English complements her STEAM skills and recommends students master all subjects.
“[Scientists and mathematicians] absolutely need good structure, good language, good grammatical skills and everything you know in English.  I would say scientists can’t express their findings without a good knowledge of English,” Flores said.
Flores believes that STEAM activities help students learn vital skills.
“I definitely think the skills we are learning [in the club] will help us in the future.  Currently we are learning to solder, which is a way of creating a conductive metal glue to create circuit boards,” Guy Hartstein ‘20 said.