Innovation 4 Everyone

Last week I attended the ECSTEM conference for the first time. Ever since I heard about it I was so interested since it was especially about my current interests - Early childhood and STEM. My takeaways from the conference are: STEM can be integrated into all subject areas. SEL can be supported through STEM activities. Problem solving and other competencies can be developed through STEM experiences. STEM activities can be planned with ordinary materials we have laying around the school or house. STEM and play go hand-in-hand. Importance of asking WH questions when working with students and STEM. Engineering builds strong life-long skills. In general I saw much representation of Science (S), Arts (A), and Engineering (E), a little less of Math (M), but no Technology (T) at all. With technology I mean robotics and coding. In fact, I was in disbelief when I learned that there would be no wifi available in the conference rooms. Well, that was how it turned out to be. In fac...

This 5th edition of Live Curious, Go Beyond was a huge success! Year after year the number of attendees has increased and this was no exception. We had 507 registered participants and 52 different educational institutions represented at the conference. Organizing and planning the conference is a lot of work that takes months to prepare, but we are not alone. We are fortunate to count on a large group of leaders and volunteers that give up their time to make sure the conference is a success and runs smoothly. Some highlights of the conference are: The participation of two outstanding keynote speakers: Jennie Magiera and Ken Shelton, from the EdTechTeam. They set the tone and inspired all teachers to live curiously and go beyond.  Another important achievement was the pre-conference, run by High Tech High.  Concurrently to all the sessions happening, there was a Tinker & Make workshop for kids only.  In the main hallway, Apple Education installed a playgro...

A few days ago I was asked to share my experience with  FIRST Robotics in Elementary. Preparing for this interview made me reflect on the value of having a robotics program, of any kind, in every school. How has the ASFM FIRST program impacted you? Through tech classes elementary students have always been exposed to building and programming robots for several years now. However, last year we learned about FIRST robotics and introduced the FIRST Lego League in Elementary as an extracurricular activity. We started with one group of students and this year we had another group of kids for the Lego league and expanded to 3 groups for the First Lego League Jr. We have seen an increased interest in students wanting to participate. Although students continue to experience robotics in their regular tech classes, the FIRST Lego League extra curricular activity has a competitive component as well as collaborating to solve a real world problem. Why is FIRST essential to learning at ASFM...