After School Botball

We had our first meeting after school on Thursday. I cannot say enough about how much I love teaching students #botball curriculum. Our group is a mixture of 3rd through 6th grade students, and no matter their grade level, they all showed the same excitement in getting their robot to move forward few inches. Using text-based programming is a challenge but empowers the students. It leaves no doubt that these students are coders. I can't wait to see where this takes them. You can learn more about the Junior Botball Challenge program for elementary students and Botball program for middle school and high school students below.

https://www.kipr.org/jr-botball/about

https://www.kipr.org/botball

i-STEM

i-STEM Summer Institutes started back in 2010 I believe. At least that was the first year my colleagues and I attended. Since that first amazing trip to North Idaho College with my grade level colleagues, I have participated in i-STEM Summer Institute as a participant or a strand provider, except for 2016 when  was finishing my dissertation. i-STEM Summer Institute is a week-long professional development that trains you on the particular materials for the strand you register for and provides you with $200 worth of those materials to take back to your classroom. So, just to recap, not only do you learn how to use the materials in your classroom, you also get to take those materials back with you.

This summer, the Idaho STEM Action Center took over the institutes and continued on the tradition of teaching educators how to use materials in their classroom and the materials.  The Idaho STEM Action Center opened up the opportunity to formal and informal educators and allowed educators from outside the state to participate. 

https://stem.idaho.gov/istem/

Below are pictures from the various years attending i-STEM at both North Idaho College and College of Western Idaho.