STEAM Lab

Renita Upshur, STEAM Teacher

Our STEAM teacher is an integrative learner who blends state-of-the-art technology with impactful pedagogy to accelerate growth for 21st-century students. Professional development and coaching experiences include NASA Goddard Space Flight Center where he researched workplace expectations in STEM-related fields; The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for classroom management and integrated-arts coaching; certifications and training in computer-vision and AI neural networks (YOLO, TensorFlow, TF Lite, and OpenCV), Linux, Swift, and Gcode programming languages; and, district-wide trainer and facilitator for computer-aided design, 3D printing, custom rocketry, and open-source computer-vision robotic programs. The Abingdon STEAM lab has been featured on Good Morning America and was awarded the Amazon Future Engineer Robotics Grant and Lego Mindstorms grant to boost computer science capacity within underrepresented communities.