Partner Spotlight (@Your Library-Winter issue, page 28)
Exploring Education
Meadows Presents at STEM Conference
College of Education Professor George Meadows was an invited presenter at the STEM: Science with the Future in Mind Conference, held at the Virginia Military Institute Oct. 8 and 9. The target audience for the 2013 conference was high school teachers and students. Teachers were able to explore current scientific research as well as the pedagogy of science. High school students were given the opportunity to build relationships with mentors involved in STEM. Meadows presented workshops featuring the work being done in the College of Education’s LearnerSpace, including demonstrations of 3-D printing, microcontrollers, and alternative input devices such as the Makey Makey and the LEAP Motion Controller.
Summer Maker Camp Uses UMW’s Learner Space
A student learns about circuitry by using tools in UMW’s LearnerSpace
Thirteen students ages 8 to 14 participated in a unique summer program using tools contained in the UMW College of Education’s LearnerSpace, a new maker space for education on the Stafford campus. The College sponsored this first-time camp and COE Professor George Meadows worked with program personnel and the students during the week-long camp from August 5 to 9.
Campers worked with a number of the resource materials in the LearnerSpace, including 3D printing, coding video games, simulations and interactive stories, and learning about microelectronics and circuitry through various devices. One student composed a musical arrangement of ‘Lean On Me’ entirely using computer code. Kids also launched rockets constructed from paper, challenged each other in creating squishy circuits made with conductive dough, and even made use of sewing machines, needles, conductive thread, and LED’s to make electronic stuffed animals. One student created an interactive electronic doll version of the Creeper, a character from the popular online game, Minecraft. Another student, continuing with the Minecraft theme, used the alternative input device, the Makey Makey, to build a large Play Dough game controller to move his character around the Minecraft environment.
The week-long camp taught children about 3D printing, electronics and robotics
The camp was organized by NoizIvy.org as one of its kidOYO educational technology programs. NoizIvy is a local non-profit engaged in helping educators deliver advanced programs in schools, as well as producing a host of other student-driven educational programs.
For more information about NoizIvy visit NoizIvy.org/services. To find out more about the College of Education’s LearnerSpace contact George Meadows at gmeadows@umw.edu.
Courtney Clayton and George Meadows Publish Article
Courtney Clayton, Assistant Professor of Education, and George Meadows, Professor of Education, published their article, Action Research in Preservice Teacher Education, in the Spring 2013 volume of The Teacher Educators’ Journal. The journal is published by the Association of Teacher Educators in Virginia. The Association of Teacher Educators was founded in 1920 and is an individual membership organization devoted solely to the improvement of teacher education both for school-based and post secondary teacher educators. ATE members represent over 700 colleges and universities, over 500 major school systems, and the majority of state departments of education.
The Intersection of Digital Literacy and Social Media (Campus Technology)
DTLT Featured in Educause Publication
Tim Owens holds a product of a 3D printer
The Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies’ work with 3D printing and building a Makerspace are covered in the Educause Learning Initiative’s “7 Things You Should Know About 3D Printing.” The article references the fall 2012 first-year seminar “Mashups and Makerbots,” taught by George Meadows, associate professor in the College of Education, and Tim Owens, instructional technology specialist in DTLT.
George Meadows and Tim Owens’ Work Featured in Campus Technology
George Meadows, associate professor in the College of Education, and Tim Owens in the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies were featured in Campus Technology for their work with 3D printing in an article titled “Making Stuff: 3D Printing on Campus.” Meadows and Owens are in the process of exploring the technology and documenting the process at UMW Blogs in preparation to integrate the device as a curriculum component to a freshman seminar course in the fall. 3D printing technology allows students to build 3-dimensional models on a computer using free and easy-to-use software and then “print” them by extruding plastic in layers to create an object.
