Make: Education Forum

Friday, September 21, 2018

10:00 am – 4:00 pm

World Maker Faire New York 2018

New York Hall of Science, Queens, NY

An important outcome for maker education is helping more students find meaningful, productive work. At this year’s Education Forum at World Maker Faire NY, we look at how maker educators can help students navigate the future of work–a future that places a premium on curiosity and innovation.

Our speakers and panelists will provide insight into how hands-on learning experiences help develop future-forward skills and mindset. In addition to a presentation program, there will be hands-on sessions available to participants.

Schedule:

This event is designed for individuals who are either formally or informally supporting and/or creating project-based learning programs, as well as educational policy makers, superintendents, and principals. Please join us!

Workshops

Contraptions from Cardboard for STEM learning

Contraptions are a ridiculously fun way to learn about cause and effect, simple machines, team work and computer science concepts. Together we will explore applying this methodology in the classroom while building our own sequence of silly action using cardboard and easily accessible materials.

Explore Circuits with Simple Light-Up Wearables!

Find out why e-textiles are a great way to introduce kids and teens to electronics by making ornaments to wear on clothes, hair, or backpack! You will learn sewing and no-sew techniques to create soft circuits using felt, LEDs, and easy-to-find conductive materials. Fee includes materials for class project, plus extra to take with you so you can keep exploring on your own. Each ticket for this workshop allows one adult, and up to 2 children.

Getting Started with PocketBeagle from BeagleBoard.org Hands-On Coding

Hands on getting started workshop with PocketBeagle® from BeagleBoard.org®, a low cost point of entry for the education in and collaboration around open-source software and hardware. Computers will be provided so you can enjoy fun coding exercises with easy to use hardware, software and sensors.

Make Black Girl Magic with Chloe Taylor and Netia McCray

Through a creative approach, Chloe Taylor and Netia McCray will share their experiences creating inclusive and authentic STEM spaces around the world. In this workshop, participants will learn how to nurture a diverse array of makers to build, make, learn, or in other words–make their own magic.

Molecular Building for Early Biochemistry Learning

This project shows the power of hands-on and virtual modeling for biochemistry learning. Students construct intricate models of bio-molecules to understand their function, and a 3D visualization program helps students answer life’s big questions.

Temari 101: Little Galaxy

Temari is 1000 year old Japanese craft, renowned for its refined and exquisite calculations, colors, and patters. We would love to show you how to make professional looking Temari with most simple techniques. Making good looking Temari is as simple as making a cup of tea.

Speakers

Jobs of the Future

Michael Cook, Center for the Future of Work at Cognizant, will propose 21 new jobs that will emerge over the next 10 years and will become cornerstones of the future of work. From data detectives, to cyber city analysts, to augmented reality journey builders, these jobs are not science fiction – they’re jobs your HR department will have to fill before very long. Some are highly technical, while others won’t require much tech knowledge at all.

Innovating the School Experience

Sarah Boisvert, Founder, Fab Lab Hub, has over 30 years’ experience in the design, development and commercialization of high-tech products utilizing digital fabrication including laser machining and 3D printing. She operates 2 Fab Labs in Santa Fe, NM and has developed Digital Badges for operators and service techs. She has been working to find out just what skills were needed for today’s operators and technicians by talking to 200 employers ranging in size from startups to Fortune 10. Without hesitation, 95% of the manufacturers said they are looking for people with problem-solving skills.

The New Collar Workforce

Carlos Moreno, Co-Executive Director of Big Picture Learning, is a proud native New Yorker and a passionate educational leader committed to supporting school and district leaders who are creating high-quality, non-traditional schools. Carlos will talk about the problems of inequality in our society and how a standards-based system designed to achieve equality of opportunity is actually having the opposite effect.

Fostering Maker Empowerment and a Sensitivity to Design

How can we go beyond thinking of making as a skill to be applied, and instead think of a making approach—and the idea of maker empowerment—as a disposition that influences approaches to learning, life, and work? Senior Research Manager Andrea Sachdeva from the Agency by Design (AbD) research initiative at Project Zero (Harvard Graduate School of Education) will present a set of Making Moves that help to foster a sensitivity to design and the disposition of maker empowerment in teaching and learning settings.

What School Makerspaces Can Learn From Co-Working Spaces

Azadeh Jamalian, PhD, the former head of Education Strategy at littleBits, is founder of the world’s first incubator + invention hub for kids. Inspired by these new working environments that promote a culture of top innovative startups, we can think in new ways about how schools create a new social + invention hub for kids to do what they dream.

Makerspaces in the Workplace

Aaron Cunningham is the global makerspace lead at Google. Leading a team of over 250 volunteers, he focuses on Googler engagement and growth at over 50 makerspaces in Google offices around the world. Aaron oversees all aspects including budgets, safety, training, and the sharing of best practices to foster and encourage making as a means of driving innovation across Google. Previously, he was a technical program manager and unmanned test pilot for Project Wing at X. Before joining Google, Aaron spent six years building technical solutions for defense and homeland security training programs.

The Maker Mindset: A Toolkit for Schools

Dr. Marc Natanagara, Assistant Superintendent, Toms River Regional Schools, NJ, has been an educator for 33 years, focused on connecting students to real world issues and addressing issues of access, equity, and inclusion. A maker mindset draws on all our skills and knowledge and involves diverse tools, materials, and ideas. He will share his experience how schools and towns on the Jersey Shore are using a maker approach to make learning more relevant.

What School Can Be

Ted Dintersmith is one of the nation’s leading voices on innovation and education. He was the executive producer of the acclaimed documentary Most Likely to Succeed and co-authored the book Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era with Tony Wagner. His new book, ‘What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers Across America” (Princeton University Press) is now available.

Makerspaces and Maker Culture

Jacob Lingley, Executive Director, Brilliant Labs in New Brunswick, Canada, balances many passions: mathematics teacher, researcher, tinkerer, avid Star Trek: TNG fan and most recently father to the youngest maker education stakeholder in Fredericton, New Brunswick. In his role at Brilliant Labs, Jacob is able to share the educational benefits of maker education throughout all four provinces of Atlantic Canada by supporting Brilliant Lab’s mandate of helping students and educators (K-12) create expressively innovative learning opportunities.

Cultivate Your Own Maker Culture

This session will discuss some techniques and ideas for cultivating your own Maker Culture in your school from a classroom teacher who works to build this kind of environment every day. David Borghoff of Maker Depot Academy NJ is a dedicated middle school Maker teacher in Hackensack, NJ, and has developed several successful makerspace programs over the past ten years.

Connecting Students and Seniors for Real-World Problem Solving

Niti Parikh of the MakerLab at Cornell has over 12+ years of experience in the field of Interior Architecture and Sustainable Mfg. She will share the process and findings from a pilot workshop offered in Spring 2018 where 6 senior community members were paired up with 6 Cornell Tech graduate students and 6 Weill Cornell Medicine Clinical Translational Science Center (WCM CTSC) students to work together to design and create a real-world product that could address a challenge posted by the senior community using 3D printing technology.

Learning and Social Justice Through Making as Recreation

Mohamed Haroun is the Manager of the MakerSpace of Columbia University. He will discuss efforts to establish makerspaces in NYC Parks sponsored recreation centers, allowing people in such communities access to more advanced making resources and instruction. In this way, we are teaching them modern technical skills in a recreational setting, and aim to improve their competitive advantage as potential university students, employees, and eventually business owners.

Inspiring Makers, Dreamers and Entrepreneurs

Michael Holmstrom, STEM Punks, Queensland, Australia has over 15 years experience with STEM, entrepreneurship, and most importantly – real-life experience of creating six start-ups in the past ten years. In his current role as Program Director for STEM Punks, Michael takes these lessons learnt and inspire a new generation of creative and innovative thinkers.

Solving Hard Problems in Challenging Situations

Brad Halsey of Building Momentum in Arlington, VA has an extremely diverse background in chemistry, optics, rapid prototyping, and field engineering. He has applied these skills in maker training for the Marines as well as deployments in disaster relief. Brad prides himself as an experienced and extremely motivated scientist who thrives at leading teams of fellow scientists and engineers to develop bespoke technology to rapidly solve critical technology problems, especially in challenging, austere, and combat environments.

Made possible with the support of Cognizant and BeagleBoard.org

Use the Forum’s hashtag – #MEF18 #WMFNY18 – when sharing on your social media!