About

About Berkshire Engage Studio:

  • What is Engage?

    • The overarching goal of Engage was to engage students in problem-based and project-based activities that integrated elements of science, educational technology, technology education, and language arts as well as the four main elements of the enGauge 21st Century Skills: Digital Age Literacy, Inventive Thinking, Effective Communication, and High Productivity.

  • The class here at Berkshire is a Semester long elective currently for 7th and 8th graders.

  • Q1 A guided series of units on a variety of topics to teach students the process involved with exploring a problem, creating a solution and pursuing the answer at an independent pace while documenting their progress to create new understanding for others. Current themes of units include but are not limited to:

    • STEM and construction challenges

    • Coding

    • Robotics

  • Q2 A series of self guided learning for students who select and design a project, are responsible for documenting their progress and creating content on their project to guide other students in the future of this class. Students become creators of content. A multitude of project ideas are entertained from Music to 3d printing and everything in between are offered for students to explore their passions.

    • Students will show their learning by creating portfolios on the class website, documentation and series of reflections ending with a presentation to our class.

About Mrs. Heckman

Mrs. Heckman is in her 8th year teaching Engage at BCS to third and fourth graders and Berkshire this year. She is beyond excited to deliver an exciting hands-on STEM experience to 7th and 8th graders. She is energetic, creative, and has been lovingly described as "if Betty Crocker has access to power tools" She loves coding and programming as much as she loves to DIY and create new things. Whether it's a homemade halloween costume or a screencast of her favorite game, she wants to see how it works, take it apart and make something new. She lives in Royal Oak with her husband, her young son, a dog, a cat and about 3,000 vinyl LP and EP records. In 2017, she won the grand prize of "Henry Ford Teacher Innovator" and is titled of the 10 most innovative teachers in the country by The Henry Ford. She also has been selected as an International Lego Master Educator in 2018- and 2019.

She believes that you are, what you create for this world. So get in there, get messy and take a risk to try something new.

DIY halloween with my son, Hank

I can't seem to pick just one hair color.

Our garage is like our mini-maker space at home

A brief history of our program

2018-19

June, 2018

  • Berkshire creates it's first Engage program and hires me, Jessica Heckman, arecent winner of the Henry Ford Innovation Teacher Innovator award and Lego Master Educator. I am a self-proclaimed STEMinist and excited to develop Berkshire's blossoming maker community. My favorite things to make are relationships, and what she enjoys building are community and inquiry. I am crafting and hacking lesson plans that will get students excited about defining themselves by what they create for the world ahead.

2019-20

Feb, 2020

  • Engage goes online into Pandemic mode. Bananas are breaded and skateboard ramps are built in people's driveways. The ultimate survival mode of DIY maker culture is born for our Engage classes.

Fall 2020

  • Weird hybrid schedules abound, chaos ensues and the kids are online, then they arent. Five schedules later I get kids in my classroom and a whole lot of plexi-glass. Still, we rise. At home, online, together, in breakout rooms, on zoom, behind glass. We still keep creating. This was a survival year for all of us and I hold space for kinships created and grieve over what was lost at school that year.

2021-22

Fall 2021

  • A return to more traditional learning respawns and while we are masked, we are smiling. Staying safe and soaking up joy that we may have missed of just being together and working together. Creativity abounds and Engage is refined and redefined. Creative communications and creative strategies electives are picked up and added to our offerings.

Spring 2022

  • Lots of incredible projects turning out in the Engage house. New learning abounds and a much loved VEX IQ robot battles happen. We make it to summer!

Want to know more about making, innovating and why it's essential for kids? Here are a ton of resources to explore: