View the recording of a recent webinar to learn more about our summer professional development opportunities.
26-27 |
DESIGNING BIOMIMETIC ROBOTS ONLINE
TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM EDT
$175
In the Designing Biomimetic Robots (Biorobots) teacher workshop, participants will explore a fifteen-lesson, biology-inspired middle school robotics curriculum developed as a collaboration between TERC in Cambridge, MA, and Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach. This curriculum was funded by the National Science Foundation to support middle school learning experiences in computational thinking, engineering design, and life science. The curriculum guides learners through biomimetic design – engineering a solution that is inspired by nature. Students explore biological structure-function relationships and use what they learn to design, build, program, test, and iterate on digging robots in response to a disaster engineering design challenge. Participants build using the Hummingbird Robotics toolkit (a robotics platform from Carnegie Mellon University) and block-based programming (MakeCode). Teachers attending this 2-day workshop will learn how to build and program a biomimetic robot and will practice implementing key portions of the curriculum unit. Although the curriculum is intended for grades 6 through 8, teachers of older and younger students are also welcome to attend and explore options for adapting the learning experiences and tools for other ages and contexts. The workshop is open to any K-12 teacher, informal education provider, volunteer, or member of industry interested in learning about educational robotics. Participants will have access to all fifteen of the curricular lessons.
**** Participants will need a reliable internet connection and a Hummingbird robotics kit. There are a few options. You can buy a new kit from the vendor (Option A), specific parts from the vendor (Option B), or buy a refurbished kit from the CEEO (Option C).
- Option A – $199 – Premium kit from vendor
- Option B – $125 – Individual items: Hummingbird controller, micro:bit + USB, AA power supply, 2 position servos, and 2 rotation servos)
- Option C – $70 – Refurbished kit from the CEEO
2-6 |
2021 ONLINE LEGO Engineering
Institute for Educators
9:00 AM – 12:30 PM EDT
$250
This online one-week, 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM EDT workshop will explore the LEGO Education SPIKE Prime robotics platform. SPIKE Prime is a powerful and engaging tool for teaching STEM, programming, and engineering design. The workshop will give teachers the programming and construction background they need to make effective use of LEGO robotics in their classrooms. Through hands-on, open-ended design projects, participants will learn the basics of programming, using their choice of Scratch-based word blocks or Python. They will also learn building concepts, including the use of motors, sensors, and gears. Throughout, we will focus on effective classroom implementation: how to share these concepts with students in an approachable and creative way. In addition to the work with SPIKE Prime, the workshop will include a Center for Engineering Education and Outreach speakers series over lunch: talks about innovations in robotics and engineering education by professors, grad students, and staff.
The Institute is open to any K-12 teacher, informal education provider, volunteer, or member of industry interested in learning about LEGO Engineering. This session is designed for educators with a range of LEGO robotics experience, from beginner to intermediate.
**** Participants will need a reliable internet connection and a SPIKE Prime set.