ShareSpace is a non-profit educational foundation focused on the benefits of the

STEAM Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

disciplinesscience, technology, engineering, arts, and mathfor both the individual young person and society as a whole.

History

At its founding by astronaut and lunar pioneer Buzz Aldrin in 1998, ShareSpace was intended to be used for the promotion of

space tourism Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. Tourists are motivated by the possibility of viewing Earth from space, ...

, with the larger goal of encouraging commercial space

travel Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical Location (geography), locations. Travel can be done by Pedestrian, foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without Baggage, luggage, a ...

and

exploration Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

. Aldrin himself, however, has documented both the challenges facing this goal and the logjam of approaches which have grown up in respect to it. In consequence, ShareSpace has been relaunched with its current STEAM educational focus. An initial result of the new focus was announced by the foundation in May 2015: a strategic partnership with Destination Imagination, another non-profit dedicated to education, which has participants across the United States and in more than 30 other countries.

A STEAM pioneer

ShareSpace includes

the arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive range of m ...

as one of the core disciplines which it promotes; thus, it uses the acronym STEAM as opposed to STEM:

Just as the term STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), made its big movement in the 80s, STEAM is doing that now. Buzz Aldrin’s ShareSpace Foundation is a strong supporter in the belief that by incorporating “arts” into the STEM equation even greater results will be achieved by people at all stages of their education. The game is changing. It isn’t just about math and science anymore. It’s about creativity, imagination and above all, innovation. ShareSpace lights the fire and inspires children to explore the incredible world of science, technology, engineering, math AND arts.

In his role as spokesperson for ShareSpace, Aldrin cites the

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

as an example of an important technological development in which artistry has played a key role.

The larger context

The

Apollo program The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in sp ...

in which Buzz Aldrin participated stands as one of the great historical triumphs of applied education, and the foundation is also in the unique position of being able to draw on the legacy of an astronaut who is remarkable for his own educational exploits. Aldrin, for example, is the only one of the early astronaut candidates to have entered the program with a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

an ScD in

astronautics Astronautics (or cosmonautics) is the practice of sending spacecraft beyond atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere into outer space. Spaceflight is one of its main applications and space science is its overarching field. The term ''astronautics' ...

from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT). For a foundation which encourages young people to seize the reins of their own education, the story of Aldrin's doctoral thesis is also relevant. What was to become the Apollo program had been announced by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Aldrin wanted to be part of it, and so he chose to write his doctoral thesis on a topic which would prove irresistible to NASA: a method by which astronauts might use primitive "line of sight" techniques to accomplish sophisticated orbital rendezvous maneuvers.

References

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External links

The official ShareSpace Foundation web site
Astronautics Spaceflight Space tourism Non-profit organizations based in the United States