Last week, the CU-Boulder School of Education hosted more than 750 scholars and graduate students from all over the world for the . Chaired this year by professors Bill Penuel, Susan Jurow听and Kevin O鈥機onnor, the conference has been held biannually for more than 20 years in places such as Australia and the Netherlands as well as throughout the United States.
Among a week full of cutting-edge learning research, theory and design, researchers offered unique hands-on experiences in 鈥渄esign charrette鈥� sessions in which participants brainstormed, problem-solved and created solutions to unique problems. In a session offered by Professor Vicki Hand (CU-Boulder), Leilah Lyons (University of Illinois at Chicago), Chrystalla Mouza (University of Delaware) and Elizabeth Walsh (San Jos茅 State), adult learning scientists and rising high school freshmen invented unique middle-school level learning experiences about climate change. In another design charrette session, Professor Gary Natriello and Hui Soo Chae, both of Teachers College at Columbia University, led participants in creating functional learning spaces.
鈥淚t was incredible to watch the high school students draw on a range of resources, including share-able apps and a 鈥榞aming鈥� approach, to develop tools for adolescents to take action on issues of climate change," said Hand. "The adult participants鈥揻rom museum directors to climate scientists鈥搘ere able to take on a youth perspective, while at the same time pressing on the students鈥� ideas through scientific principles and real world constraints.鈥澨�
Kris Guti茅rrez, Lisa Schwartz, and Daniela DiGiacomo, all of the CU-Boulder School of Education, offered innovative approaches to promoting equity in STEM education through a new movement called 鈥淢aking and Tinkering,鈥� in which students tackle hands-on engineering problems and design their own solutions. Locally, Guti茅rrez and Schwartz lead Making and Tinkering programs annually with CU undergraduates and students from Casey Middle School in Boulder. Guti茅rrez also designed and directs the weekly El Pueblo M谩gico after-school program at S谩nchez Elementary School in Lafayette.
"Our Making and Tinkering programs provide a space for CU undergraduates to put learning theory into practice through collaborative activities with Casey and S谩nchez students. These programs support undergraduates and children in working together to leverage their everyday knowledge and interests through robust and creative STEM activities,鈥澨�Schwartz said.
Eve Manz, CU-Boulder professor of science education, won the Best Paper听Award at the conference for her article, "'Mangling' Science Instruction: Creating Resistances to Support the Development of Practices and Content Knowledge."听DiGiacomo, a doctoral student in the Educational Psychology and Learning Sciences program, was one of five finalists for the Best Student Paper Award for her paper, 鈥淟earning and Becoming in an After-School Program: The Relationship as a Tool for Equity within the Practices of Making and Tinkering.鈥�
Photo credit: CU-Boulder School of Education.听Design charrette workshop participants share a model they built for a learning space that allows for effective technology integration, group collaboration, experiential learning and student-led presentations.
