MakerEd Educators Forum Next September
MakerEd Educators Forum Next September
Virtual Event Sept 27 & 28, 2024
For the fourth year, the MakerEd Educators Forum (previously the Make: Education Forum) will be held on Friday and Saturday, September 27 & 28. The program is organized by Godwyn Morris of Dazzling Discoveries and brought to you by MakerEd.
Why is it important to run a conference specifically for maker educators and STEM education professionals?
We created the MakerEd Educators Forum to give maker educators the opportunity to find each other and share ideas, resources, and experiences.
The Forum provides a valuable platform for maker educators to come together and share their experiences, methodologies, and insights around experiential learning. Often the STEAM Lab coordinator, STEM Integrator or makerspace educator is the only person in the school with the responsibility of incorporating hands-on learning into the curriculum. By bringing together educators from different schools and backgrounds, the Forum will enable the exchange of ideas and best practices, allowing participants to learn from one another. This collaborative approach can lead to the development of more effective teaching strategies, the discovery of new techniques, and the enhancement of existing curriculum frameworks.
The two-day virtual event will consist of 30-minute presentations on Friday, interactive workshops on Saturday and unconference conversation opportunities both days. This variety ensures that participants have access to both structured learning opportunities and informal, participant-driven discussions.
Here is a video from last year’s forum, Jasmine Florentine on teaching Physical Computing through Storytelling.
MakerEd Educators Forum is an excellent opportunity for collaboration and advancing hands-on learning in schools. By facilitating the exchange of ideas and experiences, it can contribute to the continuous improvement of maker education and the overall learning experience for students.
Registration is $65 and includes full access to the conference and all the recordings.
Register at https://makered.org/educatorsforum
Jenny Young and the story of Brooklyn Robot Foundry
You can find my podcast episode (and transcript) with Jenny Young on Makezine on how she’s developed her business. Here’s a video of our conversation, especially for subscribers to this newsletter.
Among the topics we covered was the best kind of seating for students in a makerspace — a stool.
The most perfect chair is a little tiny metal stool with no back so that you can't lean back, but also so that when you're talking to other kids you can spin your body all around and be able to interact with your environment. Also, as you're building a robot on your table, sometimes it moves on the ground and you want to spin around and quickly put it on the ground, so and our chairs are a little bit slippery, but not too slippery because you don't want the kids falling off, but you want it to slide your butt around enough that you can freely move. Also needs to be heavy enough that a kid can't tip it over, but not too heavy that you can't move it, so I'll show you my stool.
The stools at Brooklyn Robot Foundry can be seen in the background in the photo below.
End of School Year Reflection
There are but a few weeks left in the school year. Congratulations to maker educators on your work throughout the year. I have three questions related to maker education (please answer any of all of them.)
What was your biggest challenge this year for you or your maker program?
How could MakerEd help you improve what you do in the next school year?
What topic would you like us to cover in the MakerEd Educators Forum in September?
You can reply to this email, leave a comment on the web version or write me directly - dale@make.co.
Enjoy Memorial Day Weekend.