MakerSpaces Without Walls : Launching STEAM Access for Every Learner
March 19th 2026 10:00 -- 11:00 AM
Location: Amway
Room Atrium
This session is hands-on and application-driven. Teachers explore and practice with a suite of accessible, high-impact virtual makerspace and coding platforms: Tinkercad Circuits and Codeblocks, MakeCode, SimLab, Qweebi, and Makers Empire. I focus on launching mini-challenges and design prompts that use these apps—no special hardware required—making it possible for every student to participate, even on Chromebooks or iPads. We focus on equity-minded strategies: quick documentation (journals, photos), easy UDL supports, and practical scaffolds for multilingual and special needs learners.
Takeaways: Ready-to-run challenge prompts for each featured platform, a documentation toolkit, and clear classroom scaffolds for full participation.
I’m excited to help teachers leave with ideas and tools they can use right away!
March 19th 2026 10:00 -- 11:00 AM
Location: Amway
Room Atrium
This session is hands-on and application-driven. Teachers explore and practice with a suite of accessible, high-impact virtual makerspace and coding platforms: Tinkercad Circuits and Codeblocks, MakeCode, SimLab, Qweebi, and Makers Empire. I focus on launching mini-challenges and design prompts that use these apps—no special hardware required—making it possible for every student to participate, even on Chromebooks or iPads. We focus on equity-minded strategies: quick documentation (journals, photos), easy UDL supports, and practical scaffolds for multilingual and special needs learners.
Takeaways: Ready-to-run challenge prompts for each featured platform, a documentation toolkit, and clear classroom scaffolds for full participation.
I’m excited to help teachers leave with ideas and tools they can use right away!
Design Thinking Meets AI: Empowering Creativity and Student Voice Through Custom Chatbots & AI Agents
March 19, 2026 4:00 - 5:00pm
Location: DeVos
Room River Overlook B
This session is platform-agnostic and uses a prompt framework that works with any district-approved AI tool. For example, we can use SchoolAI, Flint, MagicSchool, Gemini, or ChatGPT—whatever your district supports. I show teachers how to create a “Design Buddy” that guides students through the design thinking process (empathy → define → ideate → prototype → test) without providing the answers, so student ownership and reflection stay front and center. We cover launching engaging challenges, documenting process with journals or photos, and adapting for all learners, including multilingual learners and students with disabilities.
Takeaways: Editable Design Buddy templates, a launch checklist, a mini-rubric for process and iteration, and prompt samples for any grade.
March 19, 2026 4:00 - 5:00pm
Location: DeVos
Room River Overlook B
This session is platform-agnostic and uses a prompt framework that works with any district-approved AI tool. For example, we can use SchoolAI, Flint, MagicSchool, Gemini, or ChatGPT—whatever your district supports. I show teachers how to create a “Design Buddy” that guides students through the design thinking process (empathy → define → ideate → prototype → test) without providing the answers, so student ownership and reflection stay front and center. We cover launching engaging challenges, documenting process with journals or photos, and adapting for all learners, including multilingual learners and students with disabilities.
Takeaways: Editable Design Buddy templates, a launch checklist, a mini-rubric for process and iteration, and prompt samples for any grade.
