Infosys Foundation USA’s Pathfinders Online Institute is a digital online learning platform designed to support K-12 teachers and all students and families who are distance learning—and teaching—computer science and maker education. Through the generosity of Infosys Foundation USA’s grant, the Citizen Schools’ Catalyst team and Makers + Mentors Network created a four-part live webinar series (login required) to help grades 5-8 educators create meaningful student engagement.

We drew from our 25+ year history of hands-on learning and mentorship to provide middle-school educators with practical and innovative ways to implement experiential learning. Live webinars aired February through April, and all recordings are available for you to access any time. While the series is sequential, each session within the series is not dependent upon prior session content. The webinars were developed to explore and enhance: 

• Design Thinking 

• Experiential Learning 

• Maker Education 

• Social-Emotional Learning

This series helps frontline educators, new to experiential and maker-centered learning, or seasoned educators who want to continue developing their skills and enhancing their best practices. While the series has practical applications for multiple grade levels, our primary focus is on the 5th–8th grade or middle school levels. Sessions cover:

• The foundations of experiential learning, including maker-centered learning

• Leveraging career mentors from your community to build Social Emotional Learning skills

• Developing meaningful student work products and sharing remote learning tools

• Technology that can support your pedagogical practices

Session 1: Foundations For Experiential Learning

In this session, Nadia K. Selby and Dr. Elizabeth Micci, members of the Catalyst team, discuss why experiential learning is essential and drives student development and growth. Centering students through hands-on and individualized approaches to learning increases active engagement. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a unique opportunity to explore this more deeply. We share examples of experiential learning projects, including maker-centered learning, and discuss how to infuse hands-on learning in educators’ practice.

Session 2: Engaging Community In Deeper Student Learning

Nadia and Elizabeth outline how career mentors from communities ground student learning in real-world problems and challenges while also providing a solid foundation for developing actionable solutions. Deeper learning is exploratory, embodied, and embedded. This can be accomplished through rigor and relevance, bringing the real world into the classroom to help students apply what they are learning to their lives and futures. While engaging your community, it is crucial to identify what areas you do not want to disrupt. You will learn directly from mentors and educators about incorporating industry professionals in your hybrid or remote learning classrooms.

Session 3: Developing Meaningful Student Work During Remote Learning

If you find you are ready to employ maker-centered learning for authentic and meaningful engagement in your classroom, this webinar is perfect for you. This session offers real-world examples from the Makers + Mentors Network Maker Fellows and the Catalyst Program, working at education sites throughout the country.

• Alicia Bagley from Sierra Community College talks about her own small town middle school experience and how that inspired her to get involved in experiential learning.

• Maggie Crum from the Northern Kentucky Makerspace discusses how she and her group could deliver over 1,000 STEM kits and support the activities with engaging videos for different grade levels.

• Adrienne Porter, Catalyst Program Manager based in New York, shared how one student’s project was grounded in Climate Science challenges and solutions in a specific community of the student’s choice, bringing both relevance and rigor to the unit.

Sebastian Byers, Brian O’Neil, and this talented team share suggestions for incorporating maker-centered learning into your classroom.

Session 4: Technology That Supports Deeper Student Engagement

With the pivot to hybrid and remote learning, there is no shortage of tools and technology thrown at educators today. Instead of working within the limitations of the technology, Sebastian, and Anna Yu explore some of the most useful technologies that drive student engagement and support the academic content. Makers + Mentors Network Maker Fellows and Teaching Fellows also demonstrate practical tools you can use for experiential learning and maker-centered learning.

• Nicole Shuman, who has served as an instructional assistant and team lead as a Folsom Lake College Innovation Center Maker Fellow, shares her love of Instructables.

• Alexa (Lex) Rose, who has served as United Way of Massachusetts and Merrimack Valley initiative of BosTEM Maker Fellow, discusses how she uses Autodesk Tinkercad to introduce students to 3D design.

• Rachel Annese, a Winter Hill Community Innovation School Teaching Fellow, shows the many uses for Canva, an online design and publishing tool.

These tech tools will break up the monotony of traditional classroom instruction and inject excitement, releasing students from the fatigue from remote learning.

Visit the Pathfinders Online Institute to create an account and access this entire four-part live webinar series and various professional development content, enrichment materials, and other materials for K-12 teachers to use with your students in the virtual classroom and beyond. This content is free and can be accessed asynchronously.