Episode #58: STEAM, SEL, and OER w/ Dr. Natasha Maria Gomes

In Episode #58 of Simon Says: Educate!, Geoff Cain interviews Dr. Natasha Maria Gomes, author of Keep Calm and STEAM Ahead: A Handbook for Educators. Natasha shares her journey from French instructor to open education advocate, and how her work combines arts-based learning with STEM and social-emotional learning (SEL).The conversation explores creative teaching strategies such as doodling, music, and theater, and how they can be integrated into traditional subjects. Natasha also highlights the importance of accessibility, explaining how the book was designed for both high-tech and low-tech learning environments. She shares how augmented transcripts, offline access, and Pressbooks formatting make the resource usable in diverse educational settings.This episode offers practical insights for educators looking to bring more joy, rigor, and inclusivity into their classrooms. It also touches on how AI can support curriculum design without replacing meaningful, hands-on learning.