Nancy Schunke, a chemistry and engineering teacher and robotics mentor at Frenship High School, is known for her love of Star Wars, as evident by the characters, creatures, and droids that adorn her classroom walls and shelves. That love took hold at an early age and is now something she passes on to her Frenship students.
“Seeing Star Wars on the big screen when I was seven years old inspired me to love science and engineering, which led to the amazing career I have been blessed to have,” said Schunke. “I wouldn’t be a science teacher if it wasn’t for Star Wars.”
Star Wars fan turned teacher, that love is taking her across the world to inspire children to explore their interests in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math, known as STEAM. As co-creator and program director of the Droidbuilders STEAM Academy, Schunke assembled a team of educators from across the U.S. to share their love of teaching STEAM and Star Wars.
The Droidbuilders STEAM Academy first appeared at the 2019 Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, a convention where tens of thousands of fans from around the globe gather to celebrate everything Star Wars. Schunke, along with the other members of the STEAM Academy, held two classes at Celebration that allowed children of all ages to participate in fun, interactive Star Wars activities that focused on coding and electronics while learning STEAM skills.
Then in 2022, the program picked up steam at Star Wars Celebration in California. The program expanded its class selections and added a table activity room with a variety of activities from paper circuits to climbing droids.
“We had no idea what to expect. We knew kids would come and participate in the classes while they were at Celebration, but we had no idea how big it would be. We were slammed the entire time with kids visiting the classes every single day,” Schunke laughed.
Growing in popularity, Schunke received an invitation for the Droidbuilders STEAM Academy to participate in Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023, held in London April 7-10. The Grant Imahara STEAM Foundation, a non-profit founded to honor the late Mythbusters host, joined Schunke’s efforts and is funding the Droidbuilders STEAM Academy at Celebration.
Through this newly formed partnership, Schunke says they’re going big at the Europe celebration with even more classes and learning stations. From building light sabers and programming mini droids to Star Wars games using robotic arms, Schunke hopes the activities will unlock the children’s creativity. There’s even talk about expanding to other conventions outside of Star Wars Celebration.
"The Droidbuilders are so excited to partner with the Grant Imahara STEAM Foundation to bring innovative and educational outreach programming to Star Wars Celebration Europe," said Schunke. "We are looking forward to inspiring the next generation of innovators and problem solvers."
When Schunke returns from Europe, she plans to bring back those activities and lessons to share with other Frenship and area teachers with the hopes of incorporating more STEAM related projects in classrooms starting at the elementary level up to high school.
“What I love about this program is what we’re able to build in this community. We are empowering teachers to find ways to have fun and teach our students to love science, technology, engineering, art, and math,” said Schunke. “It’s all about the kids. It’s about doing something that will help them grow, love Star Wars, and explore STEAM.”