ITEEA 2018

The theme for the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) 80th Annual Conference focused on building bridges within the STEM community and beyond. Building bridges helps everyone to understand the important role technology and engineering contributes to STEM education. ​

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My learning began with Professor Richard Kimbell of Goldsmiths University of London whose work is around capturing really good learning experiences from the classroom in portfolios and then enabling those portfolios to be assessed with a high degree of reliability.  The highly valid and interesting work that goes on in classrooms is difficult to assess reliably.  He uses digital portfolios, assessed by groups of teachers using the simple question, "Which one is better?"  He cites Dylan Wiliam (1998) who asserted that "...most summative assessments were interpreted not with respect to criteria (which are ambiguous) ...but rather by reference to a shared construct of quality that exists in well defined communities of practice."  This concept was called "connoisseurship" by Michael Polanyi in 1958.  Kimbell concluded that:

• comparative judgement is easy and quick
• it works with the grain of human judgement
• Connoisseurship, like skill, can be communicated only by example, not by precept (Polanyi)
• by comparing examples we distinguish quality
• with a reliability equivalent to multiple choice testing
• without distorting the portfolio performance

Another highlight was meeting Dr. Lonnie Johnson.  Dr. Johnson is a former Air Force and NASA engineer who invented the massively popular Super Soaker water gun.  He reminded the audience to believe and have confidence in our students.  Technology will bring solutions he said, and made sure that although ultimately successful, the super soaker took eight years and a lot of false starts along the way.  He has since been developing the Johnson Thermoelectric Energy Converter (JTEC), an engine that converts heat directly into electricity. 
Dr. Johnson truly embodies a growth mindset and his message was unbelievably inspiring.

It was a pleasure to represent the Mineola School District along with Nicole Culella (PK-12 Instructional Leader) at this internationally attended event where we learned along side of passionate educators and had the opportunity to share our work as we presented a session entitled "Threading and Embedding Engineering Design Thinking PK-12."  Our session was well attended and received by a packed room of educators representing schools from Maryland, Georgia, Utah, New York, North Carolina, Illinois and China.  ​

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We began with a Padlet as a needs assessment so that we could make sure that we met the learning targets of our attendees. We then transitioned to a look at Mineola's PK-12 use of Engineering Design Thinking which includes a comprehensive and vertically articulated embedding of coding, computer science, robotics, and makerspaces.  The themes of each grade were articulated and the thoughtfulness of the scaffolded skills that build on each other as students advance through the school system were demonstrated with examples of the programs that all of our students are afforded.  
K-2: Choice and Exploration
3-4: Invention and Design
5-7: Iteration and Innovation
​8-12: Collaboration and Production

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"Failure is an option here.  If things are not failing, you are not innovating."
-Elon Musk

As our presentation concluded, we networked with other educators and took away several key points.  

1. There is a clear need for comprehensive curriculum in STEM education.
2. There are vast inequities that exist in STEM education across the United States and internationally. 
3. We are #MineolaProud of the work of our Board of Education, Administrators, Teachers, and of course, our students who make the incredible work being done in Mineola possible.