Teams in our new Hybrid Teacher PD – TAG Enrichment Program, engineered some great sports-related innovations with Edison Robots, Makey Makeys, Scratch-based coding, and our portable makerspace! The hockey and soccer goals for Edison robot players featured student-engineered sensors and conductive pucks, connected to Makey Makey devices, that would cheer and keep score of the game using Scratch!  We had interactive boundaries for Edison’s Sumo Wrestling features, 3D Obstacle Courses, a Robot Olympics, and more!

There is definitely an increase in teacher confidence, efficacy and classroom applications for makerspace-based teacher learning programs when students are involved. They see the learners in action, implementing an engineering design process, and get a feel for the makerspace tools, resources, facilitation and safety! The learners have a great day coding, experimenting, making and presenting their work! A win/win for everyone!

PS: The data is really strong on this program…anyone interested in a research project?