Workshops

Purposeful Play with LEGO

In under one hour we will discuss how and why to weave in purposeful play into our learning spaces. We will dive into the importance of focusing on the culture of learning spaces. Additionally, the audience will undergo a build, play, and share cycle through a hands on immersive challenge to experience the culture of purposeful play. Audience will learn how to apply these ideas into any classroom and school. Participants will leave with resources and activities to use the next day.

Aaron Maurer, also known as “Coffeechug” is the STEM lead for 21 school districts in Iowa helping to expand STEM, Computer Science, Makerspace, and Purposeful Play into classrooms K-12. Often spotted wearing bowties and drinking coffee he is on a quest to bring more wonder and play into the learning process in schools. Aaron is the STEM Lead for Mississippi Bend AEA 9, Microsoft Innovative Expert, LEGO Education Master Educator, PBS Digital All-Star, Minecraft Global Mentor, Makey Makey Ambassador, and more. Lover of coffee, toys and 90's cartoons. Find all his work at www.coffeeforthebrain.com.

Superhero in the Making with Ateba Gaines, Founder of Unreasonable Kids

Do you desire to become a superhero? This interactive course with a hands-on teaching approach will help you discover the inner superhero through social entrepreneurship education. Superheroes in the making will learn social entrepreneurial principles while understanding how to solve problems in a fun and creative online atmosphere! The workshop is an social entrepreneurship learning experience that will include fun lectures, video, and a mask/ cape making art project to help each student become a real-life Superhero.

Mrs. Whitaker is the founder of Unreasonable Kids College. Unreasonable Kids College (UKC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, social entrepreneurial educational program training the next generation of Kid- Superheroes. UKC's goal is to create opportunities for kids to tackle poverty, hunger, injustice, and other issues set by the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. UKC creates a safe, peer to peer, coach-led virtual environment to facilitate and inspire world changers as they learn how to release their fight for good. UKC's mission is to train the next generation of Kid- Superheroes by encouraging youth to become world changers through social entrepreneurial education and activity, but as Mrs. Whitaker states, "any good superhero cannot save the world if he or she cannot read or count." Therefore, UKC created the Scholars Advance Program to level the playing field by supporting students struggling in reading and math through free virtual courses to assist students in passing the Virginia Standards of Learning Assessments SOLs, so that schools can gain accreditation.

For more information about Unreasonable Kids College, connect via Facebook at BuildingKidSuperheroes or visit: www.unreasonablekidscollege.org or send Ateba Whitaker a shout out via Linkedin.

Shine a light, then share it (with Garrett Jaeger)

We will facilitate a tinkering activity, using light to explore space and perspective. You will play with common household materials, but we promise that you will see those materials in a different light after this workshop. You certainly can build whatever your curiosity seeks, yet we will inspire each other by sharing. Along the way, we will highlight scientific reporting on how Learning through Play experiences like these can foster tolerance, collaboration, and lifelong creativity.

Dr. Bo Stjerne Thomsen is Vice-President, Chair of Learning Through Play, and member of the Leadership Team at the LEGO Foundation. He represents the LEGO Foundation and the LEGO Brand Group at international forums, and advises leadership teams across the LEGO entities, to attain the overall LEGO Brand Vision of becoming a global force of Learning Through Play. In his previous roles as Director of the LEGO Learning Institute, Head of the Centre for Creativity, Play and Learning, and Global Head of Research, he built more than 15 international research partnerships and endorsed projects across 20+ countries, to raise awareness around the role and impact of play on creativity and lifelong learning. Bo’s extensive publications on creativity, play and learning, also focus on the role of technologies in everyday life, and highlight the change needed in the education system to achieve equitable outcomes with learning through play. He holds a master’s degree in design, architecture and engineering, and a PhD on performative technologies and learning environments. You can follow him on Twitter: @BoStjerne

Solar Oven (with Ali Thunell)

Using just a few items around your house you can create a way to cook, melt or warm solids.

Candy Alvarado has served on the Project Scientist team as a Teacher, Site Director, and currently as an Educational Program Coordinator. Candy holds a BA in Liberal Studies with a minor in English Literature; a Multiple Subject Credential from Cal State University, Long Beach; a lead teacher certification program in Math and Science from the University of Irvine. Candy holds more than fifteen years of teaching experience working with grades TK-8th. As a lead teacher she coordinated and helped her school receive the recognition of California Distinguished School. Her passion for teaching and delivering high quality instruction lead her to a leadership role of mentoring student teachers from California State University Dominguez Hills and California State University, Long Beach. Driven by the mission of Project Scientist Candy is committed to create and deliver a high quality STEAM curriculum for a diverse group of students. Candy is a mother of two: a ten year old daughter who wants to be a neuroscientist thanks to Project Scientist and a six year old son that also partakes in STEM activities. Candy is an active member in her community and a leader to her daughter’s Girl Scout Troop. Devoted to closing the gender gap she seizes any opportunity to drive and spark interest in STEAM!

Play Making: Build Community and Engage Learners Online

In this workshop participants will learn about how the NYSCI Maker Space uses play and making to engage learners of all ages and build community online. We will share several strategies to support all types of learners, and you will make something you won't soon forget!

David Wells, Director of Maker Programming at the New York Hall of Science, is responsible for all programming and activities in NYSCI’s Maker Space. He oversees the design and implementation of maker-related programs which engage families, students, and visitors of all ages. He also works with formal and informal educators to create and implement maker activities and maker spaces in their setting. A self-proclaimed “maker of things”, David also designs sight specific interactive art installations using discarded technology, audio experimentation, and digital media to create an interesting yet whimsical experience for his viewers. During his time at NYSCI, he has worked on a wide variety of projects including designing exhibits for the Early Childhood space, developing emergent curriculum for educational programming and creating educational videos for teachers and students. He received his B.F.A. from F.I.T. and a Masters in Museum Education from Bank Street.

Twitter: @thenewspace

Build a Robot With a Robot - Interactive Session with SayKid

If kids play to learn, can adults learn to play? Play is one of the first things that we all learn how to do, yet we often forget how to play as we get older. In this session, we’ll show you how voice technology and tangible play can help kids AND adults learn together in a safe, natural, and engaging way - without screens! We’ll play a cooperative game or two and then build a robot together.

DeLonn Crosby believes voice technology can help families learn together through play. As CEO of SayKid, he has developed the ToyBot - a screen-less, play-based platform that combines conversational software with tangible play to help kids learn. SayKid won the Grand Prize in the Alexa EdTech Challenge, was recognized by Harvard as one of the organizations with the greatest potential to advance high-quality early learning, and its innovative approach was the subject of a recent TEDx Talk. DeLonn earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and has held leadership roles with Target, Deloitte, and Google.

The Art of Leaving Things Undone

Focusing on finishing, being done with, getting perfect, or having settled can keep us from enjoying the romance of the present. What can it feel like to start in spite of.....? In this workshop we'll explore what happens when we briefly allow ourselves to let go of grasping for achievement. We'll see how we can access our own wonder just by making some marks on paper - shapes and words - and tending and attending to them without finishing them.

Doug Dunston enjoys being a catalyst helping people to create: individually, collectively, and as participants in larger systems. As an orchestral and choral conductor, he guides performers to pool their personal expertise toward group art. As a facilitator, he works to hold inclusive space for reflection and insight. And although he taught university courses ranging from music appreciation to quantum mechanics to interdisciplinary explorations such as "Failure, Change, and Integrity," he always said he only teaches one class; it just has different titles.

Dr. Dunston is Professor Emeritus of Humanities at New Mexico Tech and recently moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he is a facilitator and partner to faculty in the University of St. Thomas School of Engineering.

Novel Engineering

This workshop session would be an abbreviated Novel Engineering experience. Participants would get a brief overview of a story as context for a design problem. They would work in small groups as they collaborate to conceptually design a solution to one of the problems in the text. Each group would share their solution and constraints and criteria they considered as they planned.

Elissa’s background in teaching and special education led her to pursue her second master’s in engineering education and to become a core member of Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach. As the Director of Outreach, Elissa leads the Center’s work to provide schools, teachers, and other organizations with engineering design opportunities grounded in research. She has oversight of STOMP, a community-based outreach program, Design & Engineering Workshops, summer and after school programs for students and K-12 teachers, and consulting work with local schools and international groups. In April 2020, a book written by Elissa and her team, Novel Engineering: An Integrated Approach to Engineering and Literacy, was published by NSTA Press. Elissa is particularly interested in using open-ended, client-centered problems to bring engineering to elementary and middle school students, exploring ways that students with different learning styles and interests can become excited by and access engineering. She has been involved with several research projects looking at how children with autism access engineering education and social skills.

Making Short Films for School and Beyond

Video is ubiquitous. Let’s harness that power! This workshop is a quick exploration on how to make short films in the classroom ... empowering students to express themselves academically as individuals and as a team. Stop frame animation included.

Elizabeth Hummer is a producer, director and educator. Her work has received two Emmy Awards and four nominations in children’s programming and five nominations for fashion content. Projects span production of a live after-school show for teenagers to covering fashion for Condé Nast. She has worked for Sesame Workshop, Nickelodeon, PBS (Cyberchase, In the Mix), and MTV, giving kids cameras to help them tell their stories.

For Films BYkids, a PBS series, Elizabeth has mentored Ndèye Fatou Fall for her film “Walk on My Own”, capturing the voices of a diverse group of women – young and old – working to end child marriage and FGC (female genital cutting) in their Senegalese village. The film has won the gender equity prize at the 2020 Prix Jeunesse and is a finalist in the youth division of the Japan Prize.

Elizabeth also helped produce “Poet Against Prejudice” about Islamophobia, bullying and immigration, by mentoring 19-year-old filmmaker, Faiza Almontaser in the final scenes of the film and supervising post production.

Elizabeth has served on the board of the Children’s Media Association, is on the Board of Trustees of the Shelburne Museum in Vermont and is a leader of Harlem fifth graders with Sierra Club ICO’s nature excursions.

Improving Your Instruction with the Art of Visual Storytelling (with Maggie Stout)

This workshop is intended for instructors who want to increase their levels of engagement and interaction in the virtual classroom with stronger visual communication. During this workshop, we will work collaboratively by discussing strategies to improve presentations, providing free resources, and practicing real applications of what we have learned. This workshop will incorporate a variety of interactive activities which can then also be applied in the virtual classroom as well.

Emilia Fredrickson is a freelance designer based in the Twin Cities. She is a recent graduate of the University of St. Thomas, where she previously held a role as a designer for the Playful Learning Lab. Emilia's work centers on branding, social media, and web design.

Shine a light, then share it (with Bo Stjerne Thomsen)

We will facilitate a tinkering activity, using light to explore space and perspective. You will play with common household materials, but we promise that you will see those materials in a different light after this workshop. You certainly can build whatever your curiosity seeks, yet we will inspire each other by sharing. Along the way, we will highlight scientific reporting on how Learning through Play experiences like these can foster tolerance, collaboration, and lifelong creativity.

Garrett Jaeger, PhD, is a Research Specialist at the LEGO Foundation in Billund, Denmark. His research focuses on mapping exploratory behaviors to better understand links between play and creativity. He previously studied exploratory play in children’s museums as a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Santa Cruz and as the Thomas Murphy research fellow at the Center for Childhood Creativity at the Bay Area Discovery Museum. Garrett’s work at the LEGO Foundation includes the transformation of traditional paper-and-pencil tests into behavioral measures of what occurs in situ as children are learning through play. These measures are integrated within programmatic activities and are introduced in numerous geographic contexts. As a former teacher in preschools, secondary schools, and universities, Garrett continues designing and facilitating playful experiences where children inspire adults, ideas lead logistics, and evidence checks intuition.

Crafting Platonic Solids: Fun with Polyhedra

Explore the satisfying Platonic symmetries of icosahedrons and dodecahedrons by crafting them. Participants will learn to make one or more Platonic polyhedra out of construction paper. As we do this we'll learn a little about the math behind the shapes, and how they relate to each other. Suitable for hanging, coloring, or decorations.

Jonathan Foote is an artist and technologist based in the Bay Area. He is an Adjunct Professor at California College of the Arts, and he was an artist fellow at Autodesk Pier 9 Workshop and Stochastic Labs in Berkeley. Jonathan uses his Ph.D. in electrical engineering, to run a consulting practice in electronics and signal processing.

STEM at Home with FIRST Robotics

Explore the fun and creativity that can be unlocked using STEM with students in remote learning environments. Find out how FIRST, a global robotics community, is continuing a hands-on approach to participating in its programs through safe and inclusive tools.

Elizabeth “Libby” Simpson is Director of Education at FIRST and prior worked various roles in Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa, Florida. She spent 12 years as a middle school engineering teacher within a STEM career academy, was a magnet lead teacher at a STEM High school and a district administrator within the career and technical education department covering the Industrial and Technology Education programs for the nations 8th largest school district. Currently with FIRST her work is focused on bringing best practices in project-based learning and STEM into the FIRST programs through content and curriculum development, professional development and school engagement. She is passionate about bringing rigorous and relevant best practices into the classroom through fun, authentic, and real world learning opportunities.

Improving Your Instruction with the Art of Visual Storytelling (with Emilia Fredrickson)

This workshop is intended for instructors who want to increase their levels of engagement and interaction in the virtual classroom with stronger visual communication. During this workshop, we will work collaboratively by discussing strategies to improve presentations, providing free resources, and practicing real applications of what we have learned. This workshop will incorporate a variety of interactive activities which can then also be applied in the virtual classroom as well.

Maggie Stout is a junior at the University of St. Thomas studying Strategic Communication, Economics, and Data Analytics. She is working as a graphic designer for the Playful Learning Lab, and is passionate about solving complex problems with unique communication solutions.

Hypnotic Ink: Fluids, Ink & Physics that make you think

Have you ever been fascinated by the way fluids interact? In this interactive workshop, you can use a transparent glass of water, some ink, and your smartphone camera to create some amazing hypnotic fluid art. By adjusting things like temperature or the type of ink you can learn a lot about the physics of fluids! Whether you're an educator, a parent, an artist, or just curious, this is a workshop that promises to be incredibly fun!

Prasanth Nori is the founder of Upepo, a playful, social, project-based learning platform for kids. He loves tinkering, experimenting, and losing track of time while working in a makerspace. An engineer turned elementary school teacher, He has worked with MIT's Playful Journey Lab leading their work in India as well as building collaborative playful learning experiences as a Summer Journey Fellow. Prasanth has a master's degree in Technology, Innovation & Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Send a Postcard to Space

Have you ever touched something that has been to space? Join us for a discussion about the future of living and working in space, and create your very own piece of space art/poetry/inspiration for launch aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket. When it returns to Earth, we'll mark it as official #SpaceMail and return it to you or a recipient of your choosing. https://www.clubforfuture.org/missions

Dr. Erika Wagner serves as Payload Sales Director for Blue Origin, a developer of vehicles and technologies to enable human space transportation. Prior to joining Blue Origin, Dr. Wagner worked with the X PRIZE Foundation as Senior Director of Exploration Prize Development and founding Executive Director of the X PRIZE Lab@MIT. Previously, she served at MIT as Science Director and Executive Director of the Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program, a multi-university spacecraft development initiative to investigate the physiological effects of reduced gravity.

From 2009 to 2012, Dr. Wagner was a member of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s Suborbital Applications Researchers Group, furthering the research and education potential of commercial suborbital launch vehicles. Today, she serves on the Board of the Museum of Flight, as well as the National Academies’ Space Studies Board.

Dr. Wagner’s interdisciplinary academic background includes a bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, a master’s in Aeronautics & Astronautics from MIT, and a Ph.D. in Bioastronautics from the Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Her research spanned both human and mammalian adaptation to microgravity, partial gravity, and centrifugation; as well as organizational innovation and prize theory. She is also an alumna of the International Space University and an Associate Fellow of the AIAA.

Collaborative Stories - Constructing Digital Storytelling through Animation

Join us in this investigation as we build coherent digital stories using animation techniques. Bring your story ideas to life, for your classroom or your own creative practice, by harnessing the power of art of the moving image. A range of digital storytelling practices will be shared with linked resources and downloadable content, with specific demonstration on a selected animation practices to get you started on your own creative journey.

Jeremy Holien empowers educators to develop innovative, relevant, and progressive arts learning environments as Minnesota’s Visual & Media Arts Education Specialist at the Perpich Center for Arts Education. Holien also serves as the Director-elect for the National Art Education Association’s (NAEA) Supervision and Administration Division, co-authored the National Core Arts Standards in Media Arts, and is an international arts education consultant having worked with artist/educator teams from over twenty countries. With more than 20 years teaching experience with both youth and adults, he seeks to foster creative fluency and artistic literacy within educational communities. He is active on social media at @jeremyholien.

Wakanheza: Supporting parents and families in public spaces (with Vickie VanNess)

Have you ever encountered a parent at the grocery store, restaurant or bus stop who felt stressed out and frustrated by the challenges of parenting in public? Have you wanted to step in and offer support or help, but just didn’t know what to do? Join the staff from Minnesota Children’s Museum to learn about The Wakanheza Project, a community-based initiative focused on reducing tensions and stressful situations for families. We will discuss the challenges of parenting in public, how our own attitudes and actions can contribute to parents’ stress, and simple techniques for stepping into difficult situations to diffuse tension.

Jess Turgeon is the director of experience at Minnesota Children’s Museum. With more than 20 years of museum experience and an MBA from Carlson School of Management, Jess has spent her career focused on serving the visitors and creating excellent visitor experiences. Responsible for the “fun” part of the museum, Jess oversees the creation and implementation of exhibits and programs at the museum. She is passionate about providing delightful, educational experiences for children and families.

Learning geometry with 3D prints

Geometry is a natural match to 3D printing, since it is possible to create objects that normally would be available only as projections on a page. 3D printing geometry demonstrations also makes them accessible to the visually impaired and other communities that might struggle with conventional materials. We will talk about our endeavors to create 3D printable geometry curriculum and walk through some of the models, which have been created in the OpenSCAD open-source CAD program.

Joan Horvath and Rich "Whosawhatsis" Cameron are the cofounders of Nonscriptum LLC, a consulting and training firm founded in 2015 based in Pasadena, California. They focus on teaching educators and scientists how to use maker tech, and together have authored 7 books for Apress, and numerous courses for LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com). Joan is an MIT alumna, recovering rocket scientist and educator, and Rich is an open-source 3D printer hacker who designed the RepRap Wallace and Bukito 3D printers.

Drawing Is Good For YOU

In this session, we will do analog and digital drawing. People love to create. Drawing is a great exercise for social-emotional learning, SEL, and drawing increases your memory and retention of information. Participants will get ideas of how to present drawing exercises, remotely, and links to some ways to create and share drawing and sketchnoting digitally.

Kristin Welch (aka Kritty) of the Los Angeles Unified SD/UCLA Math Project is a lover of sketchnotes, edtech, and playful learning. Teaching 21-century learners is student-centered, creative, and fun.

Pixel Art

Mosaics have been around for hundreds or years, but the digital medium is still rather new. It was with the creation of imagery for early video consoles, and the requirements of working within size and color constraints in which “Pixel art” emerged. Participants will be introduced to a set of basic tools within the free online program “Piskel” and encouraged to design within a constraint to make digital mosaic images of their own. Attendees who want additional challenge may choose to work on a larger canvas size, create an 8-bit style animation, or even use analog media from home.

Karl Koehle is an instructor of Game Design-Art at University of Wisconsin-Stout.

He seeks out joyful and novel experiences and learning through curiosity and play.

Twitter: @KarlKoehle

NASA's Eyes on Exoplanets - Discover New Worlds

In the past 25 years, NASA's satellites and ground-based telescopes have discovered thousands of extra-solar planets, or exoplanets, beyond our solar system. Learn how to use NASA's Eyes on Exoplanets software, a computer visualization of the exoplanets in our galaxy https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/eyes-on-exoplanets/ and learn about how citizen scientists can get involved in studying exoplanets, too.

Rachel Zimmerman Brachman is a public engagement specialist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. She spent 11 years working on the Cassini mission to Saturn, and now she is working on citizen science projects related to Earth science and exoplanets. Rachel has a bachelor's degree in physics from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts and a Master of Space Studies from the International Space University in Strasbourg, France. Originally from Canada, Rachel now lives in the Los Angeles area.

Creating Puzzles– Create Your First Puzzle

If you love solving puzzles, you just might find you enjoy creating them even more. We’ll start with a brief introduction on why people solve puzzles, and the keys to creating enjoyable, satisfying puzzles. Then, with nothing more than pencil and paper (and your brain, of course), you'll have the opportunity to create a complete puzzle from scratch. Then, to the extent we can over Zoom, we'll share them with each other. Your very first puzzle won’t set the world on fire. But I hope it sets you on fire, with a passion to create more.

Roy is the founder of puzzle technology company Puzzazz and puzzle publishing company Almanaq. He is the author of more than 30 puzzle books and ebooks, and editor and contributor to a dozen more. His puzzles have also appeared in The New York Times, the LA Times, and GAMES Magazine. His most recent puzzle works include portable escape experiences that people can play in their own home. In the software world, he's shipped more than 20 software products, including groundbreaking products in desktop productivity, word processing, tablet computers, web publishing, educational software, and, not surprisingly, puzzles. A veteran of eight startup companies, Roy has provided development and UX consulting to both Fortune 500 companies and small startup companies. He owns a commercial pizza oven, which is handy when his regular oven dies during a pandemic.

Bad Idea Factory

This workshop is focused on building creative competencies and overcoming habits of mind that impair creative thinking. Participants will be introduced to the “Bad Idea Factory" concept and start creating their own version for their students. The Bad Idea Factory is part of a series of lessons I call Design Thinking with Puppets.

Sam Patterson EdD is the Makerspace/STEAM coordinator for Echo Horizon School in Culver City California. I began teaching in 2001, and this year I swear I am going to get it right.

Creating a video poem

Participants will learn how to write, create, and share a short video poem using free software. We’ll look at some different styles and examples then write and film a short video poem together as an example. Next we’ll each create our own video poems and share some of what we created.

Tim Needles is an artist, educator and author of STEAM Power: Infusing Art Into Your STEM Curriculum. He teaches art/media at Smithtown School District, is a TEDx Talk speaker, and his work has been featured on NPR, in the New York Times, Columbus Museum of Art, Norman Rockwell Museum, Alexandria Museum of Art, Katonah Museum of Art, and Cape Cod Museum of Art. He’s the recipient of ISTE’s Technology in Action Award and Creativity Award, NAEA’s AET Outstanding Teaching Award, and The Rauschenberg Power of Art Award. He’s a National Geographic Certified Teacher, PBS Digital Innovator, an ISTE Arts & Technology and STEM PLN leader, NAEA ArtEdTech interest Group leader, and Adobe Creative Educator and Education Leader Emeritus. He’s active on social media at @timneedles.

Shadow Remix

What do you see? Similar to seeing shapes and animals in cloud formations, shadow remixes invite you to use your imagination and share what you see in a shadow. In this workshop, we will create interesting shadows using a combination of analog and digital tools, transform them into a narrative drawing, and remix and build on the ideas of others. Together we will create a wonderful collaborative series of images.

Speakers Include: Luigi Anzivino, Keith Braafladt, Casey Federico, Deanna Gelosi, Sebastian Martin, Ryoko Matsumoto, Steph Muscat

Playful Mindfulness: The Quest for Calm

Tap into the power of story, music and imagination to navigate the stormy seas of stress, distraction and anxiety. Based in the musical adventure of a sea captain taming the Monkey Mind Pirates who hijack the ship, lovable puppet characters and catchy songs lead people of all ages and abilities into deeply meaningful metaphors that build focus, resilience and emotional regulation. With fun twists on yoga and mindfulness practices, cultivate creative tools to use when you need to turn your “Arghs” into “Oms.” This will be a hands-on session, so pull up a comfortable spot to sit, move around and sing along. Join the Quest for Calm!

Z Puppets Rosenschnoz leads people of all ages and abilities into the power of playfulness and feats of imagination through performances and workshops. With a mix of hand-crafted puppetry, live music and quirky humor, they delight children and adults by transforming complex concepts into fun, meaningful arts experiences. Z Puppets' four main initiatives are: Arts & Mindfulness, Arts for All Abilities, STEAM of Puppetry and Cherokee Language Revitalization. Co-founders and Creative Directors of Z Puppets Rosenschnoz, Shari Aronson (M.A. Drama Education) and Chris Griffith (formerly Education Coordinator at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theatre and teaching artist for Children’s Theatre Company) have created and toured over 25 original family-friendly productions and a gajillion workshops, since 1998. These artists have won honors and support of the National Endowment of the Arts, Jim Henson Foundation, Puppeteers of America, Ordway Center for Performing Arts, VSA, NDN Collective, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and over 40 grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Behold! The power of playfulness!

Let’s Play with Zoom

Over the course of the latest pandemic theaters have shut down as well all the in-person interaction spaces. As a clown and a clown trainer, I shifted my focus to the specifics of the zoom platform. So instead of disrupting behavior in a conversation heater it circus space, the question shifted to how can we productively disrupt the zoom space. The workshop will be an hours worth of findings, crammed into less time.

For 15 years Adrian was Producing Artistic Director of 500 Clown, a Chicago-based Clown Theater ensemble that toured nationally. He performed the shows in the 500 Clown touring repertoire: 500 Clown Macbeth, 500 Clown Frankenstein, 500 Clown Christmas, and 500 Clown Trapped. More recently he performed as a Dancer / Actor / Clown with Lucky Plush Productions The Better Half and in The House Theatre’s A Comedical History for Mr. Punch, he payed both Antipholi, in California Shakespeare Festival's production of A Comedy of Errors, Caliban in The Feast : an Intimate Tempest at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Medvedenko in The Seagull at Lake Lucille Chekov, Orlando at The Court Theater. In addition he has performed in shows at The Goodman theatre, The Second City, Steppenwolf Studio, Berkeley Rep, Brooklyn Academy of Music,The Public Theater, and with Shakespeare & Company and Lookingglass Theatre Company. He has performed his solo works at The Kitchen, P.S. 122, The Ontological Hysteric Theater and Soho Rep. He was an early Neo-futurist and a founding member of Redmoon Theater. He has studied clown with Ctibor Turba, Philippe Gaulier, Ronlin Foreman, Dominique Jando, Els Comediants, David Shiner, Avner the Eccentric and was a clown with Big Apple Circus Clown Care for 7 years.

As a teacher, in addition to hundreds of workshops and master classes around the country and internationally, He was on Faculty at The Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University for 7 years where he taught Movement, Acting, Comedy, Circus Arts, and directed devised works. He has created 500 Clown based workshops for Doctors, Business Schools, Hotel employees, Division 2 athletes, Incarcerated youth and Chicago based performers, social workers and other interested types.

Explore Every Day: Untraveling in Quarantine

What are your five travel words? Not what you travel to see or do, but why. For example, perhaps new foods = senses, culture, novelty. Museums = art, history, learning. Dancing = adventure, experience, connection. While we can't travel right now, we can bring that playful, open spirit into our quarantines, our neighborhoods, and our homes. Join author, humorist and creativity expert Alex Leviton -- author of Explore Every Day (Lonely Planet, 2019) and Founder of The Third Layer, LLC -- for an interactive session on how to foster creativity by bringing the playfulness and openness of travel into our everyday lives.

Alex Leviton is the author of Explore Every Day (Lonely Planet, 2019). After graduating with a masters of journalism from UC Berkeley in 2002, Alex has co-authored 35+ titles for Lonely Planet -- including Italy, Experience USA, and Happy -- and one with the co-founder of The Onion. She’s worked for The Guardian, USA Today, and as a ‘Creativity at Work’ columnist for the Seattle Times.

A former director at travel start-ups in Silicon Valley and London, Alex is now the founder of The Third Layer, LLC, which facilitates creative thinking and innovation. Her three-layer creativity methodology (safety, bravery, aha!) pulls from a dozen disciplines, including her experience as an international travel journalist, as a poetry mentor in a juvenile psychiatric hospital, and as an improviser and stand-up comic. Before becoming a writer, Alex worked in Deaf education and as an ASL instructor.

You can find Alex on Twitter @alexleviton or at www.alexleviton.com.

Play with Code: The Joy of P5.js (with Amanda Casari)

Find the joy and wonder of coding by mixing an interesting subject and interactive code exploration. Inspire others to view coding as more than typing text. Adding visualizations and sound allows the user to express emotion and meaning through code. If you love art, music, or nature, using P5.js gives you a canvas for playing with code. Beginning coders and experienced developers will learn from playing, exploring and sharing the world of p5.js.

Amanda Casari is an open source scientist on the Google Open Source Programs Office, where she is co-leading research and engineering to better understand risk and resilience in open source ecosystems. She enjoys creating anything which makes the data world more open and approachable, including co-authoring the O'Reilly book, Feature Engineering for Machine Learning Principles and Techniques for Data Scientists. She is persistently fascinated by the difference between the systems we aim to create and the ones that emerge.

Amanda holds a B.S. in Control Systems Engineering from the United States Naval Academy and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont.

Bring storybooks to life: creating interactions with playful digital tools (with Celeste Moreno and Mariana Tamashiro)

In this workshop, participants will create playful webcam-based interactions using physical storybooks and digital tools, such as the Teachable Machine (online web application for machine learning) and Adacraft (block-based coding environment). We will guide participants through using Teachable Machine to create and train a machine learning model that recognizes storybook covers. Then, we will use Adacraft to add characters, sounds, or text that appears every time one of the covers of the storybooks are shown to the participants’ webcam. [This is a beginner-friendly workshop and no coding experience required].

Andrea is interested in exploring novel ways to incorporate technology into the everyday, using the “wow!” and “aha!” moments to spark meaningful learning experiences. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Technology, Arts, and Media (now known as Creative Technologies & Design) from the University of Colorado Boulder. Currently, she works as a Library Program Associate for the Denver Public Library ideaLABs and as a research assistant for the Creative Communities research group out of the University of Colorado Boulder. She has also worked extensively with local museums to design and install interactive museum exhibits as well as facilitate workshops.

Mathemagics!

Learn the secrets of mental math and other mathematical mysteries from Professor Arthur Benjamin. Dr. Benjamin has performed all over the world as a mathemagician and will answer all of your questions. His TED Talks have been viewed tens of millions of times. Dr. Benjamin is also a professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College and is the winner of the American Backgammon Tour Online for 2020.

Dr. Arthur Benjamin is the Smallwood Family Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College. He has been repeatedly honored by the Mathematical Association of America for his teaching and writing, and was recently selected by Princeton Review as one of The Best 300 Professors in America. He is also a professional magician and one of the world's fastest mental calculators.

Dr. Benjamin has given 3 TED talks which have been viewed over 20 million times. He has demonstrated and explained his calculating talents to audiences all over the world and has appeared on numerous television programs, including The Today Show, CNN, and The Colbert Report. He has been featured in Scientific American, Omni, Discover, People, Esquire, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Reader's Digest. Reader's Digest calls him "America's Best Math Whiz."

Scrap Craft: Turning Trash into Treasures

Household trash piles up fast! With a few supplies, you can divert debris out of the landfill and into a second life as raw materials or delightful objects. In this workshop, we'll take a look at creative ways to invigorate your garbage, strategies for minimizing waste in your life or creative practice, and techniques for making colorful characters to decorate your home and join your creative play. 🤓

You’ll need: scissors/cutting tool • clear tape • permanent marker • clear materials—the bigger the better (plastic shipping waste, clean food packaging, bubble wrap, etc) • nice big pile of clean colorful debris (paper, plastic, packaging, fabric bits, etc)

Booky Margoof is a toymaker and learning designer based in Berlin, Germany. Her personal work centers around play, creative reuse, and reimagining kid-friendly crafting techniques. Professionally, she works with organizations to build curriculum and tools that support self-guided learning. She currently works with Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) helping libraries worldwide run community-powered learning programs and previously managed DIY.org, a free online learning community for kids.

See her work at instagram.com/bookymargoof.

Play with Code: The Joy of P5.js (with Amanda Casari)

Find the joy and wonder of coding by mixing an interesting subject and interactive code exploration. Inspire others to view coding as more than typing text. Adding visualizations and sound allows the user to express emotion and meaning through code. If you love art, music, or nature, using P5.js gives you a canvas for playing with code. Beginning coders and experienced developers will learn from playing, exploring and sharing the world of p5.js.

Carol Willing works as a Technical Evangelist for Noteable. She serves on Project Jupyter's Steering Council and is a core member of the JupyterHub and mybinder.org teams. She received the 2017 ACM Software System Award for Project Jupyter's lasting influence on computing. As a core developer of Python, she was elected recently to serve a third term on Python's Steering Council. She's a Fellow and former Director of the Python Software Foundation Fellow. In 2019, she was honored with the Frank Willison Award for technical and community contributions to Python. She serves as a co-editor of The Journal of Open Source Education (JOSE) and co-authored the book, Teaching and Learning with Jupyter. Carol has an MS in Management from MIT and a BSE in Electrical Engineering from Duke University.

Bring storybooks to life: creating interactions with playful digital tools (with Andrea Devore and Mariana Tamashiro)

In this workshop, participants will create playful webcam-based interactions using physical storybooks and digital tools, such as the Teachable Machine (online web application for machine learning) and Adacraft (block-based coding environment). We will guide participants through using Teachable Machine to create and train a machine learning model that recognizes storybook covers. Then, we will use Adacraft to add characters, sounds, or text that appears every time one of the covers of the storybooks are shown to the participants’ webcam. [This is a beginner-friendly workshop and no coding experience required].

Celeste is a designer of creative learning experiences with a background in design, scientific communication, and informal education. She has developed creative learning experiences for learners of all ages in a variety of spaces from schools to makerspaces to museums. Celeste is currently a researcher and designer at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Laboratory for Playful Computation where she researches and designs creative approaches to making computer science more accessible.

Engineering with Paper: Arcade Games

Using just paper, tape and scissors, you will learn how to make your own table-top amusement park style games. This hands-on workshop will get you cutting, folding, connecting and building in a matter of minutes. You will start by learning the Engineering with Paper “alphabet” of techniques and then transform ordinary paper into interactive games. Unleash creative possibilities while also learning how to re-use and up-cycle supplies you already have. Please have printer paper or magazine pages and , tape and scissors available. Manila folders and cereal box type cardboard is also useful if you have it available.

Godwyn Morris is the Director of two programs in New York City, Dazzling Discoveries, a STEAM education center for grade school age children and Skill Mill NYC a maker space and digital fabrication studio for adults and teens. She is also the inventor of Dazzlinks Cardboard Engineering kits and Engineering with Paper, downloadable packets. Godwyn has been working and creating with educators and children for more than 20 years. She is an advocate of making, mixing, trying, testing and playing, all with the aim of teaching creative thinking and problem solving skills to kids and adults. She works with hundreds of students and teachers every year in classes, camps and professional development workshops. Her expertise is helping educators bridge the gap between teaching content and expanding hands on exploration.

Contact information: Godwyn@Skillmillnyc.com or info@dazzlingdiscoveries.com

Website: https://www.dazzlingdiscoveries.com

It’s a Rap!

Why go to any other workshop when you can come to mine and learn some life-changing raps! Have you heard of 'The Three Bears Rap?' Or 'Jaws was Swimming in the Sea?' Or 'The Hairy Toe?' or 'Down In the Jungle?' Hold onto your hat! Bring your mobile phone or a pen and paper? It might be no bad idea to do some body-building to get in shape for this marathon session! Bring out that Inner Child. Let your hair down . Playfest is the name of this conference. Playfest is the theme of this workshop. Do not miss!

Helen is currently a PhD student at the Department of Education, University College Cork. Her topic is creative writing (primary school students writing plays) and visual arts in the research process. Helen has completed 4 Masters research programmes at the University of Cambridge (2017), Oxford University (2012), Trinity College Dublin (2007) and University College Cork (1994). She has presented at drama and education conferences in Toronto, Sydney, Paris, Bélem, Venice and more recently in Nice and Valencia. Helen facilitates in-service arts-in-education workshops and teacher professional communities where participants develop and disseminate resources to local schools. Helen is interested in Mantle of the Expert as a drama model. A former arts advisor with the Department of Education and the Arts Council, she currently tutors students at Masters level at Trinity College Dublin. Helen is a primary school language support teacher in Cork, Ireland. Helen is a qualified music teacher, singing teacher and drama teacher. She has won national awards for scriptwriting, directing, acting, storytelling and creative teaching, including most recently a Coolahan Award for her PhD research.

Draw2Code: Programming to bring your drawing to life using paper coding blocks

Draw2Code is designed for early childhood to foster computational literacy through playful interaction. In this workshop, you will create an interactive animation by drawing a character and creating a sequence of the character's motion using paper coding blocks. The character that you created in physical form will be transported into the virtual world. It will be overlaid on the real-world context and you can control it with a gesture seen through a camera.

Hyejin Im is a master’s student in Human Factors Engineering at Tufts University, where she studies human-computer interaction and engineering education. Her research focuses on exploring low-cost, tangible, and expressive computational thinking kits for young children. Prior to Tufts University, she worked as a UX designer designing digital products with clients including Samsung and LG.

Create Wearable Trash Art: Raise Awareness of Plastic Pollution

Take a journey with Jen and Kat to understand your trash footprint. First, you will conduct a trash audit of your own waste at home before coming to the workshop. In the workshop, you’ll create something new from your reclaimed materials in this workshop with Jen Fedrizzi and Katie Williams. Jen and Katie will show you how they created trash suits for community performances and climate strike events and then challenge you to create art out of your own reclaimed materials.

*Note: Sign up for this workshop to receive instructions in advance, as you will need to start the trash collection process at least a week before this workshop.

Katie Wililams and Jen Fedrizzi are alumni of the Convent Arts Collective in San Francisco where they ignited a passion for sustainability-themed art and performance aimed at raising awareness of our cultural dependence on single use items that are polluting the planet. Katie and Jen have performed together at the Artists' Television Access Gallery in San Francisco as part of their Almost Public/Semi-Exposed series in 2017 and 2018. They also co-organized a Global Beach Cleanup & Trash Audit for and were speakers at the Zero Waste Youth Convergence in Berkeley in 2018.

Katie Williams is a marketing and communications professional, educator and multimedia artist who utilizes creative problem solving for social impact. She's worked abroad training teachers at the Google Teacher Academy and Google Apps Summits in Europe. Her work has been highlighted by Greenpeace, Break Free From Plastic and the Seattle Times. Katie serves as the Account Executive at JadeTrack, a sustainability software working to help increase energy efficiency.

Jen Fedrizzi is a professional photographer and artist who is passionate about restoring human relationships with resources. She’s organized multiple art events throughout California with themes consisting of water, wasted resources, human connection, and identity. Jen serves as the Director of Development at Replate, a non-profit food rescue company working to reduce food waste and food insecurity.

Bring storybooks to life: creating interactions with playful digital tools (with Andrea Devore and Celeste Moreno)

In this workshop, participants will create playful webcam-based interactions using physical storybooks and digital tools, such as the Teachable Machine (online web application for machine learning) and Adacraft (block-based coding environment). We will guide participants through using Teachable Machine to create and train a machine learning model that recognizes storybook covers. Then, we will use Adacraft to add characters, sounds, or text that appears every time one of the covers of the storybooks are shown to the participants’ webcam. [This is a beginner-friendly workshop and no coding experience required].

Mariana is interested in designing creative and meaningful learning experiences, using technology as a medium for expression. She graduated from the University of Sao Paulo with a Bachelor of Science in Design. In 2017, she joined MIT Media Lab as a visiting student to work on her undergraduate final thesis, "Design Principles for Creative Learning." She holds a master degree in Creative Technologies & Design from the University of Colorado Boulder. Currently, she is a PhD fellow and research assistant at the Center for Computational Thinking and Design at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Cardboard Creatures

Cardboard and scissors are all you need to explore how to easily build a 3D model of your favorite creature! We will learn a simple skill to attach cardboard together without tape and glue, and we will use our imagination to bring fantastic creatures to life.

Mathieu is a learning experience designer who is passionate about creative and hands-on learning for young children. He believes in children's agency to make their own creative decisions and learn from their experiments. He is currently leading the development of Lelu's learning experiences (www.lelu-usa.com), merging STEAM and language learning through hands-on activities. He also founded Dowit (www.dowit.co) to offer online creative hands-on classes to young children. He recently graduated from the Stanford School of Education.

Word Play!– Unlocking Combinations, Mini Sagas and Writing Games with Matt Coonan

This workshop will be a play intervention with the power of words. From 2 Words to Mini Sagas, this workshop will be an exercise in convergent and divergent thinking, all while creating in collaborative groups. All that is needed is an improvisational mindset- suspend any judgmental thinking, and operate from a "yes and..." mentality. This exercise is not just for classrooms- if you use writing or words in any field, you will enjoy this activity. We will reflect on how to apply this concept to any field, and life. Divergent thinkers, artists, scientists and/or writers, unite! Word Play calls…

6 Word Memoir-

Father, teacher, husband: still a child.

Life Limerick-

There once was a kid from Colorado,

Who imagined a world within Lego,

A divergent thinker,

Now word play tinkerer,

He loved inspiring creative mojo.

Blog- Writicide

Teaching Portfolio- Corndog Coonan's Classroom

Twitter- @corndogcoonan

Fail Better (with Stefanie Sobelle)

When did you last try something and fail? “To fail” is rooted in “to lack,” to desire something we do not have. So what if we started thinking of failure not as a result but a method that energizes us to improvise and relish unexpected results? What if failure were the point? We learn most when riding the struggle bus, so let’s struggle together and nail the fail! In this interactive workshop, we will begin to fail better by redefining problems as opportunities and mistakes as successes, generating hairball ideas, and building the fail one nail at a time.

Meghan Mackay is the Executive Director of the LeveragED Foundation, and brings over 25 years of experience in school management and leadership, organizational structures, school design, and leading professional development. She is passionate about creating schools with playful learning environments where children and adults thrive, and has started or redesigned dozens of schools. Meghan is a teacher first, but has also led schools, designed educational software and student information systems, written curriculum, and was once an exhibiting artist. She received a B.A. in Art History from Stanford University and an M.A. in Education from the University of San Francisco. She serves on the boards of two K-12 schools, as well as the Advisory Council for the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Meghan founded LeveragED because she believes that excellent schools are built and sustained by great leaders with strategic vision. She has four boys and likes to play lots of games.

Fail Better (with Meghan Mackay)

When did you last try something and fail? “To fail” is rooted in “to lack,” to desire something we do not have. So what if we started thinking of failure not as a result but a method that energizes us to improvise and relish unexpected results? What if failure were the point? We learn most when riding the struggle bus, so let’s struggle together and nail the fail! In this interactive workshop, we will begin to fail better by redefining problems as opportunities and mistakes as successes, generating hairball ideas, and building the fail one nail at a time.

Stefanie Sobelle is a professor, writer, editor, dramaturg, and curator/ producer whose projects focus on the spaces of stories and the stories spaces tell. Her book, A Building is a Book (forthcoming from Oxford University Press), looks at the architecture in and of American literature. She collaborated with her brother, theater artist Geoff Sobelle, on an award-winning production titled HOME about the memories of houses, which was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and that toured domestically and internationally until the great lockdown of 2020. Stefanie then turned to co-producing and curating Decameron Row, a work of digital architecture that houses 100 one-minute videos by artists around the world, documenting their lives under quarantine. Out of Decameron Row, she has co-founded Imaginary Places, a design studio that builds art-forward immersive, interactive virtual worlds. What holds these disparate projects together is an interest in finding new forms of community when we cannot find ourselves at home in the built environments that we inhabit. Stefanie received her Ph.D. from Columbia University and her B.A. from Stanford University and is currently an Associate Professor at Gettysburg College and the Art & Architecture Editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB).