Innovation and Inspiration

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...

Last weekend, we had 35 students from Campbell Middle School compete in MESA Day at San Jose State! Students competed in different engineering design challenges, including the prosthetic arm, popsicle stick bridges, mousetrap cars, balsa wood gliders, egg drop, and bioengineering. Thanks to the dedicated MESA teachers, Richard Timpson and Pedro Garcia, the students were ready and proud to present their finished projects before the teams of industry judges. Below are pictures of the the 5/6th grade and the 7/8th grade prosthetic arm teams. The teams worked for months designing an assistive device that would pick up and throw as many bean bags as possible into a specific area. Our students used 3D modeling software to 3D print a hand that would best pick up and throw a bean bag. They then used an Arduino circuit board to program a motor to that would move the hand's fingers with the touch of a button. Finally, they used cardboard and other recycled materials to connect all pieces o...

This year we celebrated National Engineers Week as a district STEAM event! It was optional, but we had over 100 classes choose to participate! We started by preparing teachers for Engineers Week by hosting three Engineering Teacher Boot Camps at three different schools and libraries throughout the district. Teachers who attended learned about the Engineering Design Process and recommended engineering projects (including our STEAM Library Book Projects and the Tech Challenge Classroom Projects). They then shopped for the materials that they needed to do their favorite Engineering Project with their students and had the option of trying the project as well! I also had the privilege of getting to work with many classes on their engineering projects! Here are a few of the classroom highlights throughout the week:

Last Saturday, our dedicated MESA teachers (Richard Timpson and Pedro Garcia) invited me to join them at their Arduino training for students and teachers. We have a set of MakeyMakeys at all of our middle schools, and so far we have just been using the front side with the arrow keys. It was fascinating to learn about all of the advanced functions that we can now use on the back of the MakeyMakey! We started out by learning how to program an LED light to blink on and off, how to create a light dimming switch, how to create a motion sensored light, and how to make a motor turn forwards and backwards. The Arduino Software is free to download here:  https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software This was one of my first times attending a training with students, and it was amazing to see how quickly the students picked up on the coding concepts. I was even more impressed that they remembered a lot of it when we returned to school the next day and were able to teach others about it. A ...