Maker Educator Convening

Members of the Bay Area Discovery Museum will introduce their Engineering Design Process and invite participants to explore and focus on the first step of this process—planning for making—through a design challenge. During this challenge, participants will be split up into several small groups, all tasked with the same design challenge, but with different materials and guidelines. Upon completing the design challenge, participants will reflect on what was similar or different in their process and prototypes and build greater understanding of the connection between intentional design of planning time and making!

Attendees will learn about the stages of the Design Thinking Process, and how to generate ideas that will allow for a more creative approach to solving an environmental issue using the Four-Quadrant model. After learning about Stanford University's Design Thinking framework, and exploring examples of classroom prototype pictures, attendees will participate in a prototyping activity of their own. Attendees will use a Gallery Walk activity to showcase their solutions to the entire group, and reflect on the experience.

This workshop will be an immersive experience in which authentic learning is derived from individual passions! Participants will explore ways to validate identity, discover purpose, and implement an impactful vision for themselves and with their unique constituents. These elements together provide a pathway toward a culture of making and creativity. In addition to the model of making and tinkering that guests will experience firsthand, the group will engage in discussion and reflection to explore unique ways that the presenters have built a culture of making in a variety of PK-14 settings.

The BBC microbit is an inexpensive and easy-to-program microcontroller with several built-in sensors and the ability to easily connect to a variety of output devices, such as LEDs, motors, and buzzers. Built-in Bluetooth makes it possible for several microbits to wirelessly communicate with each other to serve as remote controls, alarms, etc. In this session, participants will have an opportunity to experiment with and explore the possibilities of the microbit. Basic instructions will be given, so users with no coding experience can participate, and more advanced challenges will be offered to those with experience.