News from TechTerra Education
January 2017
TechTerra Education's Year in Review
By: Susan Wells, Founder
At TechTerra Education, we are just catching our breath after holding an event at and attending CES 2017. The biggest Consumer Electronics Show in the world was a great experience and we were thrilled to be part of the excitement. As we start into our busy 2017, we want to take a look back at 2016.
In 2016, we traveled all over the US and made several international trips. We started 2016 in Florida at the FETC conference, then headed to North Carolina, then to the GSTA in Georgia, to Illinois, back to NC for NCTIES, on to SXSWEDU in Texas, and then to New York to meet with the Minister of Danish Education and Danish Parliament Members. And that was just our schedule from January to March.
In April, we were in Costa Rica at Lincoln School, then Nevada and California, next in Jamaica, then ISTE16 in Colorado, and the Duke BOOST Science Program in Durham. That was our April to June, along with our Camp TechTerra camps!
July saw our Camp TechTerra summer camps in full swing and in August, we presented at conferences in North Carolina. September had us in California at EdTech Explore, and in Seattle, Washington, with the King County Library System. In October, we had conferences in Nevada and North Carolina.
We went to the GET Summit in China in November and visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We finished our travels for 2016 in Virginia at the VSTE Conference. Whew! 2017 promises to be even busier and we couldn’t be happier about that.
CES 2017 (Consumer Electronics Show)
CES is huge and really bigger than huge. It certainly deserves to be called the biggest electronics show in the world. With three locations, CES East, CES West, and CES South, it isn’t possible to see and do everything or even most things. The key to CES is strategy. You have to schedule your presentations, meetings, and meetups and then map out vendor visits. There just aren’t enough hours to see everything and even the CES app could not map out a path to see it all. We worked hard to see as much as we could.
TechTerra Education kicked off CES with our Maker Playground event across the bridge from the Wynn at Neiman Marcus’ cafe in the Fashion Show Mall. Our location was perfect. Locals had great parking at the mall and found us easily . CES attendees had a quick walk from the Sands and CES West. It was an honor for TechTerra to show a new STEM print library published by No Starch Press and to have the opportunity to place Primo Toys’ Cubetto robot in attendee hands. We plan to be at this location again next year. Free tickets sold out this year, so you will want to grab them early for 2018.
We spent two days at CES West in the Sands visiting edtech developers and exploring new products. Much of our exploring time was spent in the Eureka Park destination, a huge space within CES West used to launch new products, services and ideas.
There were too many cool new learning tools to name them all. Our favorites included KOOV, a connected robotics kit with blocks and sensors. In the photo below Alison has triggered a sensor and waits for the alligator to snap.
More favorites were Cell Robots, Circuit Cubes, Roxs, Beyond Tablet, Future Make, and Kubo. This is really just a few of the innovative STEM tools at CES. We saw and played with some amazing things. Sony’s Future Lab Program had a projector that literally allows you to pull images out of a book and interact with them. Our next step for TechTerra is to try out these new learning tools and bring the coolest into our camps and our educator training. Stay tuned!
Congratulations to our Winners from TechTerra Education's 2016 Holiday Giveaway
TechTerra Education’s Top Gift Pick Giveaway was a great success. Each week in December, we picked our winners to receive some of our Top 25 Holiday Gift Picks.
There were lots of ways to enter to win in our Holiday Giveaway. We asked for emails, tweets, postings on Instagram, and lesson ideas with our tech tools. Thanks to everyone who entered!
Our winners were chosen by random draws on December 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31, and notified by email. We also announced our weekly winners on Twitter and Facebook. Here is the list of our winners:
12/3
Nicole won a Bitsbox Coding for Kids Box from Bitsbox
Anne won the Official Scratch Jr. Book from No Starch Press
Roy won a GoPiGo Starter Kit from Dexter Industries
Lauren won a Chibi Lights LED Circuit Stickers STEM Starter Kit from Chibitronics
12/10
Justin won a Bluebee Pal Talking Educational Learning Tool from Bluebee Pals
Jasamine won a book Python For Kids from No Starch Press
Kevin won 4D Flashcards from Octagon Studio
Christine won a Kamagami Robot Kit from Kamigami Robots
12/17
Stefanie won a Puzzlets coding board
Karen won a No Starch Press book
Thomas won a Bitsbox coding box
Katherine won a Marbotic Smart Letters and Smart Numbers
12/24
Annie won a Kano Computer Kit from Kano Computing
Lisa L. won a Hummingbird base kit from Birdbrain Tech
Lisa H. and Christine each won a book from No Starch Press
12/31
Jessica and Kinshasa each won a Bitsbox coding kit
Jodi, Ricky, Anne and Matthew each won a book from No Starch Press
Thanks again to all who entered! Keep up with us all year by subscribing to our Newsletter, visiting our website, following us on Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest, checking out our Instagram, or just sending us an email at info@techterraeducation.com to stay in touch!
Act Now for 2017 Camps at Camp TechTerra
Spring and Summer camps are open for registration!
Every summer camp sold out last year so register early to grab your spot now. Register now at Eventbrite: Register for Camp TechTerra Camps at Eventbrite
Also don't miss the First Saturday Series “Tech Rocks!” at Duke School. Register at: Duke School First Saturday Tech Rocks Series
Professional Development at TechTerra Training for 2017
The Next Big Events for TechTerra Education
TechTerra Education will be there for A Makerspace Toolbox: Getting Started with Inquiry-Based STEM Labs, Tuesday, January 24, 2017 (8:00 am - 10:30 am) at the Hyatt Regency - Bayhill 25 Track: Future of EdTech Educator
First Annual FETC Mobile MEGAShare, Wednesday, January 25, 2017 (8:30 am - 12:30 pm) at the Orange County Convention Center - North 320AB.
We are super excited to have these No Starch Press libraries to share and would love to talk about using books in makerspaces.
BETT is one of the world's premier EdTech events and TechTerra Education will be there. Our founder, Susan Wells, will be speaking at BETT in Primo's expo booth, E48, on Friday, January 27, 2017, at 11 am, on The Power of Connected Learning Tools, Authentic, Engaging, and Fun!
Our team will be supporting at Birdbrain Technology's drop-in Workshop on Saturday, January 28, 2017 (1 pm - 4 pm) at Aloft Hotel Tactic Rooms 1 - 4. TerraTerra Education will be there working with Finch and Hummingbird Robots, two edtech tools we've been using for years in our camps and in our training.
About TechTerra Education
The TechTerra Education curriculum, inspired and informed by Maker Education and Project Based Learning, was developed by Susan Wells, a national leader in mobile-integrated education and public school educator.
In addition to offering professional development training, school solutions, and tool solutions, TechTerra Education's Camp TechTerra, held during fall, spring, and summer sessions, offers programs for students ages 5 to 14 that bring together the seemingly disparate elements of technology and nature to help young people better understand the natural world through coding, storytelling, and digital devices.
Contact
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