MATHWORKS ANNOUNCES STATEWIDE STUDENT CODING COMPETITION FOR MASSACHUSETTS HIGH SCHOOLS
MathWorks | September 17, 2018
MathWorks, in partnership with i2 Learning, today announced it has opened registrations for the MATLAB STEM Challenge – a coding competition open to all high schools in Massachusetts. The competition, which launches in October as part of Massachusetts STEM Week and runs through January, tasks student teams with using data collection, analysis and other skills to create their own digital fitness tracker. Schools interested in registering or learning more can do so at i2learning.org/matlab. The MATLAB STEM Challenge is free of charge to all high schools and no previous experience with MATLAB software is required.
“MathWorks is pleased to offer the MATLAB STEM Challenge to high schools throughout the state because competitions such as this are instrumental to ensuring schools get access to the tools, curricula and training necessary to build interest and competencies for students to pursue STEM careers,” said CEO Jack Little.
BOSTON STUDENTS CATCH CODE
Boston Herald | August 11th, 2018
Vertex teams with BPS for learning camp
In an effort to make engineering and math more fun for middle school kids and engage more young girls to pursue the STEM fields, Vertex Pharmaceuticals has partnered with Boston Public Schools and i2 Learning in a two-week coding camp this summer.
NEWARK PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS TAKE PART IN ‘STEM WEEK’
FiOS 1 News | June 8th, 2018
NEWARK – This week, 2,000 middle school students from across 21 Newark public schools spent part of their day doing hands-on STEM-centered learning experiences thanks to a partnership with i2 Learning.
Students’ normal classes were replaced by one of two courses, exploring ecological systems or building a lunar colony. Both allowed students to problem solve while working on a main project, which were showcased on Friday.
HOW TO USE ENGINEERING PRACTICES FOR MORE EFFECTIVE STEM LEARNING
eSchool News | PJ Boardman – November 30th, 2017
“What if schools could offer a different approach to STEM education that provided students with truly immersive learning opportunities?” That question came to Ethan Berman, founder of i2 Learning, after the experience of his nine-year old daughter, who liked school but loved solving problems and making things with her own hands, especially, as she put it, “if it was something useful.”
That was what inspired Berman to found Boston STEM Week, which just concluded its second successful year by replacing the usual curriculum for the more than 6,000 students and 300 teachers across 37 Boston middle schools. During this week, schools replace their usual curriculum with projects aimed at building lunar colonies, creating interactive monsters, designing digital games, and practicing surgical techniques.
STEM WEEK AT BOSTON SCHOOLS
NECN | The Take – October 26, 2017
The role of “learning from failure” in educating future leaders in Science, Technology Engineering and Math. GUESTS: PJ Boardman, Director of Education Marketing at MathWorks, sponsors of 2017 Boston STEM Week; Ethan Berman of i2 Learning, creators of Boston STEM Week.
SECOND ANNUAL BOSTON STEM WEEK OFFERS STUDENTS CHANCE TO EXPERIMENT AND SOLVE REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS
Boston Public Schools – October 23, 2017
The Boston Public Schools (BPS) today is kicking off its 2nd annual Boston STEM Week in which more than 6,000 6th-8th-grade students and 250 teachers from 30 schools will set aside their regular classwork over the next five days to participate in innovative, hands-on science and engineering projects that include learning how to build interactive robots from stuffed animals, dubbed “Friendly Monsters,” and design original video games with custom graphics, sound effects and music.
SECOND ANNUAL BOSTON STEM WEEK KICKS OFF FOR 6,000 MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS
Over the next five days, more than 6,000 middle school students and 300 teachers at 37 schools across Boston will set aside their regular class schedule to participate in an innovative, hands-on science and engineering program developed by i2 Learning in partnership with MIT and other leading STEM organizations. The 2nd annual Boston STEM Week includes courses such as Kinetic Sculpture, Building an Interactive Friendly Monster, Digital Game Design, Urban Farming and Surgical Techniques. Additionally, based on last year’s success, five schools will conduct i2 Month, offering their sixth grades a special four-week STEM-led interdisciplinary curriculum.
NEWARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH i2 LEARNING TO OFFER NEWARK STEM WEEK
NEWARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS – March 15, 2017
Newark Public Schools (NPS) announced that the district will be partnering with i2 Learning to offer a unique, hands-on learning experience for middle school students called Newark STEM Week from June 12 – 16. In preparation for Newark STEM Week, 80 teachers across 25 participating schools are attending a professional development program on March 15th and 16th this week that covers STEM course curriculum and hands-on learning.
BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO TRANSFORM CLASSROOMS INTO STEM LEARNING LABS
THE HUFFINGTON POST – OCTOBER 4, 2016
The majority of children born today will work for companies that have not yet been started, in fields which have not yet been invented. STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) is changing our world so rapidly that the facts we teach our children in middle school are often no longer true or relevant by the time those children graduate high school.
BOSTON MIDDLE SCHOOLERS IMMERSED IN STEM TOPICS
THE BOSTON GLOBE – OCTOBER 3, 2016
In all, 6,500 middle-school students in the city’s public schools are immersing themselves in STEM study, at a time of increased demand for proficiency on those fields in the working world.
The program, developed by leading STEM organizations, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, i2 Learning, and MathWorks, focuses on hands-on activities so students can learn in a way they wouldn’t ordinarily experience in a classroom.
PRESS RELEASE – MATHWORKS SPONSORS EDUCATION INITIATIVE TO BRING INNOVATIVE STEM CURRICULUM TO THOUSANDS OF BOSTON MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS
MATHWORKS – OCTOBER 3, 2016
More than 6,500 sixth, seventh and eighth grade students from 36 Boston middle schools will set aside their normal class schedule from Oct 3-7 to immerse themselves in a hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum that its creators hope can serve as a national educational model.
The week-long initiative aims to inspire student interest in the STEM disciplines while teaching them skills, such as computer programming and software development, that are in high demand. Together with their teachers, students will work on projects that include: digital game design; building a lunar colony; building an interactive, friendly monster; kinetic sculpture; surgical techniques; and urban farming. At the end of the week, each school will hold a showcase for students to show their project work to friends, families and other community members.
36 PUBLIC MIDDLE SCHOOLS TO JOIN INAUGURAL BOSTON STEM WEEK
THE JOURNAL – SEPTEMBER 22, 2016
Next month, about 6,500 middle school students in Boston, MA will participate in Boston STEM Week. The first-of-its-kind initiative brings hands-on STEM curriculum developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other organizations to 36 middle schools in the Boston Public Schools district, with plans to reach 2,000 schools by the end of 2020.
From Oct. 3–7, participating BPS middle school classrooms will be transformed into learning labs, where students and teachers will work in teams to solve real-world problems through hands-on experimentation, critical thinking and collaboration. Regularly scheduled classes will be replaced with about 20-25 hours of STEM curriculum.
EMPOWERING PARTNERSHIPS HOW COMMUNITIES AND BUSINESSES CAN HELP SHAPE STEM EDUCATION
EDTECH DIGEST – DECEMBER 9, 2015
This past year, MathWorks partnered with i2 Learning, an organization that works with world-class scientific and academic institutions, and offered engaging and immersive STEM courses in engineering, genetics, robotics, mathematics, and more. The partnership provided 15 Boston area schools with financial support and STEM curriculum development as part of the Boston City Package – a “teach the teachers” pilot program designed to offer proper STEM training for Boston teachers of all technical backgrounds.
PRESS RELEASE – EVALUATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT PROGRAM
i2 LEARNING – OCTOBER 5, 2015
Teachers College Columbia University published its evaluation of i2 Learning’s program for the Port Chester-Rye Union Free School District, finding the program to be exceptional for both student engagement as well as teacher professional development. The Center for Technology and School Change, led by Dr. Ellen Meier, authored the report.
The report was highly supportive of the program. Among its core findings, the evaluation noted:
i2 courses engaged students in problem-solving and created openings for students to make conceptual connections across the STEM disciplines.
High levels of student engagement across all participating students, and student excitement to participate in the collaborative, hands-on STEM activities.
STEM WEEK ENGAGES PORT CHESTER MIDDLE-SCHOOLERS
THE JOURNAL NEWS – MAY 22, 2015
Students studying the course the Architects of Time had already invented new versions of the hourglass and built towers of tubes to test water wheels made of plates and plastic cups. Now, they were challenged to connect gears so the first and the last in the series turned in the same direction.
“It’s cool because it was like an investigation,” said Juanita Mitchell, a math teacher running one of the groups with reading and technology teacher Jennifer Jackson. “They didn’t realize they were little engineers.”
PRESS RELEASE – PORT CHESTER PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT
i2 LEARNING – MAY 22, 2015
i2 Learning (“i2”) partnered with the Port Chester-Rye Union Free School District (“PCSD”) to run a week-long STEM immersion program for all sixth grade students and teachers in the district, with most of each school day dedicated to the i2 program. The PCSD program is the first time a public school district has run an i2 program district-wide.
The three i2 courses that ran at PCSD were: (1) Engineering Prosthetic Devices, (2) Architects of Time, and (3) Engineering Ice Cream. i2 trainers led three day-long professional development sessions for a total of 26 PCSD teachers who then led the teaching of the courses. i2 also provided all materials and supplies for the courses and teacher training.
SCHOOL FOR GIRLS TACKLES STEM ENTHUSIASM WITH INTERACTIVE MONSTERS
THE JOURNAL – FEBRUARY 2, 2015
Garrison Forest School (GFS), an independent K-12 school for girls, has teamed with a private partner to immerse girls in grades 4-5 in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) for one week using an MIT Media Lab-created course.
Over the course of the week, the students will combine crafting with circuitry and Arduino programming to create an interactive monster.
To prepare for the week, students have been practicing basic sewing techniques and learning how to work with GUI programs such as Scratch and Blockly. Their teachers received a day of training, working through the steps of the project the students will undertake, from i2Learning.
HARVARD RESEARCHERS BUILD $10 ROBOT THAT CAN TEACH KIDS TO CODE
WIRED – NOVEMBER 21, 2014
At the 2014 AFRON Challenge, AERobot won the top honor in the software category, and it took second place in the hardware and curriculum categories. The team has since tested it with about 100 sixth- to eighth- graders at a STEM-focused summer camp called i2Camp, and they plan to do further tests this coming summer. Rubenstein says that for the bot’s next iteration, the group is focusing on improving the curriculum and the software, eliminating steps in the installation process and ensuring AERobot is so simple that kids can learn how to use the thing on their own—without a teacher.
EYE ON EDUCATION: INNOVATIVE CAMP NOT YOUR ORDINARY SUMMER SCHOOL
CBS – JULY 31, 2014
“This is the opposite of dread. One of the reasons we’re targeting middle school is that this is an age where kids drop out from the world of STEM and we wanted to keep them within the world of STEM and then propel them on,” said Zigman.
“Probably the most important thing is to inspire the kids,” he added.
No grades. No risk. Teachers encourage experimentation and even failure.
