As we wrap up production on a special-edition Over Coffee® episode, please enjoy this reposting of one of our top episodes of 2023!

Class is once again in session with Jim Burnham, “The STEAM Clown”. Or, as he describes himself, “a mad scientist in the classroom”.

This semester, his students are going to be lighting things up, connecting sensors, designing a Rube Goldberg device…and, they may just create some fire-breathing robots along the way.

Technically, Jim is an award-winning Mechatronics Engineering Instructor at Silicon Valley CTE High School, in San Jose. Santa Clara County School District named him “Teacher of the Year” in 2019.

He is also an electronics engineer who holds two patents on his inventions and who spent more than 25 years in high-tech engineering positions, prior to his education career.

But those descriptions don’t capture the elements of fun and passion which he brings to his classes.

Imagination, at play with engineering

“The first or second day, we’re just going to sit down and build paper-airplane launchers,” Jim says. of his orientation for new students each semester.

He also expands his students’ imagination, as they get acclimated. First, he’ll have the newcomers identify their “superpowers”.

“Since my class is very physics-based, I…make them write down. how does it actually work?

“It’s not just magic. What’s the physics behind how your superpower works?”

And then, the following day, he’ll have those students come up with engineering ways, if they were superheroes saving the world from that superpower, to defeat it!

Open source for learning

Jim shares a number of his classroom projects on his TikTok channel, and is currently planning to launch a newsletter for like-minded educators who want to expand access to STEAM lessons. The goal: a “collaboration forum” where others can work with him on some ideas he has in mind, making them available to be, as his website says, “freely used, modified and shared”.

He also offers a link, on his website, for class visitors, who can access the material shared in his class on the day of their visit!

“I am a huge supporter of open source, Creative Commons kind of curricula,” he says.

And he encourages anyone who can, to support local teachers as they create STEAM curricula: monetarily, but also by donating time and equipment.

Jim shared the story of his creative journey, offered a look inside his S.T.E.A.M. classroom and shared some of his favorite resources.

On this edition of Over Coffee® we cover:

• How Jim first came to be a “mad scientist”;

• His own educational journey, to becoming an engineer (the roadblocks he navigated may surprise you!);

• How he pivoted to become a teacher;

• His recollections of his first days as an education professional;

• Some of his favorite resources and ways to supply his S.T.E.A.M. classroom/lab;

• What happens on the first day of a new semester in his classroom;

• Some of the ways he engages more arts-oriented students;

• How he’s training his students for future careers;

• A closer look at the ways his class uses 3D printers;

• Where his moniker “The STEAM Clown” came from;

• How to support Jim (and innovative educators in general) in revamping education to train students for the future;

• One of the most important lessons Jim has learned, from teaching in the past year;

• His advice to lifelong learners.