Refilling Our Creative Wells

[Sandee Bisson]

Fellow K-8 Maker Educators/STEAM Teachers,

I've been running my K-8 maker program for about 10 years now. I have a program that is beloved and working well for my community. However, I am feeling a little creatively stuck on how to keep innovating and where to go next to continue to best engage my students. I miss the creative and pedagogical boost I used to get from in-person PD like Maker Ed Convening and local meet-ups that used to take place here in the SF Bay Area.  I don't personally find remote learning to be a good substitute. I need 3D humans.

I am curious if others feel this way and if anyone has found  PD that is helping to propel them forward? It seems so much of the PD I find is geared to getting started with maker/STEAM work and not as applicable to those of us who have been at it a while. I'd really love to hear where you are getting new ideas and how incorporating new technologies and methodologies into your work. What are your students loving right now?

Thank you for any thoughts and resources you are willing to share.

Sandee

[Safoura Seddighin]

Hi Sandee,

Thanks so much for what you do! What you describe sounds amazing!

Just a few that I can think of:

https://learning.constructingmodernknowledge.com/la/

This is happening in LA, by Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager; not sure how local you need the workshops to be!

I participated in on of the in person workshops of Seasons of CS happening in California; not so much beginner level! Maybe there are ones happening close to you done by the Ed department?

There is the Fabplay teachers institute also happening in June; have you seen that one?

https://sites.google.com/view/fab-play-institute/home

I know that summer LOGO foundation workshops are happening in NY also. I think in June! Not quite sure!

I was part of the FabLearn fellowship cohort and connecting with other makerspace heroes was the best part of it. Have you seen the books that have come out of each cohort? Here’s the link to the Meaningful Making Books, free to download:

https://fablearn.org/fellows/meaningful-making-book/

I am currently focusing on MicroBits; want to try connections with culture and history! Maybe choosing a new angel/context to work within would help with getting new sparks come to life?

I’ll let you know if I can think of anything else!

Good luck,

Safoura 

You are not one, You are a thousand!

Just light your lantern!

-Rumi

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[Keith G Braafladt]

This is a quick link, but Ryan Jenkins a wonderful, creative thinker and tinkerer recently wrote a book and yes, it is filled with introductory activities, but his blog is a deep well of fantastic maker resources and his network of folks that he works with is even bigger and very enlightening

https://wonderfulidea.co/blog/

Keith Braafladt

Makerspace coordinator.

Mount Park Academy

[Sandee Bisson]

Thanks Keith, I agree that Ryan and his work are always good for a creative jolt!

Sandee Bisson Maker Educator and Lower School STEAM Curriculum Designer 415-294-4901 office pronouns: she, her, hers  (why is this important?)

[Joan Horvath]

We are running an event in August in Pasadena covering our maker math materials, electronics ideas and project planning brainstorming: https://educationaladvancement.org/services/consulting/#maker, or if you can't make it to Pasadena, check out our Make: Math books at https://www.makershed.com/collections/make-author-spotlights-joan-horvath-and-rich-cameron

[hele...@isomers.com]

What about heading down to Foothill College: 
https://krauseinnovationcenter.org/event/crafting-calm/

Also, abdoakland.org has in-person events. Are you part of the Bay Area Maker Educators google group?

On Monday, May 5, 2025 at 8:55:05 AM UTC-7 sbi...@sfbrandeis.org wrote:

[Sandee Bisson]

These are great local resources! Thank you!

I am actually not part of the Bay Area specific group, just this one. Would you mind sending me an invite?

Thank You!

Sandee

Sandee Bisson Maker Educator and Lower School STEAM Curriculum Designer 415-294-4901 office pronouns: she, her, hers  (why is this important?)

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[Jeff Ellenbogen]

Just a follow-up plug for our new MakerEd Jam event at Dawson School near Boulder, CO - June 9-13. This is for intermediate to experienced maker educators to come together and learn through collaborative making. You can check out the details at https://sites.google.com/dawsonschool.org/makerspace-resources/home/pd-workshops/dawson-makered-jam

Feel free to email me at jelle...@dawsonschool.org with any questions. We would love to have you join in the fun!

Jeff Ellenbogen

Director of Innovation and Technology at Dawson School - Colorado

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[god...@skillmillnyc.com]

For all Bay area educators, consider the Friday in person Field Trip day at Maker Faire (or the regular Sat/ Sun ) https://makerfaire.com/.  Click on the Buy Ticket button to see options.

I am organizing a series of virtual workshops for maker educators for the 25-26 school year.  If you have topics suggestions please send them to me.  So far I have workshops planned about how to make podcasts, how to make student portfolios and AI tools for educators.  What other topics should I schedule?   These will all be free and available to all educators.

Godwyn
Ms. Godwyn Morris
Director
Dazzling Discoveries/ Skill Mill NYC
and Communications Director, MakerEd

[Angi Chau]

Ok, so this is 100% in the category of shameless self-promotion but I co-lead my school's Design Thinking Institute each year. We usually have anywhere from between 40-60 educators from around the world join us each year.

Since our "post-pandemic reboot" where we overhauled the schedule and added some new sessions targeting more veteran teachers in the design thinking/maker space, we've even had folks who come back for 2nd, and sometimes even 3rd, times (usually with new people from their schools in tow). This is because so much of the institute's time is dedicated to work time for participants, either individually or with their teams, with coaches ready to assist (much like the model of Constructing Modern Knowledge!). 

Anyway, if this sounds at all interesting, registration is still open and I'm of course happy to answer questions. Financial assistance and group discounts are available! 😊

DTI is one of my favorite parts of my current role and I hope folks on this list will consider joining (or coming back if you've attended before!) 

Thanks,

Angi 

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[Amanda Grutza]

Hey Sandee! and other Bay Area Makers / STEM teachers! 

Your post really resonated with me! I’m moving to the Bay Area in a few weeks and would love to help build some of that in-person energy again. 

I’ve run a few successful maker/educator meetups here in NYC and have been thinking about putting something similar together on the West Coast—something casual but energizing, with space to tinker, talk shop, and share ideas. I may even have access to a potential space!

Your post actually inspired me to throw together a quick interest form—if anyone else is craving creative collabs feel free to drop your name! Whether you’re into hybrid co-working, hands-on sessions, or collaborative curriculum development, I’d love to connect.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScRZOVf2lT661xv7YFrzNofz4tC9mluD8C7XkIGJjHlakki_Q/viewform?usp=dialog

I can put together a quick group for anyone interested in virtual, in-person, or hybrid collaboration. I have previously held workshops at my local school, as well as collaborated on some volunteer work with STEM Teachers NYC: (here is an example of some programming https://stemteachersnyc.org/events/ , I highly recommend them for both virtual and in-person programming if you are in the area!) and would love to recreate some working groups and workshops out in the Bay Area. 

Looking forward to connecting with you all! 

Amanda 

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Amanda Grutza

STEM Educator

amandagrutza.com

[Kathy Giori]

Hi all, it seems there is an appetite for a "let's do hands-on STEAM" together, focused on exploring new resources that will help young learners. I'm happy to help! I can host, and/or I can travel to where there is a group willing to gather.

I am fortunate to have gotten far enough through a tech career to be able to give up on a paycheck in favor of giving back. I have a lot to share/teach from working over the past few years with John Maloney and Bernat Romagosa, the two main developers of the physical computing tool MicroBlocks, which like Scratch (John Maloney also co-created and led the development of Scratch for its first 11 years), is the only LIVE environment for programming microcontrollers. "Physical computing" encompasses a lot of STEAM, including robotics, "smart" anything, including IoT, and any device with digital inputs and outputs. I feel that learning physical computing skills as early as possible is super valuable for students, so that they gain the confidence to be tech innovators, creators, and scientific explorers (in any field). 

Here's a recent talk we gave about MicroBlocks and Snap! and App Inventor interacting with each other at the Robolot conference in Spain, starting at the intro to MicroBlocks (it begins in Catalan, and then when I start talking it's in english for a while).
https://youtu.be/ScgoLTDLC7E?t=2339

You can reach out to me directly or organize a group gathering so we can explore these tools together. They are 100% open source software and free.

kathy

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[god...@skillmillnyc.com]

I am creating a series of free virtual workshops for educators for the new school year through my MakerEd.org role.  Let me know any topics you want covered.  So far I have these sessions on my planning board (working titles) 

Helping Students Create Their Own Podcasts

Basic Circuits / Fun LED projects

Board Game design for Content Reinforcement and/or Assessment

Escape Room design for Content Reinforcement and/or Assessment

AI for .....  (need suggestions for this)

Microbit projects

Any thoughts on these?  Any other topics?  I am also happy to coordinate any working groups/ cohorts

Let me know what is helpful.

Godwyn
Ms. Godwyn Morris
Director
Dazzling Discoveries/ Skill Mill NYC
and Communications Director, MakerEd

[John Baglio]

Hi Godwyn

Those look great.  I was wondering if you could do AI workshops on learning how AI actually works by training an AI and then integrating it into a project.  I was also wondering if you could do a workshop on either advanced uses of the microbit such as using the datalogging features of the MB v.2, the serial monitor, or advanced radio/BT features (are there any of those?) and/or how to take students who know the MB decently well to the next level, and what that next level is (arduino, RasPi, something I don't even know about yet?)

I always love your work and creative spin on things so I look forward to your workshop series!

John

[Kathy Giori]

Hi Godwyn,

I'm glad John responded because I had let this email descend into the invisible depths of my inbox...

I'd like to help contribute and/or brainstorm with you to support the escape room (to incorporate physical computing) and content related to the micro:bit. Do the physical computing examples have to meet any specific CS rubrics or other mandates or can the content simply be full of making and learning? And what is the target age range?

Note also to John Baglio -- I'm happy to brainstorm the "next level" ideas you seek. The micro:bit alone has a lot of capability, and when it is plugged into robot kits or extender boards to add other components, it offers a rather high ceiling for learning. I wouldn't replace the micro:bit but rather I would complement it. You could connect it to an embedded Linux platform (such as RPi or BeagleBoard) that supports BLE (or has a BLE dongle) so that students can delve into designing Internet gateways that communicate data from the micro:bit and connect it to the Internet (or process it locally). From a laptop, you can use webBLE in the Chrome browser to connect it to web apps, or use BLE with MIT App Inventor (the MicroBlocks BLE extension) to communicate between a smartphone and the micro:bit. It's actually not too complicated to turn the micro:bit into an IoT device of sorts. Running Snap! in Chrome and connecting the micro:bit to a stage sprite or similar using the MicroBlocks extension over BLE is also pretty amazing. To see an example, go to "45 minutes in" on this video to see a Coding Box (has an ESP32 with Wi-Fi/BLE) connecting to Snap! that acts as both a remote command center and a monitoring screen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScgoLTDLC7E&t=2339s

If only I could program the micro:bit to bring more hours into my day... 😂

kathy

(MicroBlocks team volunteer)

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[Claire Comins]

Hello Godwyn

I'd be interested to chat re: podcasts.

This KQED course has some great ideas to get started:

https://teach.kqed.org/p/making-audio

Claire

[C Mytko]

Hi all - 

I am, as camp wraps up this afternoon, officially on summer break for two weeks! I am excited to think about PD / meet-ups again! Like Kathy, I'm up for in-person meet-ups again and I'm happy to help. I'd be most up for hosting (in the East Bay) and/or I might be able to travel to where there is a group willing to gather. My space is not fancy (tinkercoop.org), but it's my own non-profit so I have flexibility. It would be easy to host an unconference with local minds and beverages of our choosing! 

 Sandee, in case you didn't already get the link: Bay Area Maker Educators google group

Christine Mytko

On Fri, May 16, 2025 at 9:52 AM Amanda Grutza <amanda...@gmail.com> wrote:

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