Victoria: The STEAM Team Technologist
Your adventures with the STEAM Team continue as you meet Victoria today. Previously, you met Silas, our scientist and now, meet our technologist.
As you might recall, the purpose of the STEAM Team is to help learners conceive the importance of STEAM skills in a post-apocalyptic environment. To plunge them into an environment where they must rise up and be the problem-solvers; there are no adults to tell them what to do or guide them along the way. See how Victoria operates to do exactly that:
Victoria was a Cogsworth. In this age you didn’t get a last name unless you earned it. Victoria was worth her weight in cogs. It was an old saying. One before the Bots ruined everything. Somehow, they had held onto the words. She was a Tech. Technology was her thing.
She had been eight when her ability to understand the technology of a thing came about. Her ability to create and innovate technology came when she was nine. Victoria was an elder in the eyes of most of the children, for she was now turning twelve. She had a mission, assigned by the Orphaned World Leaders, or O.W.L.s. Elder Children, she sighed inside, that’s really all they were. The boys and girls trying to rewrite society were in over their heads.
Her mission involved helping to create a tail for some sort of craft, to help it guide through wind currents. She found herself on a mesa today. The predatory birds were hunting, and they used the thermal updrafts to glide around, searching for prey. Victoria watched the hawks floating around without even trying. She stared carefully at their tailfeathers as they seemed to almost curl at times. They could swivel their tails in ways she had never noticed before.
Pulling a sheaf of paper from her old leather bag, Victoria started to draw out the different fantail positions. As the sun moved across the sky, her work became more detailed and started to incorporate new materials. Rivets, screws, nuts, bolts and many other fasteners were experimented with in the drawings. Those fasteners not being good enough, Victoria then started to experiment with a new type of fastener. It allowed flexibility, and a streamlined design. The only problem would be using a material strong enough to not break. She had friends with science backgrounds that would help her with that.
After being in the sun all day Victoria had decided to call it quits. Her canteen was low on water as she entered the town. She had been wise to return. Being outside, in the heat, without water was not a good thing. She prided herself on her wisdom. She had heard it came from age, which made sense, at least to her. Shrugging her shoulders, Victoria walked into the middle of town to find her friend. It was a ramshackle town. Loose wooden boards on every house, and colors of all kinds showing through, explaining that the boards came from several places and were recycled into the structures.
The townspeople were all around her age or younger. It was an outlying village, not a main fort, like Haven. Haven would hold the oldest of their group. They were the ones that decided things, such as her current mission. Jerry was a blacksmith; he could make anything out of metal. He could even make new metals out of combinations of other metals; these were called alloys.
She hit the bell at the front and waited. After a few minutes, she grew bored and left a detailed sketch of what she needed and wrote how strong it needed to be in the notes. She knew Jerome could fashion anything out of metal. It was time to get on with the other parts of the work.
The people she was supposed to report to, were a brother and sister who had made a name for themselves as engineers. Their last name was Powers, which she assumed came from the project in Haven which had created a steady flow of power for the town. The Powers Twins had a knack for finding a solution to every problem that hit them. She would have to travel to find them, for they lived near a dam. They called it the Waterworks.
Victoria Comprehension Activities
As you might recall, the purpose of the STEAM Team is to help learners conceive the importance of STEAM skills in a post-apocalyptic environment. To plunge them into an environment where they must rise up and be the problem-solvers; there are no adults to tell them what to do or guide them along the way. See how Victoria operates to do exactly that:
Victoria was a Cogsworth. In this age you didn’t get a last name unless you earned it. Victoria was worth her weight in cogs. It was an old saying. One before the Bots ruined everything. Somehow, they had held onto the words. She was a Tech. Technology was her thing.
She had been eight when her ability to understand the technology of a thing came about. Her ability to create and innovate technology came when she was nine. Victoria was an elder in the eyes of most of the children, for she was now turning twelve. She had a mission, assigned by the Orphaned World Leaders, or O.W.L.s. Elder Children, she sighed inside, that’s really all they were. The boys and girls trying to rewrite society were in over their heads.
Her mission involved helping to create a tail for some sort of craft, to help it guide through wind currents. She found herself on a mesa today. The predatory birds were hunting, and they used the thermal updrafts to glide around, searching for prey. Victoria watched the hawks floating around without even trying. She stared carefully at their tailfeathers as they seemed to almost curl at times. They could swivel their tails in ways she had never noticed before.
Pulling a sheaf of paper from her old leather bag, Victoria started to draw out the different fantail positions. As the sun moved across the sky, her work became more detailed and started to incorporate new materials. Rivets, screws, nuts, bolts and many other fasteners were experimented with in the drawings. Those fasteners not being good enough, Victoria then started to experiment with a new type of fastener. It allowed flexibility, and a streamlined design. The only problem would be using a material strong enough to not break. She had friends with science backgrounds that would help her with that.
After being in the sun all day Victoria had decided to call it quits. Her canteen was low on water as she entered the town. She had been wise to return. Being outside, in the heat, without water was not a good thing. She prided herself on her wisdom. She had heard it came from age, which made sense, at least to her. Shrugging her shoulders, Victoria walked into the middle of town to find her friend. It was a ramshackle town. Loose wooden boards on every house, and colors of all kinds showing through, explaining that the boards came from several places and were recycled into the structures.
The townspeople were all around her age or younger. It was an outlying village, not a main fort, like Haven. Haven would hold the oldest of their group. They were the ones that decided things, such as her current mission. Jerry was a blacksmith; he could make anything out of metal. He could even make new metals out of combinations of other metals; these were called alloys.
She hit the bell at the front and waited. After a few minutes, she grew bored and left a detailed sketch of what she needed and wrote how strong it needed to be in the notes. She knew Jerome could fashion anything out of metal. It was time to get on with the other parts of the work.
The people she was supposed to report to, were a brother and sister who had made a name for themselves as engineers. Their last name was Powers, which she assumed came from the project in Haven which had created a steady flow of power for the town. The Powers Twins had a knack for finding a solution to every problem that hit them. She would have to travel to find them, for they lived near a dam. They called it the Waterworks.
Victoria Comprehension Activities
When you're ready, Ashlynn and Alexander, the STEAM Team Engineers, are waiting to meet you.
Background cog picture credits to E. Huybrechts licensed as CCBY3.0
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