by Lynne Ramsey, Staff Assistant at the CEOO
In June, Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach hosted its first LEGO Learning Symposium since 2011 and its first Tufts STEM Education Conference. Both were two day conferences with an overlapping day. They welcomed educators from around the world and showcased the exciting STEM Education projects at Tufts University.
Over 150 people participated in the conferences and 16 countries were represented. LEGO Education sent representatives from a number of countries, including Denmark, China, Russia, Australia, and of course, North America, so it was a great opportunity for local educators to network with LEGO experts from around the world.
The LEGO Learning Symposium 2016 took place on June 6-7 and featured opening keynotes by Mitch Resnick, the MIT Professor who created Scratch, and LEGO Master builder Marc-Andre Bazergui. Marc-Andre brought his intricate LEGO EV3 WALL-E robot along with other amazing LEGO robots. The conference also featured LEGO Education Teacher Award Winners from all over the globe who gave presentations about their award winning work.
Ethan Danahy, Research Assistant Professor at the CEEO, spoke about the development of engineering students and the transition from student to teacher. His presentation featured special guest appearances from third grader, Anika Pant, who is a two-time Dr. E’s WeDo Challenges winner and high schooler Kyle Markland, who is better known as BuilderDude35 in his popular Youtube educational videos about LEGO EV3. Another highlight of the Symposium was panel discussion in which Tufts faculty and LEGO Education representatives answered questions from participants.
During the LEGO Learning Symposium, attendees also participated in hands on workshops taught by LEGO experts and Tufts CEEO staff. The topics included WeDo 2.0, Engineering with EV3, LEGO and Literacy, and Advanced Play
The 2016 Tufts STEM Education Conference featured keynotes by renowned Tufts Professors David Hammer, Marina Bers, David Kaplan, and Natasha Wright to feature some of the great work being done at Tufts. David Hammer, Professor in the Department of Education and the Department of Physics spoke about his research in the field of student thinking and Marina Bers, Professor of Child Development and Human Studies and the Eliot Pearson School, gave an exciting presentation about the work her lab has done developing the KIBO robot and ScratchJr software.
David Kaplan and Natasha Wright were brought in to showcase some of the cutting edge engineering research going on at Tufts and their talks served as a testament to the importance of STEM Education. David Kaplan, Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, spoke about the amazing research being done with silk in his biomedical engineering lab. Nastasha Wright, Ph.D. Candidate at MIT and Lecturer in Tufts Department of Mechanical Engineering, gave a presentation about her research which focuses on providing safe, clean drinking water to rural, off-grid villages in India using solar power.
The conferences also included remarks by Tufts University President Tony Monaco and Tufts University Provost who both talked about the importance of STEM Education.
Like the LEGO Learning Symposium, the Tufts STEM Education Conference also provided the attendees opportunity to participate in hands-on workshops in which participants could dive into activities that could be directly used in classroom environments. Topics included KIBO, ScratchJr, Novel Engineering, SIMSAM, 3D design and printing, supporting iteration and decision making, and designing makerspaces among others.
The CEEO received an amazing amount of positive feedback on the event as a whole and we hope to host the event again in the future.
