Projects in Motion
ASEE CP12
I am proudly serving as the ASEE Commission on P12 Engineering Education’s Chair for 2023-2026. This year, we are hosting a conference for P-12 teachers in Montreal! Come give a presentation or attend as a teacher for free. We are seeking sponsors to support this effort. Please find more information on CP12’s website.
Standards Academy
ULRI is working on launching a Standards Academy to teach undergraduate students and their professors about safety standards. I am helping to write case studies for students about various UL Safety Standards. This is still a work in progress, stay tuned!
Engineering Navigator
UEF has funded DiscoverE’s cross-organization effort that we’re calling the Engineering Navigator, an AI-enhanced scraper and search bot to collect and share PreK-20 engineering education opportunities with students, teachers, and parents. Pilot partners include DiscoverE, ASEE CP12, IEEE, ASME, ASCE, SAE, MathWorks, University of Mount Union, The Ohio State University, Northeastern Center for STEM Education, Campbell University, Engineering is Elementary, Youth Engineering Solutions, Science Museum of Boston, Minnesota State Engineering Center of Excellence and the STEM Education Coalition.
EM & Bio-inspired steAM
With funding from Arizona State University (ASU) Mentorship 360 Program and the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network, Dr. Lisa Bosman (Purdue University) and I are leading ‘Using Bioengineering and Bio-Inspired Design to Integrate the Entrepreneurial Mindset (EM) into the Engineering Classroom‘ for engineering faculty over four cohorts 2022-2023.
e4usa Professional Learning Team
I could not be more proud to join the e4usa community as a professional learning specialist for three school years, 2021 to 2024. Along with our astonishing teachers, I’m learning from the e4usa team’s experts in engineering education as I support the teachers and the coaches in this NSF-funded effort to bring engineering opportunities to all USA high school students. All schools and teachers are welcome to apply–even history, music, or math teachers!
#ASEEYIRE
The American Society for Engineering Education is dedicating 2021-2022to a Year of Impact on Racial Equity. As a member of ASEE’s Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, I have contributed social media posts and videos to raise awareness of the #ASEEYIRE and improve K-12 student knowledge of engineering majors and careers. Please find #ASEEYIRE on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, and don’t forget to answer, like, share, and follow!
ICECUBE AFTERSCHOOL INTERNSHIP
Returning for a second year in 2022, I am leading the online winter-time IceCube Afterschool Internship for WIPAC, an opportunity for high school students to hear from astrophysics experts, learn about coding, and design an interactive teaching tool about IceCube. Watch all the recorded lectures on the IceCube Afterschool website.
ASEE COMMISSION ON P-12 SPOTLIGHTS
I’m having such fun making the graphics for the ASEE Commission on P-12 Engineering Education’s monthly spotlights! Congrats to the worthy recipients.
See them all here.
INTEGRATED-STEAM VIDEO SERIES
The second video in the video series focuses on my favorite art processes for integrated STEAM. Other videos in the series target art pieces, art movements, and my perspectives approach tool. Check it out!
PHYSICS + SPORTS
Dr. Keith Hargrove (TN State University) and I ran a four-day summer camp about physics and sports for summer 2021.
Check out our website! Contact me if you would like a reprise or any materials to lead your own physics + sports camp.
Photo by Barna Bartis on Unsplash
The Importance of STEAM to Ignite Student Passions
Conference presented by Instituto Mexicano Norteamericano de Relaciones Culturales, División de Estudios Superiores, Licenciatura en la Enseñanza de la Lengua Inglesa (Monterrey, Mexico, June 2021).
KYRGYZ STEM
In 2021, I taught a remote course on STEM Education to teachers in Kyrgyzstan through Lingua Innovative Education and it was AWESOME! Lingua shared a few videos about the program. Here is one from our third module where we were discussing inquiry methods. See more videos on Lingua’s YouTube page.
Best practices in STEAM (BP-STEAM)
BP-STEAM was a US Embassy sponsored, World Learning organized course for Egyptian teachers in spring and summer 2021. I had the pleasure of training the talented BP-STEAM trainers in this TOT or training of trainers, organizing a USA-Egypt teacher exchange, and leading three webinars: PBL, engineering, and STEAM.
UL Xplorlabs webinars
During COVID & 2020, I presented webinars for UL Xplorlabs on using their innovative online learning modules in STEM education. What a pleasure to be involved with this ambitious project! You can watch the recordings here.
STEM HUB EGYPT
With World Learning, I helped The STEM Hub Egypt design online and future in-person integrated STEM experiences for Egyptian youth on coding, electronics, Arduino, and graphics design. We also developed a facilitator support plan. Just look at what the kids accomplished!
IceCube @ Upward Bound
Since 2009, I’ve had the privilege of working with Upward Bound students from St. Paul, MN almost every summer through a partnership between the IceCube Neutrino Telescope, Univ. of WI – River Falls, and Upward Bound.
This year, we taught students the foundations of computational thinking while they learned to code a personal expression of their experiences in 2020 and hopes for 2021. Shout out to co-facilitator Jocelyn Argueta.
Bioengineering as a Vehicle to Increase the Entrepreneurial Mindset (Chapter)
Solicited by Scribner and Co-authored with Dr. Lisa Bosman, this chapter introduces readers to bioengineering and bio-inspired design as a way to increase the entrepreneurial mindset through integrated STEAM education. In press 2022.
COMPUTATIONAL THINKING AND CODING
Explore computational thinking modules while learning to code! Please ask me about using my 10-day coding and computation thinking short course with your students. Co-created with Dr. Magesh Chandramouli from Purdue University Northwest.
EDUKATEY BLOG
My eduKatey blog is bringing my ideas and methods to more teachers. Click the image above to take a look.
Integrated STEM
I’m writing a book about integrated STEM instruction for high school and how YOU can do it. The book will include structures to alleviate common teaching concerns and 15 sample integrated STEM units spanning grades 9-12.
Engineering Leadership
I serve on the Knowles Engineering Leadership Team (LT) which strives to increase American students’ problem-solving agency by bringing engineering design into math and science classrooms.
Knowles Academy
Since 2016, I’ve helped the Knowles Academy by providing professional development services on engineering integration to teachers across the country. This project continues into 2022.
NewsLever
Check out the Knowles Engineering NewsLever newsletter for interesting and relevant resources to help you use engineering design to teach math and science content. This project subsetted in 2018.
ASEE PCEE
I serve the American Society for Engineering Education’s (ASEE) Pre-College Engineering Education (PCEE) Division 2020 Paper Chair, on the ASEE K12 Commission, and as a PCEE rep to ASEE’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission. This involvement continues in 2022.
STEM curriculum
Through the Knowles Teacher Initiative, I currently support Fairfax County Public School’s Global STEM Challenges Program based on the Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century. The curriculum teaches Geometry, Algebra II, and Pre-calculus, Biology, Chemistry and Physics, in combination with engineering design and technology over three years of high school. I’ve provided professional development and curriculum support since 2017. This project continues in 2022.
IceCube at the south pole
I was an alternate to be the 2019 PolarTREC teacher-liaison to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. This would have been my second visit to the Pole with IceCube. Keeping my hopes up for the future!
WArd 1 ed council
I serve on the Washington, D.C. Ward 1 Education Council and recently led the Ward 1 Ed. Council logo creation effort.
ARCUS
I served on the Antarctic Research Consortium of the United States’ (ARCUS) Education Committee assisting ARCUS with identifying and funding significant Arctic and Antarctic-related educational opportunities.
E4USA
I worked with Engineering For Us All (E4USA) in 2019 by writing curriculum and planning teacher PD. Teachers across the country will pilot this exciting NSF-funded effort to teach engineering to all high-school students. My involvement was updated in 2021 when I joined the Professional Learning team.
Creating Adventure
Hiking, cooking, painting, sewing, working out. I am busy with 10-mile races, pirate jackets to sew, socks to darn, and mountains to climb with my husband Ross and my dog Molly.