Innovation and Inspiration

At Sherman Oaks Elementary School, all students in grades TK - 6 prepare an exhibition project to present to the community at the end of the school year. I was thrilled when 3rd grade teacher, Vanessa Diaz, reached out to me about planning their exhibition project around the 3rd NGSS standard of Life Cycles and incorporating programming with the Dash Robots.  In groups, students researched a plant or animal and the different stages in its life cycle. Each student was then responsible for typing a paragraph about a particular stage in the life cycle in Spanish or English (since Sherman Oaks is a Spanish immersion school). Students then worked with their teams to create a poster to organize the stages of their life cycle. We asked them to map out at least six different stopping points for Dash to stop and teach others about that particular stage.  When programming, we also challenged students to have Dash always facing the audience when he is saying something. This ...

We recently had four 3D modeling and printing trainings in our district to build interest and expertise around manufacturing and design. We had over 80 teachers, technicians, librarians, and parents throughout the district participate! The trainings were facilitated by myself and Sam Patterson, Technology Integration Specialist at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School. During the training, we focused on using TinkerCAD and the Polar 3D Cloud. You can view resources from our training by: Clicking Here  We also encouraged teachers to think about a project that they are currently working on and how they can incorporate 3D modeling and design. I also created several screencasts that teachers could use with their own classes to get started with 3D modeling: As a follow-up, two of the classrooms that I've recently worked with are Anne Stephano's 2nd grade class and Brian Tamekuni's 4th grade class. The second graders had been learning about bicycle safety, so we had them use Tink...

The 2nd graders at Sherman Oaks Elementary school are hard at work learning about materials and their properties, one of their new NGSS performance expectations! Their teacher, Maria Guevara, is one of our new NGSS Teacher Leaders, and invited me to try out a Mystery Science Lesson with her. All 2nd - 5th grade units are currently available for a free trial on  https://mysteryscience.com/  K - 1st grade units should also be available in the fall. The students started by watching a few short videos and discussing the guiding question: Why do we wear clothes? Students were introduced to different material properties like, light, heavy, hard, soft, stretch, and staff. Students were then given the challenge of designing a hat using different materials. They first tested all of the materials for softness, stiffness, and sweat-soaking (water). They then used what they had learned about each material to design and create a hat that they could wear outside. We added that they s...

Our 4th graders at Blackford Elementary School have been busy starting their 3D jewelry design and printing factory! 4th grade teacher, May Liu, was part of our 2015 Advanced STEAM Cohort and was excited to work on a project with Blackford's new 3D printer. We recently purchased a Polar 3D printer for all of our elementary and middle schools through a K - 16 Manufacturing Grant that we are part of with our local high school and community community college. We selected the Polar 3D because of its ability to send prints wirelessly through the Polar Cloud (great for sharing with multiple classes), its included live video capabilities, the ease of preparing the build plate (only a layer of hair spray is needed), the safety and environmental impact of using recycled PLA filament, and its relatively low cost of $599 (with educational pricing). We first had students do the first three self-paced tutorials on TinkerCAD.com (using their district Google Accounts to sign in) with their Chro...

Josh Pizzica and Anne Sanderfer, 8th grade teachers at Monroe Middle School just created and facilitated their first NGSS Project-Based Learning Unit! Their unit on Waves and Musical Instruments allowed students to discover frequency, pitch, amplitude, and how sound waves travel in an authentic way. The entry event was having a San Jose State University visit their classes to bring musical instruments and to allow students to see how particular instruments were engineered and created different sounds. Students then had about 3 weeks to choose and build their own instruments out of recycled materials. This also gave students a hands-on experience using woodworking tools like saws, drills, and hammers. With their groups, students also created a presentation to teach others about their instrument and the "science behind how it works" at their Musical Showcase. Magnificent work Anne, Josh, and your musical 8th graders!

As part of their geometry unit, the 3rd graders at Marshall Lane Elementary School have been learning about polygons and angles. Teacher, Meghan Snelham, incorporated the Dash robots by having her students create giant polygons on the floor using blue painters tape. In teams of 2 - 3 students, students drew a model of a polygon, labeled each side, calculated the perimeter, and came up with at least four facts about it. They then used painters tape, rulers, and protractors to create their polygon on the classroom floor. Students then began programming the Dash robots to travel along the perimeter of their shape and to say a fact at each corner. It was really interesting to see them problem solve with their partners how to measure the angles that they had created, in order to be able to program Dash to turn that many degrees to the left or right. Students also had to measure the polygon sides accurately so that Dash could travel along each side.  Students also...

I was so excited when the CUE STEAMPunk Drone Suitcase arrived in Campbell! I had heard about these awesome Parrot Flying Drones, but had never actually used one. Thanks to the CUE STEAMPunk Mobile Labs and Parrot, we were able to test four of them out for FREE! Before they arrived, I began planning which schools I would use them with and which content areas they could be best integrated with. Thanks to CUE STEAMPunk Teacher Advisor, Brian Briggs, I was able to quickly find a few lesson ideas on his Drone Academy:  http://rockstardrone.weebly.com/ With our STEAM students at Monroe Middle School, we had them start with Mission 1: Speed and Distance. Students used the Tickle App to predict and measure the different distances that Parrot would travel, when adjusting the time and speed. It was amazing to watch the students eyes light up in both fear and excitement as they programmed the drones to take off for the first time! Next, I took the drones to visit the students at Cas...

We tried a new coding app and coaching model at Lynhaven last Monday! The administrators were really supportive and covered two of the class periods so that I could work with all four first grade classes. We had two classes in the room at once and all four teachers could observe and assist me at the same time. Then, after recess we switched to work with the remaining two classes, so all four teachers could observe and assist me a second time. It was ambitious to have 50 first graders working on a new project at the same time, but with 5 teachers it worked out well. The first graders were just starting to learn about habitats and animal adaptations. So we started by having all of the students select an animal (or sprite) that they had some prior knowledge with. We then had students select a background of the habitat that their animal lived in. We chose Scratch Jr. specifically for this project, since there were pre-made background images of the arctic, desert, savannah, ocean, an...

Our 2nd Annual CUSD STEAM Showcase was a huge success! Thank you to all of our hard working teachers, students, administrators, and our community partners for celebrating STEAM in our district. We estimate that we had over 1,200 people attend the showcase this year! This year, we also included student performances. We had both elementary and middle school CUSD Extensions Drama performances, Lynhaven 5th grade Drumming and Poetry, elementary and middle school choirs, and our three middle school bands. Below is a clip of the Lynhaven 5th graders and their enthusiastic teacher, Asha Finkel, performing at the showcase! All of our 12 schools presented at least one classroom STEAM project. Some of the projects that I got to learn about from our students were engineering toys, bridges, simple machines, global warming, hands-on art sculptures, optical illusions, ceramics, math and technology projects, Blue-bot Literacy Adventures, Dash Robot Missions, MakeyMakey computer science game con...

Last week, I had the privilege of attending the National CUE Conference with 15 teachers and administrators from our district. We all left the conference completely inspired, hopeful, and excited about advancing technology and STEAM integration throughout our district. One of my favorite quotes from the weekend came from Cindy Moss, "STEAM is a culture, not a class." Those words really helped me to reflect on the fact that I really want to help our teachers to think of STEAM as a district-wide learning culture, and not as an extra activity. Other words that really inspired me were Brad Montague (creator of the Kid President Videos) saying to "Choose to take a chance with what you have." This really reminded me to continue to take risks, even if all of the conditions aren't perfectly in place. With technology and STEAM resources changing so quickly, if you keep waiting, the moment will pass, and you could keep waiting forever. Hadi Partovi (creator of Code.or...