Dr. Marcia Mardis, Assistant Professor at Florida State University’s School of Library & Information Studies (SLIS), recently received a Faculty Research Library Materials Grant for her proposal “Building Up STEAM: Enriching FSU’s Youth Arts Collection with STEM Materials to Support Research.”
The grant will provide funding for updated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) materials in the Goldstein Library’s juvenile nonfiction collection. These materials will support the research of Mardis and SLIS doctoral students, along with courses offered such as Nonfiction Literature and Graphic Novels.
The goal of the Building Up STEAM proposal is “to support research into how STEM resources augment arts and humanities materials to promote learning through science fair and related intellectually entrepreneurial activities.”
“This project will help us understand how to get kids more excited about STEM as well as humanities,” Mardis said. “We hope to use our library collections to send the message that every part of FSU is STEM strong!”
Mardis’ research mainly focuses on the use of 21st Century resources, both print and digital, in STEM learning, and fostering entrepreneurial thinking and 21st Century skills with library materials.