Past Workshops
Design, Do, Discover
This workshop is for educators who are passionate about student-centered, constructionist learning and interested in the practical implementation of hands-on projects in the K-12 setting. In particular, the focus is on empowering participants to become joyful maker educators and to imagine how they can integrate making into the daily life of their school setting.
Assessment When There is No Right Answer
When learning is centered around not what one knows but what one is able to do with what one knows, it calls for a different way to think about assessment of learning. The technologies students already have in their hands are simple tools for documenting learning experiences and producing generative artifacts that are evidence of learning in this context. This session led by Reshan Richards, Chief Learning Officer at Explain Everything, examines and uncovers qualitative formative assessment of learning, an approach that supports maker-oriented educational design.
littleBits and the Mobile MakerSpace
littleBits is a platform of easy-to-use electronic building blocks that empowers students (and teachers) to invent anything, from a remote controlled car to a smart home device. The Bits snap together with magnets, so no soldering, wiring, or programming is needed. Marymount's team of littleBits educators guide you in tinkering, playing, collaborating, and inventing through the lens of the mobile maker space. You can invent your own superhero, a story with light, or an interactive universe, and discuss strategies for infusing your curriculum with littleBits as well as share examples of student projects.
Understanding the User Experience in K-12 Ed
According to Robert Reimann, the core elements of design thinking are solving problems creatively to provide solutions that put humans and a good user experience first; start with an understanding of goals; and are ethical, purposeful, pragmatic, and elegant. But how best to use design thinking to better translate the user experience (UX), especially in schools? In this two-hour workshop led by Don Buckley, co-founder of Tools At Schools, attendees uncover and assess the role of UX in classes, curriculum, meetings, conferences, and free time.
Hacking the Essay
Led by Linda Vasu from Convent of the Sacred Heart in Greenwich, CT, this interactive workshop focuses on the interdisciplinary aspect of STEAM and the Humanities by looking hacking traditional methods of research, writing, documentation, and presentation. Topics for discussion included: exploring a new mindset and process for the Humanities, as well as researching, archiving, and blogging about Makerspace projects.
Maker Day
Maker Day is a free, half-day event for educators, students, parents, designers, and makers to present projects, attend workshops and explore how digital fabrication and making are reviving – and inspiring – our classrooms.