Workshops and Presentations
Monday, June 6, 2016
Keynote Speakers Mitch Resnick and Marc-Andre Bazergui
WeDo 2.0
Target Grades: K-3
Target Content: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math
Description:
In January 2016, LEGO Education released the new WeDo 2.0. This session covers the basics of the new set, provides hands-on opportunities for using it, and explores the many ways it can be included in your classroom.
Engineering with EV3
Target Grades: 3-12
Target Content: Engineering
Description:
The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 can be used to introduce many engineering topics into the classroom. Barbara Bratzel, a long-time teacher and author of “STEM by Design: Teaching with LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3” will lead this workshop discussing ways of incorporating the EV3 into STEM classes and giving participants hands-on opportunities to explore new ways of using the EV3.
LEGO and Literacy
Target Grades: 5-12
Target Content: Technology, Engineering
Description:
Novel Engineering (NE), a NSF-funded project at Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, engages students in grades 1-8 in engineering by using books as the context for client-centered, open-ended design challenges. Novel Engineering research has shown that teachers and students find their classroom texts provide a rich ground for engaging in engineering design, in addition to supporting and deepening literacy engagement and comprehension. NE can be used with fiction and non-fiction, which allows students to identify character-clients and problems, scope constraints surrounding problems, and design and build solutions. In this hands-on, interactive workshop, participants will get an introduction to Novel Engineering and then work in groups to work through a Novel Engineering project based on an excerpt from a book.
Advanced Play
Target Grades: 5-12
Target Content: Technology, Engineering
Description:
This hands-on session allows participants to push the boundaries of how the LEGO Education products can be used. Led by the EDGErs (teachers who support the LEGO Engineering Community), explorations will include more advanced ways of interacting with the LEGO tools and using the products for teaching more advanced topics.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Keynote Speaker David Hammer
LEGO + STEM
Target Grades: K-12
Target Content: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math
Description:
This session provides a brief introduction to many of LEGO Education products and explores ways in which they can be leveraged to teach STEM topics. Participants will be provided a hands-on opportunity to experience the tools and discuss methods for incorporating them into their classrooms.
Creativity in the Classroom with LEGO Education
Target Grades: K-12
Target Content: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math
Description:
LEGO Education products provide an opportunity for open-ended projects that can elicit creativity and innovation on behalf of students. This session, led by a panel of award-winning teachers from around the world, will explore the many different ways in which these teachers have incorporated LEGO tools into their classrooms to inspire creative solutions from their students.
STEM in Early Childhood Education: KIBO Robotics
Target Grades: Pre-K – 2
Target Content: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math
Description:
KIBO is a robotics kit encouraging open-ended play. Specifically designed for ages 4-7, KIBO has been developed through years of research by the DevTech Research Group at Tufts University and is being commercialized by KinderLab Robotics. Children assemble and scan a sequence of instructions (a program) using tangible wooden blocks to tell KIBO what to do, then simply press a button to make the robot move, sing, detect light, sound or distance. With KIBO, children become programmers, engineers, designers, artists, choreographers, and writers, all without screen-time. At this workshop, DevTech members will provide a hands-on introduction to KIBO, as well as strategies for implementing the robotics kit in the classroom.
KIBO Robotics Kit
Early Childhood Robotics Network
DevTech Research Group
Students Doing Science: Case Studies of Disciplinary Engagement
Target Grades: 1-16
Target Content: Science
Description:
The goal of this workshop is to present a set of video cases of students’ scientific engagement in classrooms. These examples will serve as a basis for discussion on what it means to “do science” in classrooms and how students’ scientific engagement gets started and sustained. In this symposium, we present 4 exemplary cases of students’ scientific engagement to start a conversation around these two issues.
SiMSAM: A toolkit for constructing animations and simulations for modeling in science
Target Grades: 5-8
Target Content: Science, Technology
Description:
In this workshop, participants will learn to use SiMSAM (http://sites.tufts.edu/simsam/): a web-based animation, simulation, and measurement tool for middle school students to construct their own models in science. Working from a set of tested curricular activities, individuals will generate stop-motion animations and turn objects from those animations into simulations that model phenomena like sound, smell, and evaporation.
Community-Based Engineering with 3D Printing and Portable Maker Studios
Target Grades: 2-5
Target Content: Engineering
Description:
After showing some examples of student and teacher work from our community-based engineering project, we would involve participants in identifying and scoping community-based engineering problems appropriate for elementary school students, and then explore 3D printing and Portable Maker Studio tools to do early prototyping for one or two problems.
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Keynote Speaker Marina Bers
Programming for Young Children with ScratchJr
Target Grades: K-2
Target Content: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math
Description:
ScratchJr is a free tablet app that provides a programming environment for children ages 5-7, developed by the DevTech Research Group at Tufts University, the MIT Lifelong Kindergarten Group, and the Playful Invention Company. Used in classrooms and homes worldwide, ScratchJr enables children to create interactive stories and games by snapping together graphical programming blocks to make characters move, jump, dance, and sing. At this hands-on workshop, members of the DevTech Research Group will demonstrate that children as young as four can understand basic computer programming, engineering, and robotics while making personally meaningful projects. Attendees will further be provided with resources for connecting ScratchJr to all realms of STEM, as well as literacy, arts, computational thinking, and beyond.
ScratchJr Programming App
KIBO Robotics Kit
Early Childhood Robotics Network
DevTech Research Group
Supporting Iteration and Decision-Making in Design Tasks
Target Grades: K-5
Target Content: Engineering
Description:
Participants would work on design tasks that contrast in their opportunities for frequent iteration and design failure. They would de-brief how these different kinds of tasks might support different kinds of engineering learning. We would share strategies for helping elementary students engage in collaborative sense-making and decision-making based on their design iterations.
Bioinformatics Inquiry through Sequencing: How to incorporate next-generation DNA sequencing into the high school curriculum
Target Grades: 9-12
Target Content: Science, Technology
Description:
The development of next-generation DNA sequencing has opened doors to new experiments and an explosion of genetic information to which, until recently, high school communities did not have access. The Bioinformatics Inquiry through Sequencing (BioSeq) project is an NIH, SEPA-funded outreach program that creates and brings guided, inquiry-based, research experiences into the high school classroom. Our experimental modules are designed to increase knowledge of and familiarity with genetics, bioinformatics and next-generation sequencing through lessons, activities, games and hands-on science. In this workshop, we will review the program, some of the lessons and supports we have created to help teachers approach this exciting and growing field.
Teaching Infectious Diseases: The Great Diseases Project- a collaborative approach to real-world science in the classroom.
Target Grades: High School Biology
Target Content: Science
Description:
Students will become deeply engaged with STEM only when they see the science behind their real world experiences modeled in the classroom. Through the support of a Science Education Partnership Award from the National Institutes of Health (SEPA) Boston teachers and Tufts University scientists have developed a novel inquiry-based, differentiated curriculum for Biology II students focused on the ’Great Diseases’ that impact global health (Infectious Disease, Neurological Disorders, Metabolic Disease, and Cancer). You will find out how to access all of our FREE materials (a year long curriculum), professional development trainings, and support programs.
In this workshop we will work through a two case studies that bring primary scientific literature into the high school classroom. Case 1) Do gut bacteria play a role in obesity? Case 2) What is this mysterious disease?
Making a Maker Space
Target Grades: K-12
Target Content: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math
Description:
Explore the design of educational maker spaces in this collaborative workshop.
Novel Engineering
Target Grades: K-8
Target Content: Engineering
Description:
Novel Engineering (NE), a NSF-funded project at Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, engages students in grades 1-8 in engineering by using books as the context for client-centered, open-ended design challenges. Novel Engineering research has shown that teachers and students find their classroom texts provide a rich ground for engaging in engineering design, in addition to supporting and deepening literacy engagement and comprehension. NE can be used with fiction and non-fiction, which allows students to identify character-clients and problems, scope constraints surrounding problems, and design and build solutions. In this hands-on, interactive workshop, participants will get an introduction to Novel Engineering and then work in groups to work through a Novel Engineering project based on an excerpt from a book.
InterLACE (Interactive Learning and Collaboration Environment)
Target Grades: 7-12
Target Content: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math
Description:
InterLACE is a digital tool for capturing and sharing student work, facilitating interactive discussions and collaborations within the classroom. Come hear from a high-school science teacher who has been using InterLACE (and the new commercialized version, Visual Classrooms) in his class for the last several years. He will showcase some of the student work as well as talk about how it’s changed his own teaching practices around inquiry-based science explorations.