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In October, our school was selected to participate in a STEM PD and learning opportunity where a team of three of us learned through webinars about resources that STEM Next has created using Verizon resources to make STEM more accessible to both students and teachers in the classroom and afterschool.
We were selected to participate in the Climate Action AI & the Ocean. 
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As I learned about the modules, I started to think how I could use the resources while also improving the resources for my designers. The following is my interpretation of the modules because I am not capable of teaching something exactly as it has been written. I guess that is why I continue to find places in education where "fidelity" to someone else's curriculum is not my landing place.
My AI & the Ocean Unit
Ocean PSA - Day 5 (My Day 7)
Okay.... maybe I should start from the beginning of the unit but I didn't want these amazing PSAs to get buried in the post.
My Instructional Slides
Grade 6 WK3 by Karie Huttner
Day 1 - Here Comes the Garbage Barge
My design thinking story is different then Day 1 of the module because I found the story Plastics, Ahoy! a great book but not as accessible for my designers to start to understand the problem based on a real life event. After listening to the story, designers engaged in the Challenge Central module in Makers Empire - Oceans of Trash.
Day 2 - AI (the good, bad, and ugly)
Instead of using the Verizon resources on AI, I used the Code.org AI for Oceans module which is a good blend of videos and activities for younger designers to understand that machine learning is only as good as the time and programming behind it.
Day 3 - Micro:bit Garbage Counter
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Instead of using Scratch, I like to use physical computing as much as possible so that designers are able to interact with the world and use the code that they are creating.
I wanted the coding activity to create a connection to our community and how trash and pollution are all around us. We don't live near the ocean but trash and pollution is not specific to one place in the world. By having designers engage in creating a Trash Counter, I hoped to build a deeper understanding of the problem and how coding could connect to this problem. Of course, I am not in control of the weather so the activity that was suppose to be 5 minutes of seeing how much garbage we could find, turned into 3 minutes and a lot of complaining about the cold. It was cold but fun! |
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Day 4 - Robots that Eat Trash
I used the Verizon STEM Next robot design with a twist. I used the activity to move into a Mark Rober video about robots that eat trash and to build the connection to the the next day's lesson of machine learning.
Day 5 - Machine Learning with Teachable Machine
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On Day 5, designers entered the classroom to find a mystery lego marine animal that they needed to assemble.
Instead of using images of a marine animal and plastic to use Google's Teachable Machine, I thought it would be fun to use different marine animals that designers would assemble and use for the last two learning activities - machine learning and public service announcements. |
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Day 6 and 7 - Public Service Announcements using Canva
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I introduced the project with the following PSA. Many designers had not heard of the term PSA or Public Service Announcement so we discussed what they noticed about this PSA and concluded that a PSA was a short video with a focused message.
It was then their turn to use their marine animal to find out how it is affected by pollution. They also were introduced to creating videos using Canva so that as they started to research, they could start to also find images that would support their idea. Some designers chose to work with partners which Canva easily facilitated while other designers were happy to work on their own. |
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I am very thankful to both Verizon and STEM Next for selecting our school to be able to participate in this learning PD. It strengthened the learning experiences for our designers by showing how machine learning and public service announcements can be powerful tools to incorporate.
Thank you to Andria Parrott, Sabrina Gomez, and Brianna Oronoz at STEM Next for selecting our school to participate.
Thank you to Andria Parrott, Sabrina Gomez, and Brianna Oronoz at STEM Next for selecting our school to participate.
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