Teachers at NSTA 18

We had so much fun meeting super teachers from around the country. In addition to the above photo, here are some more epic teacher pics:

Legends of Learning Pics

Of course we were there, too, and you know we had fun. How can you not have fun at a trade show if you are a game based learning company?

In Other News

NSTA 18 also brought the formal release of our grades 3-5 science games. Some publications found the new release newsworthy, and wrote it up:

• Patch
• Tech and Learning
• Education Dive

The Ed Tech Round Up published a glowing review of Legends of Learning last week, too: “​Overall, Legends of Learning is an excellent support resource for the 3rd – 8th grade science classroom.” You can read the whole review here.

In addition, Legends of Learning was named one of the 90 hottest edtech tools available to teachers by Tutorful.

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We will offer teachers the chance to play each other with our games. Give-aways include Pez heads and capes. Come by and visit us at booth #2217.

The post The Stage Is Set for #NSTA17 appeared first on Legends of Learning.

The sample games have been built out for the following learning objectives:

• Earth and Space Sciences: Our Solar System
• Life Sciences: Photosynthesis
• Physical Sciences: Heat as Energy Transfer

Remember, this is just the beginning. In March, we roll out hundreds of games for 90 lessons across Earth and Space, Life, and Physical Sciences. After completing the science games, Legends of Learning will expand into other subjects and grades.

Even if you are not a science teacher, you might want to refer colleagues, right?

So what are you waiting for? Spread the word, and become a Legend of Learning!

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Paul isn’t your average keynote speaker. I could say it’s because he’s really young to be giving advice, or he doesn’t dress up like the influencer that he is. But I think it’s more than that. He’s hyper-focused. Paul only cares about science and the people who teach it. His Ted talk, 500 thousand YouTube followers, and 12K Twitter followers stand as evidence of his passion for science and teachers.

Much of his fire arises from his background and experiences. Paul grew up and still lives in Montana, where nature and science integrate into everyday life. As a kid, he also read the Animals do the Strangest Things series, further igniting his curiosity about the world around him. His questions eventually led him to the teaching profession, where he could spend entire class periods sparking his students’ imaginations.

Use Digital Media to Communicate

While in the classroom, Paul began producing simple videos to help students better understand his teaching concepts. As he shared early — and painful — escapades with video, he had the whole room belly-laughing. Paul’s students thought they were so bad that they could barely stand to listen to them. To keep them interested, or so he hoped, Paul inserted techno music in the background. It was, of course, an epic fail.

Paul learned a tremendous lesson from the blunders. “I’ve never learned anything from a compliment, but I learn constantly from constructive criticism,” he said to conference attendees. Through student’s feedback, he slowly improved and started posting the new iterations on YouTube. Viewers responded with a deluge of feedback, most of it negative. Again, Paul remained undeterred. He continued working on the videos, improving them little by little.

Remember Your Role in Teaching

Fast forward to 2012. Paul found himself working on the NGSS Standards in their infancy. He understood right from the beginning how difficult it would be for teachers to adapt their classrooms and mindset to the standards. Paul naturally gravitated toward video and started producing play-by-play recommendations on NGSS implementation. As teachers started to use the online resource, his hit rates spiked, and he received multiple invitations to speak with teachers.

His presentations, including the one given at STANYS, always emphasize the importance of elementary school science teachers in making the wheels of NGSS truly turn. “They begin the process of thinking in a cross-cutting way,” he explained. Elementary school teachers form the critical building blocks for students’ later years.

He also consistently highlights the need for wonder. “Don’t just give them [students] the answers,” he advised. “Show them something amazing, something cool and let them figure out how it works.”

Create a Sense of Wonder

Being a science teacher, Paul demonstrated his statement with an object lesson. He pulled out a tube with several puffy balls and strings attached to it. When he pulled a ball on the left, a ball on the right would move. We all sat, entranced. Many asked Paul how it worked. He refused to say and never did give a definitive answer. He asked that we simply ponder the question as he continued his discussion.

Paul showed us several more phenomena, including strangely configured shower heads from around the world that somehow managed to function. He displayed a diagram of the sun and moon and asked us to predict when high tide would be.

Paul urged all of us to be teachers who create wonder inside and outside the classroom. “Explanation kills wonder,” he warned. He implored us to let kids come up with their own explanations for phenomena and above all, think for themselves.

Develop New Techniques for New Standards

1. Students state what they believe is occurring with a given phenomena.
2. They collect and share evidence in support of their claim.
3. They explain why the evidence proves their claim.

For most science teachers, the process is a “sea change in pedagogy.” But Paul stressed that cookbook labs and hands-on materials alone do not constitute or lead to critical thinking. For that, students need to practice and fail with the technique, and teachers need to practice and fail in implementing it to see truly real and remarkable results.

Walk the Walk

It was an inspiring presentation, and I could have walked away from it feeling Paul’s genuine passion for the science right then and there. But Paul wasn’t satisfied with being a quote-on-quote thought leader. He came to the conference to learn, just like everyone else who was there.

Over the next two days, he appeared everywhere, attending seemingly random sessions to learn new techniques for himself and to study the ways speakers delivered their ideas. More than once I looked over my shoulder to find Paul taking notes or laughing with a newly-made friend.

Paul did what most keynote speakers don’t seem to have the time or patience for: he walked the walk. He showed us, in words and actions, his commitment to science and teachers. Seismic shifts face educators, but no one walks alone. We walk together as we get our hands dirty to bring wonder back to the classroom.

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Chip Yates, recently dubbed the “rockstar of science”, has been leading the field in risk taking endeavors for the last 10 years. Chip started by telling us about how he became interested in risk taking an innovation as a kid. At the age of 13, he said, he was assembling and disassembling motorcycle parts, eventually building his own bike to ride.

As he talked about his experiences growing up in Pittsburgh, he continually asked the question in the picture: “What Is Your Dream?” He encouraged educators ask students this question as much as possible, citing his own disinterest in school as a young kid. He said as a young kid he was always curious about experimenting but he never felt like adults cared to ask him what he wanted to be. The traditional model of school wasn’t for him.

Eventually, he said, his family sent him to military school, where he was really able to turn his life around. Although he was able to complete high school and enter college, he opted to drop out at one point because of the offer of an engineering apprenticeship. Chip described this as another turning point. Once he learned how to actually do things like design and weld, he could see his dream a little more clearly in front of him. As he described it, he was getting “direct mentorship” versus just being “shown possibility” the way we traditionally do with school assemblies.

Chip then took us through a series of jobs he landed with his machinist and engineering skills, from working for a toy company to designing valves for Jeep Cherokees. He felt like his career was taking off and he had a series of accomplishments, including going for his MBA at USC and working part time for Boeing.

But by 36, he said, he was sitting in a cubicle unhappy with his career and life trajectory. So what did he do? He started racing motorcycles as a hobby. At first it didnt go so well. He had many crashes and at one point even broke his pelvis.

But Chip persevered and decided to invite three friends to come over and make an electric bike he could use to win motorcycle races. “The first time I came in last on the world super championship grid I felt like I had won,” he said. That’s probably because Chip had to negotiate with the American Motorcyle Association (AMA) just to let him race his electric bike alongside its gas powered competitors. “I went from a joke to an innovative method overnight when I won the race” he said.

Eventually, Chip went on not only to win the AMA motorcycle championships, but to break eight world records for the electric motorcycle over the next few years. Before his record breaking run up pikes peak, Monster Energy Drink even told him he wasn’t exciting enough to sponsor. Whoops. “Life is about responding to setbacks” he says.

Chip didn’t stop with motorcycles, however. After setting land speed records for the electric bike, he was asked to speak about the future of electric aviation. He thought that was crazy since he had never designed an electric airplane. His response was not to decline the invitation but to build a model electric plane within 2 months. His team had virtually nothing to work with, including a planter from Michaels in place of an engine. “It’s what broke engineers have to do,” he said.

Of course you can imagine where the story goes from here. Chip has built multiple electric airplanes that have set a total of 10 world records to date. As Chip artfully recounts, the innovations are not about having lots of money either. At one point, he was able to secure a contract with the Navy for an electric airplane whose prototype consisted of two trashcans from target secured together as the fuselage.

To hear Chip tell it, the issue we have in our schools is about risk taking, passion and dreams. If we want our children to truly innovate, we have to reward risk taking. He even offered up the controversial idea that students be given higher grades for something they did wrong that took more creative effort than something done right that was safe.

Chip may be on the edge of his seat, literally and figuratively, flying 200+ miles an hour through space to prove a point, but he demonstrated quite convincingly at CSTA that as educators, we should foster a young person’s sense of daring to be great if we want our collective future to be bright.

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Girls and Robots

Image source: Open Explorer.

Bergman said her own excitement in undersea exploration directly stems from the sense of exploration that she gets. “You never know what you will find; lost airplanes, beautiful fish, new places. The questions is how do we teach the next generation to be excited, too?”

Then she discussed her experiences creating and running Global Engineering & Exploration Counselors’ (GEECs) Girls Underwater Robot Camp. Bergman said 12-13 year old girls get into engineering and building robots, and that they like the experience. They get really excited about exploring the ocean and bodies of water in their neighborhood. In one case, a group of girls discovered a new species.

It takes three days to build the robots. The girls are given marching orders, and then build out how they will approach the effort, from build and budget to storytelling and travel. Girls get a taste of engineering, too, and in most cases learn how to fix robots that don’t work. This is where they really learn the trials and rewards of engineering.

Erika Bergman said the lack of women in ocean engineering creates a less than friendly experience, which may be hampering STEM adoption by women. They have to share bathrooms and quarters, making privacy a scheduling imperative More girls in ocean science will create a better work environment.

Deep Sea – Deep Secrets: The Many Wonders of Neptune’s Realm

David Gallo started by lauding educators in the audience. He said the role of teachers, or science teachers in particular, is in incredible. “You are my heroes,” said David Gallo. “We need passion in science, and we need to let teachers teach so they have the passion to give.”

“The Earth is our home,” said David Gallo. “We will live here for generations (contrary to the opinions of Elon Musk). 70% of the earth is covered by water, and just a few percentage points of the ocean have been explored. That is my world. We’ve got mountains and rivers and waterfalls, The Denmark Straits has a huge waterfall. Everything is more exaggerated under water.”

David Gallo noted how the ocean impacts every aspect of life, food, air, and water. The world’s topography and climate are always changing, and invariable the ocean touches it all at some point. For example the Himalayas have seashells. Their are under water lakes in the sea that have flower garden banks.

The deep sea has incredible stories, too. How do we get the answers? “We keep increasing our science and technology so we can explore more,” said David Gallo. “We have great life under the sea, including pillars, crabs, clams, and many, many other species that live two miles under. That’s what I love about exploration, you never know what you will find and the science grows from there.”

Dumbo the Octopus is one of the new species that David Gallo has helped study.

David Gallo also showed the audience how technical evolutions have allowed teams to map the ocean floor and find every piece of existing Titanic wreckage. The same technology was used to locate Air France 447 under the sea.

The chemical impact on the undersea water world is notable, said David Gallo.”We’re doing in the ocean with carbonic acid issues, overfishing, plastics and other forms of pollution. I don’t have any easy answers for the pollution problems, but we’re not addressing it.”

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Marlena Gross-Taylor kicked off the group by stating belief is a critical component of success for middle school children. “Kids don’t believe in themselves yet,” she said. A teacher believing in them openly and with lots of encouragement helps students bridge the gap until they can believe in themselves. “You are limitless is the message,” said Ms. Gross-Taylor.

To help facilitate strong teachers Ms. Gross-Taylor started the EduGladiator movement via the Twitter hashtag #edugladiators. The effort encourages students and teachers to move towards success. “Each and everyone of you is a gladiator,” said Ms. Gross-Taylor to the audience. We think that’s simply Legendary, and the speech was an inspiring start to AMLE 2016.

Dr. Debbie Silver riffed off of the hit song from Zootopia, “Try Everything.” She ran through some hilarious stories, and then encouraged teachers to not give up on children, but instead to simply experiment with new approaches. “If one thing doesn’t work, then try another thing,” said Dr. Silver. She related some success stories about students who made it after initial challenges.

Dr. Silver encouraged teachers to go beyond the accepted. “Take some risks,” she said. “It’s about the kids, be their advocates, and try everything.”

John Bernia and Derek McCoy took the stage together to discuss the administrative point of view. The two encouraged teachers to take the conference as a means to enthuse and engage students, to become connected educators. Mr. Bernia said “What makes our school special isn’t the building. It’s the people.” Mr. McCoy added, “We both became digital principals of the year and affected change in our schools by becoming connected educators.”

Day 2: The Challenges of Middle School

Day Two kicked off with an poignant keynote conversation about the difficulties of teaching in Middle School. Rosalind Wiseman, founder of Creating A Culture of Dignity, and author of the book Queen Bees and Wannabes that became the movie Mean Girls, talked about the consequences of working with tweens.

The legendary educator said that while students in Middle School are undergoing great personal and mental growth with difficult challenges, they also have a great need for meaningful relationships. Middle School Teachers face great difficulties, too, particularly the longer they work in the field. They face a crisis of competency, relevancy, and effectiveness. Middle School students are quick to let teachers know when they are failing. Failure centers around teacher’s skill sets, but if they have a growth mentality failure can be a touchpoint for advancement.

“It is important to admit you are struggling,” said Wiseman. “It’s the point that allows a teacher to move forward and enjoy work. Teachers know that their students are struggling for a wide variety of reasons, many of them find their basis in reasons outside of the classroom.” Young people may need to disagree to grow and learn added Rosalind Wiseman. Teachers need to better embrace challenges from students as an opportunity for growth, not a sign of disrespect.

Ms. Wiseman also discussed how social media, bullying, and group dynamics work together. Teachers patronize students about social media, telling them if they make one mistake that their life is over. It’s important to move away from fear-based warnings, and show them why social media is so powerful, offered Ms. Wiseman. For example, she illustrated how likes trigger endorphins in students brains, and reaffirms identity. Are teachers thinking it through? How does it relate to class?

“Not everything is bullying,” said Ms. Wiseman. “Sometimes people just sound off on issues, particularly in social media. Bullying is repeatedly abusing or threatening to abuse power against another person. Drama is tension about a powerful moment that makes people sound off.”

Ms. Wiseman continued by suggesting that teachers need to show students the difference, and also highlight older and adult bullies. Help students learn how to treat themselves and others with dignity, not only in their individual situations, but also their lives. Show kids how to care make the world a better place.

Increasing Graduation Rates

The next and final legendary keynote discussed turning around society by helping struggling Middle School students. Robert Balfanz, Diplomas Now Co-Founder, told AMLE attendees it was their responsibility to turn around America’s graduation problem. “The Republic’s future depends on teachers ability to turn around our students fortunes so that we don’t have a society of haves and have nots,” said Dr. Balfanz.

“The middle grades are where kids decide whether or not schooling is for me,” added Dr. Balfanz. “They need to understand the benefit of it rather than seeing it as something that they had to endure. If school is something that kids have to endure, then they start missing class, pushing back against teachers, and looking for external sources of fun.”

Dr. Balfanz’s presentation showed that one third of kids are not prepared to graduate or barely graduate but cannot attend post secondary schools. Eighth grade test scores are more predictive of college success than high school scores. The Chicago Consortium on School Research shows little movement after middle school. Kids with Ds and Fs are not going to perform well, so showing students how to change so they attend school, and succeed with Bs and As (and real grades, not inflated ones). “We simply cannot allow students to come in low and leave low” he said.

Balfanz discussed the primary identifiers of troubled kids: Below level reading, writing and math scores; the magnitude of their difficulties; chronic absenteeism; and, GPAs of 2.0 or below. Evaluations allow teachers to see the magnitude of problems, and how to help students turn things around. Teachers need to understand what causes disciplinary problems rather than identifying children as problems.

If you just talk to kids, build the relationship, and find the root cause, then usually the problem is fixable. There can be serious issues, but teachers need to invest the time to address students’ problems, said Dr. Balfanz. The number one identifier is absenteeism. The quickest path to success is finding a plan to address absenteeism and getting to school. Show students the consequence of missing school.

All in all we found the AMLE keynotes to be inspiring and provoking. If you attended, what did you think of the speeches? If not, what do you think of the takeaways?

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