Moderated by Doug Scott, engineering and robotics teacher at Hopkinton High School, the panel will share how the Shield Team 2020 took to action and built a scalable and sustainable personal protective equipment–producing team of educators and students that became a national effort. The team has produced over 43,000 face shields. The team not only provided essential equipment to those on the front lines battling COVID-19, but also purpose to The Shield Team 2020 members who were sheltered in place.

SPEAKERS:
Doug Scott (Hopkinton Public Schools: Hopkinton, MA), Michael Looney, Sr. (Mashpee Public Schools: Mashpee, MA), Shishir Sudhaman (Hopkinton High School: Hopkinton, MA), Sucheta Sunder (Hopkinton High School: Hopkinton, MA), Mark Westlake (Saint Thomas Academy: Mendota Heights, MN)

The need for STEM literacy—the ability to understand and apply concepts from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in order to solve our nation’s most complex problems—is growing exponentially. The requirement for STEM literacy goes beyond the traditional STEM occupations of scientist, engineer, and mathematician. In addition, the United States and the Army have a growing need for highly qualified, STEM-literate technicians and skilled workers in advanced manufacturing, logistics, management, and other technology-driven fields. For more than 50 years, the U.S. Army has supported educational opportunities in STEM for youth and undergraduate students, as well as teachers.

Join a diverse panel of students from the U.S. Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) as they describe their experiences with the AEOP programs, the importance of STEM in their lives and schools, how STEM will help them in their futures, and why they think STEM is important.

Introductions and Moderator: Matt Hartman, eCYBERMISSION Educational Content Manager, U.S. Army Educational Outreach Program, NSTA, Arlington, Va. (www.usaeop.com)

Student Panelists: To be announced

SPEAKERS:
Matthew Hartman (BrainPOP: Pittsburgh, PA)

Join us to explore a holistic view of the challenges, as well as learn tips and strategies to successfully implement distance learning in your high school classrooms. Moderated by Kavita Gupta, panelists will share experiences and wisdom gained toward driving equity across learning styles, changing assessments, and addressing interventions. Participants will walk away equipped with best practices in distance learning, including a new educational context.

SPEAKERS:
Ritu Karivaradasamy (Fremont Union High School District: Sunnyvale, CA), Kavita Gupta (Monta Vista High School: Cupertino, CA), Zenas Lee (Fremont Union High School District: Sunnyvale, CA), Jessica Holman (Boone County High School: Florence, KY)

How might we leverage the affordances of virtual spaces and communities to design an engaging digital project fair experience for teens learning remotely? The Emoti-Con NYC Youth Digital Media and Tech Challenge, now in its 12th year, is an annual spring project fair celebrating teen innovation in formal and informal programs around the city, serving primarily low income students of color. Moderated by Meredith Summs, the panel will include representatives from the Emoti-Con steering committee, led by the national nonprofit organization, Mouse, and a small team of young event alumni with collaboration from Global Kids, Parsons School of Design, and the New York Public Library. The panelists will share how they quickly pivoted to redesign the event as a fun, interactive virtual experience after COVID-19, created scaffolded resources for preparing and demoing digital work, and increased student engagement by 47%.

SPEAKERS:
Meredith Summs (Mouse: New York, NY), Mickell Ford (Emoti-Con Aluminati Member: New York, NY), Niberca “Gigi Polo” Lluberes (Parsons School of Design, The New School: New York, NY), Luna Ramirez (Information Technology High School: Long Island City, NY)