I Love a Poster Session

Our Lego Robotics Grows STEM Learners and Service Learning Opportunities poster session went GREAT!

First, we spent Sunday night trying to put the LEGO WeDo robots back together as they had come apart in transit from Alabama.  It was a lot harder than we thought!  Jodie and I rebuilt several of them, but only managed to get one to work with the programming software. I guess we forgot to pack a 4th grader to help us with these technical difficulties.

On to the day of the presentation, we had people start coming by and talking to us before we were even set up. The LEGO WeDo stuff is eye-catching and fun so it makes people want to stop.  We had our wiki set up on the large screen provided by ISTE and another computer set up with the programming software demo at the other end. We displayed the Teacher Edition notebook and the curriculum guide provided by LEGO and many people were interested in them, but the thing almost everyone wanted to know more about were our journals. Shout out to Lynn Kelley for designing them and making them for us!

The information we collected from the journals and from our observations was what energized our interactions with the people who came by our poster.  We talked to people from all over the United States and several folks from outside the US about what we did with 9 and 10 year olds in Demopolis, Alabama.  How cool is that?



So here we were, a Special Ed Professor and a Tech Professor (former Latin and English teacher) discussing programming and critical thinking skills and gender differences and STEM and career choices and so much more!  Jodie and I had a great time and met so many interesting people.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I love a poster session.