EPIC Network unites teachers
The EPIC Network lived up to its name, showcasing the epic nature of the Network’s STEM accomplishments and initiatives happening in and around Berks County.
Created from a $500,000 Advancing Grant provided through Gov. Tom Wolf’s PAsmart initiative, the EPIC Network ensures equitable practices and innovation connect to and within reach of rural and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations.
The Berks County Intermediate Unit and the Kutztown Area School District serve as satellite sites for the EPIC Network, which stands for Eastern Pennsylvania Innovation Catalyst.
Educators from across Berks County learned more about EPIC at the kick-off event held at Kutztown Middle School on Wednesday, Jan. 29.
“It’s really about bringing innovation to Berks County, not only within the Kutztown Area School District and Berks County IU but for across the county to engage our teachers, our learners and to prepare them for career opportunities as we move forward to help with academic development and our business partners,” said BCIU Executive Director Jill M. Hackman.
“We’re all doing great things in our individual districts; we’re doing amazing things but we’re doing a lot of that separately,” said Scott Hand, KASD director of educational technology. “How can we bring the resources together all for the betterment of Berks County?”
While districts have different resources, availability and allocation of staff and finances, EPIC was developed by KASD and BCIU to level the playing field across the county.
Out of more than 300 applications, EPIC was one of 24 across the state to receive the $500,000 Advancing Grant, which will be used to bring STEM and computer science into Berks County. Next year they hope to expand EPIC into neighboring counties.
“Berks is so great because we truly represent a cross-section of the entire state. We have school districts that are rural, we have suburban and we have urban districts, across the whole socio-economic spectrum,” said Hand. “Other counties don’t have that same range. If we can do it here in Berks, we can do it anywhere. Look around. We are doing it.”
What does school of the future look like?
Hand asked the educators in attendance to work with materials provided in the EPIC Library to show what school was like in the past and what the 21st century education looks like now.
Explaining the modern 21st century education model, Kutztown Superintendent Christian Temchatin said, “It’s a very flexible experience where there are no boundaries to learning. Our students, our teachers, all of us are learning not within the confines of a day, not within the confines of a building, not within the confines of a room. We can learn as much as far as we wish, as far as our imagination will take us.”
Hand said a major portion of the grant is focused on people, not just on things.
“We’re really about people. We’re investing in people and in partnerships: people, partnerships, policy and progress,” said Hand.
The goal of EPIC is focused on computational thinking: being able to take things apart and bring them back together, being able to look at smaller parts, to develop and recognize patterns, because that is how the world is based, said Hand. EPIC does this using computer science.
EPIC Centers, Resource Libraries and Camp
The EPIC Catalyst Satellite Centers are an active space where hands-on activities occur, where students work with technology and use computer programs and Apps to learn. The furniture is flexible and can be folded up and moved around.
The EPIC Resource Libraries provide materials that can be shared across the county, including Breakout EDU kits, coding kits, Ozobots, 3D printers, Rokenbok Education, Sphero BOLT Robots, Bloxels, Hummingbird Robotics, Merge Cubes and more. This gives teachers the opportunity to borrow materials they can use in their classrooms.
“I want to talk about the tools but also about the experiences that they are going to give your students,” said Wilson STEM teacher Matt Derr. “As a master teacher, it’s been great. As we take these courses at UPenn our knowledge is growing and it’s great to collaborate together.”
Camp_CS, a STEM and computer science camp to be held at Reading Area Community College this summer, provides experiences for all students K-12 to explore STEM and Computer Science related career fields; registration opens in February.
EPIC Network Showcase
“I want you to touch it,” said Hand, encouraging educators in attendance to touch the kits, talk to students demonstrating the use of EPIC Library materials such as Merge Cubes and Sphero BOLT Robots.
Kutztown 7th grader Lucas Hoffman demonstrated how to learn through the use of the Merge Cube augmented reality STEM app, Merge Explorer.
“I like how you can play with them, that they have many different uses. They’re fun,” said Hoffman. “They’re not only a screen electronic but hands-on.”
Kutztown 7th grader David Neuemschwander programmed where he wanted a Sphero BOLT Robot to go using the Sphero EDU App.
“I think it’s fun because you are able to try to problem-solve like what your mistake is. Right now I’m going too far,” he said. “You’re really just programming and having fun.”
After the kick-off event, attendees were invited to observe or participate in a 3D Printing class, facilitated by an EPIC Master Teacher.
“What a great opportunity we have here, a hub of innovation and technology,” said Twin Valley Superintendent Bob Pleis. “I think it’s going to be really helpful to our students and teachers. Can’t wait to get back and talk to our master teacher again and discuss some of the exciting things that are coming down the road.”
Ecosystem Empowerment
“Ecosystem Empowerment is perhaps the biggest area of the grant. When we say empowerment, we’re giving the power back over to other people,” said
Hand.
The 18 master teachers represent every district in the county. Those master teachers study through the University of Pennsylvania’s Experiences in Applied Computational Thinking (EXACT) program. The grant pays for their certification.
“So those master teachers can then come back and work in your districts to help develop that K-12 computer science articulation, to really get deeper,” said Hand.
Master Teachers Share Their EPIC Experiences
“It’s a great way for us to collaborate and work together as teachers from other districts,” said Daniel Mark, an Explorer STEM teacher at Brandywine Heights. “For me personally it’s helped me tie in the whole idea of computational thinking and start to introduce that into different areas of the classes that I teach. It gave me knowledge behind what computational thinking is and that it’s not just in computer science, but it’s in our everyday lives. So that’s very much helped me to be a better teacher and just talking with other teachers about what they’re doing has helped.”
Already implementing EPIC materials, Tana Koller, librarian at Perry Elementary, Hamburg Area School District, said EPIC gets teachers excited about incorporating STEM into their lessons.
“They’re everyday lessons, not just individual STEM lessons. It’s included in language arts, math and social studies. They’re already doing a lot of this stuff; they just don’t realize they’re doing it,” said Koller.
On Jan. 28, Perry Elementary students in Kindergarten through 5th grade participated in a Twisted Tunes game minilesson on Breakout EDU as part of a cross-curricular lesson with library, art, music and physical education to celebrate National Puzzles Day. The students had to figure out a color pattern to unlock the box to find Skittles inside. Koller enjoyed seeing the students’ excitement when they figured out the code and unlocked the box. While having fun, they learned algorithm and pattern and all of the computational thinking the master teachers have been working on in the program.
Oley Valley Elementary School STEM Integration teacher Jenn Hoffman said collaborating outside of their buildings and across school districts empowers teachers to lift each other and select from a vast array of best practices to meet the needs of students.
“The opportunity to network and collaborate with teachers from across the county and share our experiences integrating computational thinking and computer science with teachers is extremely valuable,” said Hoffman. “Each district crafts unique opportunities for our students to develop the skills and understandings that drive innovation.”
Hoffman believes that the most important benefit is the UPenn’s EXACT program challenges teachers to embrace experiences in advanced computational thinking and puts the teachers in the student seat.
“It is a rigorous program that often pushes us beyond our comfort zone and reminds us what it can be like to be a student in many of our classes,” said Hoffman. “It is a perspective we don’t often experience as we are leading and coaching students and colleagues in STEM education. Struggling to learn, reaching frustration and balancing our busy, involved adult lives with the expectations of this class helps us to be more mindful of the specific, various and consuming challenges our students experience every day.”
This program unifies teachers across Berks County.
“Managing this course with the Master Teacher group creates a community for us, and encourages us to recreate that sense of community for our students of all ages,” said Hoffman.
“It’s so much about supporting all of our schools and bringing them together,” said Dan Richards, BICU director of professional development and curriculum. “As a group at the IU, our main focus is bringing our schools together to best move things forward in instructional practices. I can’t think of a better way to do it than teachers helping teachers.”