Fun with Focus
The primary focus of STEAM Room and the STEM Cell Family is to reach out to the next generation and help teach and show these kids that working with the world around them can be a challenge but it can also be fun, while also inviting parents to be involved with their kids’ fun and learning.
STEM Cell Family Goals
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Connect parents and children together through play, creativity, and fun through hands on challenges and activities
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Help parents and guardians to be positive influences and role models and to be involved with their children’s fun
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Create a safe and comfortable space for STEM and STEAM play, with an emphasis on teamwork
Vision
The vision for the STEM Cell family will be multiple groups around the area. There will be STEAM Room Hands-on Learning groups at libraries and schools. There will be STEAM Room Community groups at various publicly available places. STEAM Room Celebrations will be at public places as well as private parties and events.
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The STEM Cell family is at its core a building and creativity group where children play and work together to learning while taking on group challenges. Parents, guardians, and role models are invited to come to interact and play alongside their children as they interact with one another. There will be themed build/creativity days based on what inventory of toys are available at the time. The intent is that the next generation will develop soft and hard skills for their success. It is also our hope that adults will engage with their children in an environment where the fun around them is more fascinating than the screen, collaborating to create something special for the day.
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Fully fleshed out, the vision for STEAM Room and the STEM Cell family is one where groups and one time events will exist throughout the area, each led by a competent, trustworthy, vetted and background checked volunteer. Each group should have 2 to 3 co-leaders who can float and give tips and advice to family groups who may be struggling. These leaders will also be mandatory reporters in any cases of suspected, confessed, or witnessed abuse or neglect.
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Each group will exist in some sort of franchise fashion, where the local leaders take ownership of the group but are expected to answer to a main authority within the STEM Cell Family leadership system. That way, should bad actors attempt to infiltrate a group, decisive actions can be taken to remove the problem.
STEAM Rooms are where the real bonds are formed and where the real connections are made. Creativity is celebrated, and negativity is specifically not allowed. Even though each build day has a theme and objective, ultimately it is up to the creativity of the family units. Even if we’re building skyrail marble runs for the day, perhaps one child just wants to make a bouquet of flowers out of the tracks and that’s okay. Friendly competition within the STEM Cell Family is permitted, but hostile competitive behaviors are not allowed.​
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will be the backbones and catalysts for awareness, interest, and ultimately the inception of the Huntsville Mechanical Garden.
Meet the
STEM Cell Family
Chris, Kim, Jesse, and Amaris Burnham want to help create communities and connect families in fun and in faith, all in Jesus' name to help people discover the faith and hope found in Christ, along with the certainty that God exists and that God has promised.
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Chris and Kim are high school sweethearts and were married the same year Kim graduated from Hazel Green High School, full of love and with all the youthful dreams of financial and family success. After three years of new marriage stumbling, struggling, and constant threats of divorce, they found themselves back at the church that had married them and in time accepted Jesus into their lives. Filled with the Holy Spirit and equipped with newfound Christ-following hearts they began to dream, listen, and lean on the promises and provision that can only come from Christ.
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One of those promises was the promise of children. Through provision and prayer Kim even found the name of a child that they would surely one day have: Amaris. A female derivative of the Old Testament priest Amariah, the name Amaris in Hebrew means "God has promised." Kim and Chris treasured the name and the promise of the little girl Amaris in their hearts as they faithfully waited through years of infertility.
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Several years after receiving the promise of Amaris, the struggles, doubts, and questions revealed a new question. What if Amaris is just a promise and not a name? What if we have a boy? After more prayers and listening, the name Jesse was presented, which was found to mean "a gift" as well as "God Exists." Armed with the reassurance that God really does exist and that he really did promise, Chris and Kim continued to pray, trust, and wait.
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After nearly nineteen years of praying, struggling, hoping, and trusting, the twins Jesse and Amaris became a reality. The evidence is here and the verdict is in.
God Exists.
And God Has Promised.
Psalm 127:3
Children are a gift from the Lord;
they are a reward from him.
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Proverbs 22:6
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
The Catalyst
It all started with a marble run, purchased secondhand by my wife because it looked like something fun for the kids. Dad likely loved it more than the kids. I would set up and build big sets late at night and watch my kids light up with joy at the new creation that they were happy to destroy, usually in no more than thirty minutes. They would often “help” when building a new run: “Look dad! I made a gun! Look! An alien! Isn’t this awesome, dad?” Many times I’ve been amazed at what their young minds can come up with, using only their imagination and trial and error. I enjoy spending time with them, just creating things. It has been rewarding for all of us.
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My growing “holy discontent” is seeing children who will struggle in life through no fault of their own, because of a lack of role models teaching the skills needed to survive and thrive in the working world. My discontent is also in seeing fathers who simply don’t know “how to dad” or are so busy putting out their own fires that they neglect to fan the flames in their own children. Over and over, I heard three reasons from parents not spending quality play time with their children: no time, no room, and no toys. Through prayer and wrestling, a new thought emerged. Someone needs to take time with these children, to teach and encourage them. What if we become that someone and invite parents to be involved. What if there was a dedicated time and place where dads and kids can simply play together, encouraging one another, and getting to see how awesome their counterpart can be?
And from that prayer and passion, the STEM Cell Family was born.