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Crafting learning ecologies for remote professional learning and summer camps

Paper Mechatronics projects during a “gallery walk”

Educators know that learning happens not just in the classroom, but all the time and across all settings—from school and to home other formal and informal spaces. In learning sciences research, this is described by a learning ecology framework. Like an environmental ecosystem that sustains biodiversity, learning ecology is a set of complex relationships and […]

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Technology opens up worlds of learning

Teacher Ambassador Khamphet Pease

Khamphet (Phet) Pease had been teaching STEAM elective classes at Wilson Middle School for five years when she was named one of the five San Diego County Teachers of the Year in 2015. She was invited to throw the ceremonial first pitch at a San Diego Padres game. She continues to teach at Wilson—and to be recognized. This year she won an NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Educator Award, which celebrates formal and informal educators who encourage young women’s interest and participation in technology pursuits.

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From engineer to teacher

Teacher Ambassador Ken Hawthorn

Ken Hawthorn started his career as a prototyping engineer working with early stage companies to develop proof-of-concept technologies: localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in biotech to long-range electric motorcycles. After volunteering in an afterschool program to help academically and socially at-risk students, he discovered that engineering has a lot in common with teaching.

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Community and citizen science: A brief history and report from CitSci 2019

Paper Mech Crab

From its beginning, we at the Concord Consortium have advocated for the notion that young people can produce high-quality, meaningful data to answer real questions. More than 20 years ago, Concord Consortium founder Robert Tinker sketched a compelling vision for authentic science in schools and communities, making the case that anyone can be a scientist. […]

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Paper Mechatronics workshops use technology and tinkering to learn machine design

Design thinking and engineering design is often taught as a linear, structured approach, but with Paper Mechatronics, tinkering is key. During two different July workshops a group of teachers and some young girls explored a more creative approach to learning design: blending crafts with electronics, coding, and mechanisms. Infosys Foundation USA Pathfinders Summer Institute 2018 […]

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