Generative artificial intelligence and AI chatbots have captured the public’s imagination in remarkable ways. This workshop turns the tables on our AI overlords and puts kids in-charge. Learn how chatbots may be used in playful ways to create, learn, write better, solve problems, and develop critical thinking skills. Mind-blowing project ideas and tools will be shared to enhance learning long after this unique workshop.
Learning Objectives: 1. Become aware of indispensable AI tools for the classroom that are not chatbots. 2. Appreciate ways in which AI may be used to amplify the creative and intellectual potential of each learner. 3. Using AI as a partner in programming, writing, video editing, and oral communication.
Founder, CEO, Professor, STEAM Educator, and Author, Constructing Modern Knowledge
In addition to being a popular keynote speaker at some of the world’s most prestigious education conferences, Gary Stager is a journalist, teacher educator, consultant, professor, software developer, publisher, and school administrator. An elementary teacher by training, he has... Read More →
Whether it’s VEX, SkillsUSA or FIRST, these youth robotics programs instill a passion for all things STEM. Garrett County Public Schools (Maryland) leverages this passion by allowing its high school robotics students to teach highly engaging, standards-based, and scalable lessons to all students, grades 2 though 5 - making a systemic impact in our district. These lessons produce many “ah-ha” moments and help ensure that elementary-aged students develop the skills needed for their success in STEM. This session will feature our high school students sharing about their lessons and the “gadgets” they use to teach them -including a LEGO Abacus and Top Spinner, a “math-magic” trick based on the rudiments of binary numbers, a set of LEGO calipers that exactly determine the Golden Ratio and homemade “Makey Makeys”. Many “gadgets” will be given away. In fact, all participants will take at least one home! This program has been a huge “win-win” success and our students’ passion is contagious. They will inspire you with the difference they make!
Objectives:
Participants will learn how high school students can be used effectively in teaching STEM lessons to upper elementary students to promote the development of essential STEM Skills such as spatial reasoning, proportionality, and those found in computational thinking.
Participants will be presented with 5 highly engaging and scalable STEM lesson lessons that are easily replicable and reinforce concepts of multiplication, the binary number system, and the significance of the Fibonacci numbers.
Participants will become familiar with FIRST Robotics and how its programs encourage its teams to make a systemic impact on the schools and communities they serve - making a difference to all students, whether they are on a robotics team or not.
Earn TRETC Cash for just entering the Innovation Hall! Then collect more TRETC Cash as you visit each table. There is SO much to explore. You will use your TRETC cash at the TRETC Auction in the REA Auditorium at the end of the day!
Monday January 20, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm EST
Snyder Gym
Earn TRETC Cash for just entering the Innovation Hall! Then collect more TRETC Cash as you visit each table. There is SO much to explore. You will use your TRETC cash at the TRETC Auction in the REA Auditorium at the end of the day!
Monday January 20, 2025 1:00pm - 1:45pm EST
Snyder Gym
Learn how to take your students’ ideas and turn them into engaging songs to help concepts stick. Leveraging AI, teachers can now be song writers and creators. Music sticks in our heads longer than most information, so why not learn to use that to your advantage. Learn to create amazing lesson hooks, engaging activities, and more with some great AI apps.
Engage your students in creating virtual musical instruments, animations, and games with Scratch! Using Makey Makey, you can introduce them to interactive technology by turning everyday objects like fruit, aluminum foil, or even their own bodies into fun, hands-on controllers for their Scratch projects. Makey Makey lets students see the science behind conductors and insulators while exploring creativity and coding. It’s perfect for STEAM activities, sparking curiosity and making abstract concepts real through touch and play!
Objectives: 1. Discuss AI and different uses in the classroom 2. Learn to create music with Suno AI, and utilize different programs to help with lyrics. 3. Utilize whiteboard programs to collect ideas and collaborate on this process. 4. Audience will learn to code with Scratch 5. Audience will learn how to use Makey Makey 6. Audience will explore how to use Scratch and Makey Makey in their classrooms.
I used to be a high school Japanese teacher. I have been teaching at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania since 2005. I have taught instructional technology and world language teaching methodology. Hence, I like thinking about "What is a pedagogically sound use of technology in... Read More →
How would you like to attend school where these were the subjects?
Synthetic Synthetic Biology Data Activism Tiny Large Language Models Dreamtime Design Micronations Codes and Cryptography Inventing Hugo Cabret
Would you know how to teach in such a setting? Would students be more engaged? Would learning be natural and authentic?
Since our students will graduate into a technologically sophisticated and uncertain future, the best educators create environments and experiences that prepare children to solve problems none of us have ever anticipated. The greatest return on investment is when the learner herself is invested in their own growth. For these reasons, and more, the project should be a teacher’s smallest unit of concern.
Many educators share these ideals, but don’t know how or where to begin. Veteran educators strive to make their prompt setting more elegant, evocative, and effective.
Objectives: Set better promptsBe a better PBL practitionerBetter understand your own thinking and that of students
Founder, CEO, Professor, STEAM Educator, and Author, Constructing Modern Knowledge
In addition to being a popular keynote speaker at some of the world’s most prestigious education conferences, Gary Stager is a journalist, teacher educator, consultant, professor, software developer, publisher, and school administrator. An elementary teacher by training, he has... Read More →
This interactive co-design session empowers K-12 teachers to seamlessly integrate AI concepts into their existing classroom activities, making learning both engaging and relevant for students. Teachers will work collaboratively with the speakers to develop activities that convey essential, practical AI knowledge, helping students build the foundational skills to become responsible, informed decision-makers in a future shaped by AI. No prior AI expertise is required—this session is designed to support all educators. By the end of the workshop, each team of teachers will have crafted an AI-enhanced activity ready to bring into the classroom, helping students build common-sense AI literacy through familiar subjects. Join us to explore accessible, innovative ways to bring AI into your teaching practice!
Learning Objectives: 1. Identify potential AI-related knowledge that suitable for existing learning activities. 2. Create a classroom-ready AI-embedded activity. 3. Design assessment criteria for this AI-embedded activity.
