Learn how a project-approach to computer programming, robotics, and physical computing can serve a diverse student population while developing your own skills. This workshop will explore powerful ideas from computer science and engineering that may be employed in the solving of problems across the curriculum. A review of software and hardware options will be explored in addition to two focused programming and robotics activities. Participants will also have experience with the BBC Micro:bit and other low-cost “microcontroller development boards” offering great potential for learning through making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom.”
This session is aimed at upper primary and secondary teachers in Victorian government schools.
Dates and Venue:
Gary S. Stager, Ph.D., is an award-winning teacher educator, speaker, consultant, and author who has spent the past 35 years helping schools around the world embrace technology as an intellectual laboratory and vehicle for self-expression. He is an expert at helping educators prepare students for an uncertain future by supercharging learner-centered traditions with modern materials and technology. No stranger to Australia, Gary led PD in the world’s first laptop schools, earned a doctorate in science & mathematics education at The University of Melbourne, and has worked at government and independent schools across the nation since 1990. Gary has taught preschool through doctoral students, studied in Reggio Emilia, and was part of a project that won a Grammy Award.
When Jean Piaget wanted to better understand how children learn mathematics, he hired Seymour Papert. When Dr. Papert wanted to create a high-tech alternative learning environment for incarcerated at-risk teens, he hired Gary Stager. This work was the basis for Gary’s doctoral dissertation and documented Papert’s most-recent institutional research project.
He is a long-suffering Richmond Tigers supporter whose latest book is Invent To Learn – Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, has been called “the bible of the maker movement in schools.” Gary has worked across Australia for the past 27 years. You may read more at http://cmkfutures.com/gary
