STREAMWORKS is moving locations

Published 3:58 pm Monday, July 6, 2020

KINGSPORT — STREAMWORKS is announcing today that, in light of continued uncertainty caused by COVID-19 and major funding disruption, it will be closing the doors to its STEM Gym in Kingsport on July 31 as it places greater emphasis on distance learning. This move reflects the reality that in-person instruction will be challenging for the foreseeable future while the demand for innovative, virtual STEM learning is increasing. With the significant disruption of normal, in-person programs and key funding, like many other non-profit organizations during this time, STREAMWORKS is reducing its expenses to help ensure long-term viability while continuing its mission of partnering to enhance STEM education through innovation, networking, and creating opportunities to develop and showcase the talent of students and teachers. Summer camps planned for July will continue to take place.

Commenting on the change, STREAMWORKS Executive Director Dennis Courtney stated, “I am deeply grateful for the thousands of students, teachers, interns, coaches, parents, and friends of STREAMWORKS who have been instrumental in the material shift in K-12 extracurricular STEM focus in Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and Northwest North Carolina. Last year alone we had 2,000 students come through the STEM Gym doors working on hundreds of projects in a team setting. Additionally, we have provided STEM-related professional development for over a hundred teachers and many have gone on to coaching teams competing at local, regional, state, national, and world competitions. We are proud to have built the largest K-8 LEGO robotics competition in the State of Tennessee as well as our state’s first Regional Underwater Robotics competition. And we are especially gratified to have been instrumental in bringing to our Region the 2019 MATE International Underwater Robotics Championships and the approximately 1,000 competitors from around the world. These and other outcomes would not have been possible in just three years without a huge amount of community and Regional support. We are especially grateful to Eastman and the Eastman Foundation that had the vision to launch STREAMWORKS three years ago.”

Through leveraging virtual technology and the physical facilities of educational systems, STREAMWORKS will continue to work with schools, teachers, and students across the Region to help them innovate, develop new educational platforms, and connect with the global STEM educational ecosystem. Communities and school systems interested in such support can contact dcourtney@streamworkseducation.org .