Intro: Welcome to the PCS Edventures Educator Spotlight Series. In today's podcast, we meet Devin Swift — Manager of STEAM Initiatives and External Partnerships at Chicago Youth Centers. Devin has a clear eye for what makes a curriculum worth investing in: quality, well-roundedness, and staying power over time. That search led him to the BrickLAB STEAMventures Kits. These programs gave his learners STEAM connections — but also touched on language arts, literacy, and history — providing the school day all in one.
Carly Clark: Today, we're speaking with Devin Swift about his work with our STEAMventures, Food, Flight and Transportation kits. Devin was able to experience each kit with his learners. So Devin, to get our conversation started, can you tell us a little bit about your role in the organization you represent?
Devin Swift: Yes. I'm Devin Swift. I am the manager of STEAM Initiatives and External Partnerships for Chicago Youth Centers. At Chicago Youth Centers, we provide high quality programs for youth as young as fifteen months all the way to eighteen years old, and we do that through early learning and out-of-school time programs. I work on the out-of-school time program side, and so being the manager of STEAM, I oversee all of our STEAM programs for our youth as young as five, all the way to eighteen years old. And then the external partnerships piece just allows me to go out and do different events, whether it's going to career fairs or looking for different internships or different community partners. Our organization is seventy years old now.
Carly Clark: Super cool. Well, congrats.
Devin Swift: Thank you.
Carly Clark: Can you provide us with a mental view of your learning space and the community of learners within it?
Devin Swift: Yes. So at Chicago Youth Centers, we have about eleven different locations. For this particular program, we ran it within our three brick and mortar sites. So we have three brick and mortar sites across the city of Chicago. One is in a neighborhood called South Shore, one is in a neighborhood called Calumet Heights, and another is in a neighborhood called North Lawndale. And so each of those sites is a blended site — it has early learning and out-of-school time programming. And so each site also has a maker lab, which is a space outfitted with 3D printers, vinyl cutters, laptops — things of that nature. And so we service the youth within that community. Typically black and brown, we may have a few Caucasian learners — and then we also service diverse learners. So we do the best we can to be able to service all kids.
Carly Clark: Super cool. Well, thank you for everything you do and the work that you're putting into your community. So what drew you to these specific PCS programs?
Devin Swift: So I have been a fan of PCS Edventures for a minute. And so once I became the manager of STEAM, it allowed me to be able to make more decisions on how we purchase things. And so we were looking for more curriculum for our younger groups, particularly more curriculum that aligns with the grants that we currently have. And so I was browsing through and I saw that you guys had BrickLAB. But then I saw you guys had this very specific STEAMventures kit. And I was like, oh, that's pretty cool. And so I think I may have looked to try to see the samples, and so I saw that not only was there a STEAM component, but there was also like the language arts component and the math component and reading component. So I love all those things because I like for programs to be well-rounded. And so that's what we went with. So we first started off with Flight. I taught Flight to a group of youth, and then we came back and ordered all three sets for each of our sites. And then each of our sites implemented one particular collection for that program session.
Carly Clark: I like the way you did that. That's pretty cool that you kind of did each section. So we've all been there as educators, right? A big delivery shows up and your first thought is, this looks amazing, but when am I actually going to have the time to prep for it? Can you take us back to that moment of unboxing the materials and getting into the instructor guides? How was that for you? What was going through your mind?
Devin Swift: It was really cool. The instructor guide for me is very self-explanatory. I like how it has the different books that you could possibly attach with the learnings inside the journals. I looked through each of the journals and got an idea of what it would look like and how to space it out. Because we typically do a twelve-week session in the fall, and so I wanted to look to see how we could space it out. So I liked how each collection had four subsections, with four activities that you would do each week — so that provided like a twelve-week curriculum. The piece that I thought was very interesting was how staff would implement. So for example, with Food, I like to say they probably started with garden seeds farm — and then the fourth, I can't think of the fourth right now. But in my head I'm like, well, you should do seeds, then you would do gardens, then you do farms. Oh no, I think it was trees. Yeah. So seeds, trees, garden then farm. Because in my head it's like the song had the branch on the nest and the nest on the tree and the tree in the hole and the hole in the ground with the seed. So that's how I kind of think about it. So it's very interesting how staff go about implementing — you can do it how you want. So I thought that was really cool. But yeah, I loved it.
Carly Clark: Cool. Well, thank you for that feedback and kind of your experience with that. I also like that different educators implemented it differently and it works. That's helpful, right?
Devin Swift: Yes.
Carly Clark: So if you were asked what a learner is gaining beyond the STEM acronym of science, technology, engineering and math — and then for this one, STEAM, so art is included there — what would you say? So like transferable skills that come out of these kits?
Devin Swift: One of the things that I liked about the kits was the history, the historical aspect of it. I think that's important. I love history. And so I think any opportunity to be able to show you how something has started and how it is now — I think that's really, really important. And so I would say that, and then I would also say the engineering design cycle, because there were some of those. I can't think of what the exact language for that is, but towards the end where they can draw something and then they could build what they drew — I think that's really important because that's that engineering, that's that design piece that I think a lot of kids like doing. Because then it's like, oh, I could do it like this. And now I can transfer this skill if I want to be in construction or if I want to be in interior design — this is how I kind of do this.
Carly Clark: Or like an architect.
Devin Swift: Yeah.
Carly Clark: So you had mentioned in your questionnaire that you can struggle sometimes to scout out or vet high quality, reliable curriculum. So that was a pain point for you as an educator. And I'm wondering how these STEAMventures kits alleviate that struggle for you?
Devin Swift: So when I selected that, one of the pieces that I look for when I look for curriculum is not only the content, but also pricing and also the frequency of it, right? And so there are some curriculums that I've seen that look as if it's a one-off, and that's not necessarily what we're looking for because we want something that we can expand and extend over time, but also we want to run it again because you may have another group, right? And so that's what I liked about the STEAMventures curriculum because not only do you have this big kit, but you also have the refill kit and you can also get more books if you need to get books. And one of the things that I saw with our staff is in an effort to kind of keep the integrity of some of their books, they would print off specific pages that they were going to do for that moment instead of giving it to them full on. So I like that part. And then I also like when I really dove into the content of the curriculum — it was the quality of it, that wholeness, right? Because not only are there the letters in STEAM, but it's also that language arts piece because that's important to me. I'm really big on reading and literacy. And then also that math piece. And then again, that history piece. So it gives you the school day all in one and you can get it done in possibly an hour — but it's broken up into different pieces.
Carly Clark: Yeah, that is awesome. And very true that it kind of covers all that content in one. So you've probably seen it — there's a specific energy in the room when learners are deep in a hands-on STEM experience. Was there ever a moment where you saw a learner becoming more engaged or finding their spark with these STEAMventures kits?
Devin Swift: So we have some youth who were able to speed through the builds. We had youth who were really avid readers. One of our youth already knew who Bessie Coleman was, and so it was really, really great. They liked it. And I also think the piece of it is how the instructor is implementing as well. Whenever I personally start, I would read off the beginning little excerpt with the character, whether it's the cat or whatever animal it is. So I would read that to them, and then we get into talking about whatever it's talking about. And one of the things that I did know that really helped our youth when we're doing the bricks is we would have them separated beforehand. But one of our other instructors did a really awesome job where they created a presentation — and so it's like, "Can you find the two by four?" And so they were going back and forth, the two by four. So they could be used to when they actually implement to find it on their own.
Carly Clark: That's a really smart strategy. I'll have to share that with others. See, I always learn the best stuff from everybody else, right? So to the educator listening who is hesitant to try one more thing because their plate is already full — which we know happens a lot, right — why are these STEAMventures kits worth the space?
Devin Swift: I think it's worth the space because there are some real-world applications. I think one of the things that we notice as it relates to STEM is that it's not just that career-connected piece, but that real-life connection piece. For example, with the Food kit, right? In our programs, we do culinary and we also do gardening. So having an extra connection to link that piece is important. And so I think that one, it's helpful because it provides materials — because sometimes in certain school districts, budget may be an issue, so you may not have the means to be able to buy supplies. And so the great part about the STEAMventures kits, whether it's the STEAMventures kits or the other kits that I've seen, is that there's a good amount of materials that can be reusable — that you can have for a little bit. But then also you could just go back and get more. And so I think that's a really good piece to it — the amount of materials that you get is worth it. And then I also think again, the content is worth it as well because you're able to make some really, really good self connections, community connections and world connections.
Carly Clark: Love that answer. Okay. So if you could go back to your very first day with our STEAMventures kits, what is the one piece of advice you'd give yourself to get the most out of the experience?
Devin Swift: I would say to kind of make an example of the first build so they can kind of see it for themselves. But outside of that, I feel like I had fun with it and reading it. I had fun with it and getting them excited about it. Because when you have fun with it, the kids are going to have fun with it too. And so I think that'd be the thing — just continue to have fun with it as you're implementing and take that time to dive in yourself. So that when you are having fun with it and expressing it to the kids, they can see that you know what you're talking about.
Carly Clark: Very true. I always say — well, this is just from my experience too — when you are excited about what you're teaching, they are so involved because they see your passion and your excitement. They want to join in, right? So I appreciate that you make sure that you have that passion behind it. That's awesome. So to wrap things up, when looking back at your time with our STEAMventures kits, what is your single favorite memory or aha moment from the experience?
Devin Swift: So for me, this is after I implemented. So our staff started implementing and one of our staff members was doing Transportation. And there's a section where you're doing math and it's a race track. And so what they did was they made it 3D — they took some building blocks and they wrote on a note card each problem with a little chess piece or whatever. And so it was like a live demonstration. So the kids took turns doing the same thing that's on paper, but did it in the physical space. And I think that's just important — I tell staff all the time, you can remix it. It's good to remix it because you know your kids best, right? And so they may not always want to do it on paper, but if you still have it in a way that is engaging, that is memorable, they're going to want to do it every time it's a Tuesday and it's time to do STEAMventures.
Carly Clark: What a great way to adapt that curriculum. Well, Devin, thank you so much for sharing your journey with our STEAMventures kits. The work you're doing for your learners is incredible, and we're so grateful to have your voice and insights as part of our STEM community. Thank you so much.
Devin Swift: Thank you so much.
Outro: Thank you for listening! Devin knows exactly what he looks for in a curriculum — quality, depth, and materials that keep learners engaged over time. With BrickLAB STEAMventures Kits and refill options, he found a program that grows with his learners and delivers on that quality every time. That's the power of hands-on STEAM. To see his program in action and explore more inspiring educator stories, visit edventures.com/spotlight.
