Vote for Penn GSE projects in National Science Foundation STEM For All Video Showcase

Voting is now open in the 2018 STEM For All Video Showcase, the online event funded by the National Science Foundation that brings together short videos featuring cutting-edge projects to improve STEM learning.

Penn GSE’s Yasmin Kafai helped create two of the projects featured in the showcase. 

Kafai and PennDesign’s Orkan Telhan partnered on a project that allows high school students and teachers engage in synthetic biology by building genetic circuits that let microorganisms change color, smell, and shape. In synthetic biology, participants make their own DNA—gene by gene—and then grow their designs into real applications by inserting them into microorganisms to develop different traits and characteristics provided by the genes. 

View and vote for Biodesign in the Classroom here.

Another video highlights Kafai’s work on an introductory computer science unit for high school students using electronic textiles, which are fabric-based crafts made with conductive thread, microcontrollers, lights, sensors, and other electronic components. Because of their links to fashion and wearables, electronic textiles have a broad appeal to young people.

View and vote for Stitching the Loop: Electronic Textiles in Exploring CS here. 

A submission from Caroline Brayer Ebby of Penn GSE’s Consortium for Policy Research in Education highlights an early stage design and development project focused on translating research into tools and routines that K-2 teachers can use to formatively assess and respond to student thinking in relation to research-based learning trajectories in math.

View and vote for Formative Assessment Tools to Improve Early Math Learning here.

Now in its fourth year, the annual showcase will feature over 200 innovative projects aimed at improving STEM learning and teaching, which have been funded by the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies. During the weeklong event, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and members of the public are invited to view the short videos, discuss them with the presenters online, and vote for their favorites.

Voting will conclude May 21, 2018.