Pop-Up STEAM Studios focuses on the design, development, and evaluation of an informal science education (ISE) series of art-inclusive, pop-up makerspaces in a high-poverty, primarily rural county in Oklahoma.

Informed by museum pop-ups, our STEAM Studios are temporary workshops in a designated locale based on needs and desires of citizen stakeholders and informed by experts that focus on relationships, sharing, and communication with the capacity to cross sometimes siloed boundaries. The project was inspired by a passion for science, makerspaces, and the One Book, One Community, a national public library program. Currently a community Advisory Board is in the brainstorming proccess to identify community assets and needs, values of the community, and a theme for a science-oriented and art-infused community challenge supported by a series of pop up makerspaces. Scientists and other experts will be recruited to share their knowledge surrounding the topic in conjunction with art experts to design a series of thematic pop-up makerspace sessions. Intergenerational community participants will engage in the pop-up sessions to learn about the topics, design solutions for, and communicate processes and progress related to the challenge.

The project goals include promoting a participatory culture to leverage community funds of knowledge, individually and collectively, to address community-identified and designed challenges. It is funded by a National Science Foundation Pilot and Feasibility Grant.