Stavroula Sokoli

EDUTINKER International Conference

EDUTINKER: Technology, Innovation and New Keys for Educational Resources

5th July 2016, Bilbao, Spain

REGISTER OPEN (FREE)!! http://goo.gl/forms/OXm5Z63Twf

Conference Programme

The University of Deusto, as coordinator of the project “Make World: Learning Science through Computational Thinking”, financed by the European Commission within the Erasmus+ programme, will host the international conference “EDUTINKER: Technology, Innovation and New Keys for Educational Resources”. The conference is organized to bring together leaders and educators from around Europe to focus on topics that impact STEM Education in primary and secondary school.  The Make World project results will also be presented, including experiences from piloting, data analytics for researchers, etc.

The conference will take place at the University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain on the 5th July 2016.

Keynote speakers and topics

GRAS-Agueda-pic-01-small Agueda Gras-Velázquez, Science Programme Manager at European  Schoolnet and Scientix  project manager

CuartiellesDavid Cuartielles Co-founder of the Arduino platform and Teacher at Malmo University

 

 

 

Conference fees 

Conference attendance is FREE for all presenters and non-presenting attendees. Accomodation and breakfast/lunch will be provided for presenters (no travel expenses).

Topics

  • STEM education in primary and secondary school
  • STEM through Computational Thinking and vice versa
  • Pedagogical innovation
  • Encouraging female interest and participation in STEM disciplines
  • Assessment in STEM education
  • Formal, non-formal and informal education
  • …and other related topics.

Important dates

Make World Workshops

During the conference there will be three Make World workshops with a duration of 1,5h each:

  • Introduction to Make World
  • Design Your Story
  • Remix, Edit and Create

Conference Programme

8:30 Registration

9:00 Welcome and official opening

  • Begoña Garamendi Ibarra
    Director of Educational Innovation of the Basque Government.
  • Álvaro de la Rica Aspiunza
    Vice-Rector for International Relations, University of Deusto.

9:30 Keynote: Agueda Gras-Velazquez

10:15 Make World presentation (Pablo Garaizar)

10:45 Coffee break

11:15 Keynote: David Cuartielles

12:00 Make World workshops in parallel:

  • I: Introduction (Mariluz Guenaga)
  • II: Design your story (Iratxe Menchaca)

13:15 Lunch break

14:30 Experiences session (Mod. Stavroula Sokoli)

  • Marc Sibila – EDN Navàs
  • Nati de la Puerta – A Fortiori Editorial
  • Estibaliz León – Innobasque
  • Valeria Aloizou – Private school: “Oniroupoli”
  • Tullia Urschitz – Istituto Comprensivo Bartolomeo Lorenzi – Fumane VR

15:45 Make World workshop III: Remix, edit and create (Pablo Garaizar)

17:15 End

Experience track

Estibaliz Leon. Project manager in Innobasque (Basque Innovation Agency)

leon
How can we increase the STEM vocations? FIRST LEGO League training programme
STEM vocations problem is complex and many factors are involved. The family, social perception of science, the knowledge you have about salaries and employability, your personal interests and the information about STEM professions are some of the elements that have influence in our decisions.
The FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Euskadi training programme is carried out every year.  Thanks to this project we make students get to know which are the STEM professions. This is an education programme carried out outside the classrooms addressed to secondary school students who take part in the FLL Euskadi tournament.  Every year 400 students participate enriching their training in STEM through visits and outreach sessions in companies and R&D centres given by STEM professionals.

Valeria Aloizou, pre-school teacher

Valeria How about introducing Make World platform in pre-school educational program? I introduced Make World to my children (5-6 years old) at school as a part of an e-learning educational program, having as a main theme «Discovering our feelings», which took place this April.
First of all, children were separated in teams of two and I introduced them the Make World scenario that I had created. Afterwards, I encouraged them to collaborate in order to find out the way in which they could reach the target. When I saw enthusiasm in children’s eyes, as a result of their engagement with Make World platform, I decided to move on making a story and a 3D representation of the Make «Magic» World Scenario.

Marc Sibila Vidal, Technology and Music Teacher at EDN Navàs High School

MarcWe use the music to theach tecnology and tecnology to theach music. Instroniks is a project to do the learning boring, and change the tipical masterclass to transform the classroom in a FabLab when the students make, build, program, design some aplications for themselves or for the society. First of all they learn the basic concepts of tecnology by the music (building an electronic instrument) and then they make other aplications. Or they learn the basic concepts of music using the tecnology to program an electronic instrument. We are using this project in a High School and Music School.

Nati de la Puerta, founder and directress of A FORTIORI EDITORIAL publishing company

Nati, better known as Jaio, for her friends and family, is PhD in Economic History (University of the Basque Country). The professional activity has developed in the field of teaching and education; in the area of cultural management and communication; in the design, creation, organization and management of museums; in the field of digital literacy to adults; in the creation and design of Web pages; and publishing books.

NatiComputer science is not about machines, in the same way that astronomy is not about telescopes. This quote, often attributed to Dijkstra, stresses the fact that computing does not necessarily require a computer (i.e, Ada Byron wrote the first program of History for a computer that was built a century later). With this idea in mind, we designed a set of activities that takes advantage from everyday objects like decks of cards or dices to show how technology works. Going back to the roots of computing (i.e., the cards used by mechanical looms that inspired the design of the first computers) enables us to learn how they store, sort and share information. Unplugging computer science not only helps us to understand its fundamentals better, but also to realize how far can take us a few simple steps repeated over and over again.

Tullia Urschitz, teacher in a Low Secondary School

I’m a math, science and ICT teacher in a Low Secondary School, in Verona (Istituto Comprensivo Bartolomeo Lorenzi – Fumane – Verona). Since 2013 I’m Italian Scientix Ambassador.

tulliaThe approach to math and physics in the primary-middle school affects the choice of future careers. It is not enough learning some contents, it’s essential growing useful skills to understand the real world around us and know how to solve problems that arise. The experience presented is developed in a scenario in which students of the 7th grade are learning to drive a car that is represented by a robot. It refers to an activity done inside our math and science lessons.

Working with robots helps all students to re-process abstract concepts, facilitating the connection with reality. Educational robotics, in fact, can be used as a methodology to ignite the interest of girls and boys in STEM and as a pedagogical approach that can help in developing several competences when integrated in the regular curriculum in the primary/middle school.

 

 

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By Stavroula Sokoli, ago

CodeCombat

CodeCombat is a platform for students to learn programming while playing a game with their classmates. Its courses consist of levels that have been playtested to work best in a classroom setting, designed to be used by teachers with no prior coding experience necessary. Current Courses are available in JavaScript and Python, with solution guides provided for both.

We haven’t played it yet, but just found out about it and thought we’d give it a try. Have you?

 

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By Stavroula Sokoli, ago

Code Monkey

ch73CodeMonkey aims to teach students skills like problem solving, multiple-step, critical and analytical thinking skills. Suitable for children from the age of 9 and up, although there are also younger users.

Students will help the monkey get his bananas back by writing lines of code in CoffeeScript, a real programming language used in the industry for developing web applications, mobile apps and games.

The free teacher trial gives access to:

  • 30 fun CodeMonkey Challenges
  • Our teacher dashboard
  • accounts for 30 students
  • Solutions to all challenges
  • Lesson plans

The programming language used in CodeMonkey is called CoffeeScript. It’s a language that compiles to JavaScript, and similarly to JavaScript it is used in the industry primarily for web applications. We chose this language for a few reasons, but mainly because of its friendly syntax, which resembles the way we write in English, compared to other programming languages.

By Stavroula Sokoli, ago

Code Monster

Crunchzilla is a service that students can use to learn to write Javascript programs. There are two versions of Crunchzilla; Code Maven and Code Monster. Code Monster is designed for students of middle school age. Code Monster contains 58 short lessons that take students from the very basics of things like resizing and repositioning objects to complex creation of animations. Students can work through the lessons in sequence or jump directly to any of the lessons. Students receive instant feedback on each lesson because the code that they write and the results of the code are displayed side by side.monster2

By Stavroula Sokoli, ago

CK-12: a site for access to STEM content

CK-12 is an online educational content site sponsored by the CK-12 Foundation, a nonprofit that desires to increase worldwide K-12 access to STEM content. CK-12’s main offering is a collection of free digital textbooks (called “Flexbooks”) for high school age students, particularly on topics in science, engineering and math. CK-12 has created a total of 88 Flexbooks that cover approximately 5,000 STEM content areas (from life science, like DNA vs. RNA, to sequences and series in calculus).

In addition to traditional text-based material, CK-12’s material is available in more than a dozen other modalities, such as videos, quizzes, flashcards, and “simulations,” or interactive content that brings visualization to abstract concepts. For example, a simulation of force might be showcased with an interactive Ferris wheel, which the user can click on and move to manipulative a force tracker.timeline-pic-3

What’s more, CK-12 is also creating a collection of tools that enable teachers, students or subject-matter experts to either add additional material or create material from scratch. In basic terms, users can assemble CK-12’s material according to their needs. Say a high school biology teacher wants to create the equivalent of a workbook around the skeletal system, but hopes to create a balance between text and visual information. The teacher could pull from the “Human Skeletal System” content collection, specifically selecting the written text, a video overview of the skeletal system, and a link to an interactive virtual body website. The teacher can also add to or remove information from the textual component, depending on how surface-level or in-depth he or she wishes to go with their students.

When teachers or students visit the CK-12 website, they can search for Flexbooks according to their needs without logging in. Users also have access to CK-12’s other platforms, specifically Braingenie (a collection of fast-pitched K-12 math and science question), I Need a Pencil(free online SAT preparation), and FlexMath (a collection of math tools and assessments).

CK-12’s products are free for anyone across the globe, and available in over 70 languages. However, while teachers and students do not need to register to use the CK-12 Flexbooks, those who do register will find additional tools and resources available for their use.

Registered students: Upon registering, students gain access to “StudyHELP,” a space where students can engage in peer-to-peer learning; they can post questions about content, form study groups, and establish connections with other students.

Additionally, registered students have access to a student dashboard, a space where they can organize CK-12 content for their use. Revamped in September 2013, CK-12’s student dashboard includes the ability to self-study with assessments attached to each of CK-12’s over 5,000 concepts, and a group function, where students can form study groups for themselves and their friends, or join a class group created by a teacher.

Registered teachers: For teachers, the experience of logging into CK-12 includes a number tools that support the actual use and implementation of Flexbooks. Teacher who log in gain access to a dashboard where they can organize their own content by either using whole Flexbooks, readjusting those Flexbooks, or by combining their own added content with CK-12’s existing content. Teachers can also use the dashboard to track their students’ mastery of concepts, seen on the front page of the dashboard, with the aid of a quiz-making capability (see below). Additionally, the “Groups” function allows the teacher to create groups of students with whom they can share specific Flexbooks, give assignments to, and track both individual and aggregate performance (either via controlled “Class” groups, or those aforementioned “Study Groups,” where any member can share content).

By Stavroula Sokoli, ago

Social networks and primary school students

Hi all,
The question of how to deal with under-13 users in Make World is an issue that preoccupies us quite a lot. I’ll start with some thoughts and will do my best to organize them. At this point there does not seem to be a perfect solution and we have to look at what is a priority for the project.
Two assumptions first:
MW mission: ideally MW would be an open platform for anybody to register, no conventional classes or groups, no teacher-student relationships. The social relationships are based on following and mentoring. This has many pedagogical advantages (not to be expanded on here).

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By Stavroula Sokoli, ago

Welcome to Make World!

Thanks for visiting our blog! Would you like to contribute? Here are some ideas you could write about:

  • Your experience using an innovative tool (ICT or not) or methodology in STEM education
  • Challenges to attract children/youth to STEM (it may focus on girls)
  • What motivates your students
  • What is STEM for in real life? Examples of how concepts from STEM apply in real life
  • Women in the science and technology (past and present)

If you find these topics as exciting as we do, leave a reply here and we’ll contact you!

(more…)

By Stavroula Sokoli, ago