Bio

Merredith earned both a BS in Mechanical Engineering and BA in English from Tufts University in 1998. Merredith also received her MA in Education from Tufts University in 1999. She completed her Ph.D. in Engineering Education in 2010. Merredith is the Director of the Center for Engineering Education And Outreach (CEEO).

As a researcher, her goal is to improve engineering education by supporting the development of curriculum and the practice of teaching through research that focuses on how students engage in engineering design projects and how they develop skills and understanding related to the engineering design process.

Bio

Ole Kjær Thomasen is a part of the Learning Systems Advisory Team at the LEGO Foundation. Ole specializes in how children explore and learn through playing with technologies and has a specific professional interest in the intersection of digital construction and design thinking as a means for children to develop holistic skills.

"I dedicate myself to empowering children worldwide by enabling them to reflect on how technology influences their lives and become creative lifelong learners by creating and constructing digital technologies."

Ole is a teacher by training and has worked on integrating creativity, innovation, and digital technology literacy into Danish classrooms for the last 15 years. He has been working with the Danish Ministry of Education on developing the emerging technology literacy curriculum.

"I am the proud father of three playful kids that serves as a daily inspiration and aspiration on what learning through play looks like – both when we play music and dance or build LEGO, Minecraft, or Scratch universes together."

Bio

• Chris Rogers is a professor of Mechanical Engineering. His current research work falls into four areas: (1) manufacture of musical instruments (Steinway and Sons and Conn-Selmer), (2) engineering education (LEGO Education, LEGO Foundation, PTC, Kodosky Foundation and the NSF), (3) educational robotics (LEGO, NSF, National Instruments), and (4) education outreach (LEGO Foundation, LLL Foundation). The first is mainly aimed at optimizing existing manufacturing processes and the other three look at ways of understanding how students think and then using that knowledge to develop new educational technologies and work with teachers and schools in the use of these technologies.

• As a founding member of the Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach, Rogers' additional work falls into four parts: (1) education research, (2) tool development, (3) outreach, and (4) teacher professional development. Through the Center, CEEO works with thousands of teachers every year as part of the LEGO engineering conference circuit and the LEGOEngineering.com website. CEEO collaborates with a dozen universities and industries in developing volunteer programs to assist teachers in bringing engineering into the classroom. CEEO also develops tools (LEGO-based and around movie making) to increase opportunities for kids. Finally, CEEO combine this work with education research to inform development and outreach strategies.

Workshop Title: SillyWalks-LEGO Robotics

Workshop Description

• Play with MINDSTORMS Robots (No coding required)

• Reflect on engineering learning

Bio

Sameer is a researcher and learning resource designer at Karkhana Samuha. He has worked extensively in designing hands-on learning resources and workshops related to STEAM and digital literacy. His interest lies in designing meaningful learning experiences for students from elementary school to undergraduate level to help them better explore and understand the world around.

He has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University, Karnataka, India.

Workshop Title : Exploring Science through Simulations

Workshop Description

Participants will play with online simulation tools and will learn how to use them to inculcate scientific thinking in students. The workshop is targeted towards science teachers at school level.

Bio

Rashi has been working in the education field since 2014. She has had the opportunity of working with Shanti Waldorf school, Indreni Bal Batika school, Premier International IB World School, and was working as a BeeCreative teacher at Karkhana and Currently working as Karkhana Science Implementation Lead at Karkhana. She loves teaching and working with young minds.

Workshop Title : Making Science Fun

Workshop Description

Participants will be using different everyday materials that can be easily available at home to teach science effectively.

Bio

• Prasanth Nori is the Outreach and Engagement Manager for Scratch Foundation. He has a rich background in research and implementation of playful learning. He has worked and published research at the MIT Playful Journey Lab. He co-founded Upepo, a playful learning start-up that won the Harvard Innovative Ventures in Education award. He has shared his work in leading platforms like TEDx, Harvard EdTalks, Harvard Ed Magazine and more.

• Prasanth is a graduate of the Technology, Innovation and Education Masters Program at Harvard. He is also a Rajeev Circle Fellow, Mumbai Heroes Awardee and Teach For India Alumnus

Workshop Title : Bring your culture to Scratch

Workshop Description

As Scratch is rapidly growing across the world, we want our users to feel culturally represented in our library of sprites, backgrounds and other digital assets. In this workshop, participants will be introduced to the playful world of scratch and then dive deep into creating their own custom backpacks, thus enriching their scratch projects with the diversity, beauty and joy of their culture.

Bio

Shreejana Maharjan is currently doing master’s in Mathematics Education from Kathmandu University, School of Education. She is currently engaged in Adhyayan School, Samakhusi. She teaches Hamro Serophero and English in grade 3.

She feels being a part of PEBL project from the beginning has been a learning platform. She believes the sharing, discussions, and insights from the TeaCop sessions are the most valuable asset that she always seeks to grab.

Though she could not implement idea of Play right away in her classrooms, she is very thankful and delighted to carry the sessions in Panchakanya Secondary School. And she hopes to be a part of this project till the end.

About Experience Sharing Presentation:

Shreejana will be sharing experience on Playful Engineering Based Learning

Bio

Rupa Manandhar is the principal of Panchakanya Secondary School. She has an experience of teaching Science for over 30 years. She is also an author and translator of 8 Science fact books for children. She is a member of STAN (Science Teachers Association Nepal, 2011) and NASO (Nepal Astronomical Society, 2018) the regional training course for teachers to introduce nuclear Science in secondary schools through innovative approaches by the IAEA.

About Experience Sharing Presentation:

Rupa will be sharing experience on Playful Engineering Based Learning

Bio

Tilak Raj Chundali is an educator at High New Vision Academy, Kathmandu since the last 13 years. He has completed an MA degree from Tribhuvan University.

He teaches Social Studies and Science for 12-16 year old students. He has participated in trainings and workshops that enhance pedagogy and soft skills.

Besides that, Tilak loves literature, technology, learning new things, and being involved in social work. All his efforts are dedicated to improve knowledge, skill, socialization, and human value of students.

About Experience Sharing Presentation:

Tilak will be sharing experience on Playful Engineering Based Learning

Bio

Sunoj is an engineer turned educator, trying to re-engineer the way teaching and learning is happening.

As the Head Teacher and one of the co-founders of Karkhana (from 2013 till now, www.karkhana.asia), he is also the founding member and former president of the Robotics Association of Nepal (www.ran.org.np).

Sunoj has been working in content designing and teacher training for the past 10 years. Currently, he is directly working with 84 science teachers in 31 schools using the Karkhana Science kit reaching 5000+ students.

About experience sharing session

Lessons learned from Karkhana Science implementation

• Participants will get to see the science kit

• Understand the pedagogy

• Watch video on how it’s been used in classroom

• Know about challenges and opportunities

About Experience Sharing Presentation:

Sunoj will be sharing experience on Hands-on Karkhana Science

Bio

Sabina Maharjan is a Science teacher at High New Vision Academy and a lecturer on Finance at Kathmandu Shiksha Campus. She completed her Master's degree from Tribhuvan University and wanted to become a teacher because she felt that teachers teach all the other professions. She believes that a good teacher can inspire hope, spark imagination, and develop the joy of learning.

Beside that, Sabina has also secured the first runner-up position in Mrs Nepal Elegance 2018, and is interested in various personal development events.

About Experience Sharing Presentation:

Sabina will be sharing experience on Playful Engineering Based Learning

Bio

Rupesh Bhattarai is a writer and educator based in Kathmandu. Rupesh is interested in fostering critical thinking skills in students using tools of STEAM education and literary arts. Rupesh is also a spoken word poet who has participated and won in several national and international level poetry slams. His works have been published on various Nepali and international media platforms.

About Sikaru Learning Expeditions:

As schools all over the country turn their focus on integrated learning and acknowledge the potential of experiential learning, Sikaru hopes to immerse students in the natural world with learning modules that extend across disciplines and cover various aspects of the school curriculum.

Sikaru Learning Expeditions are a series of lessons designed with the intention of creating meaningful learning experiences with middle school students outside of their regular school halls. Revolving around deeper concepts of various branches of the natural sciences, and incorporating elements of STEAM education, we aspire that these lessons will help students in several major ways.

• With the help of technological tools, students learn more about the flora and fauna, the earth, the laws of nature, and the energies.

• In an authentic environment, the students develop genuine solutions to engineering problems and also reflect on the sustainability and environmental impact of their solutions.

• The students practice citizen science skills by making contributions to scientific study and research.

About Experience Sharing Presentation:

Rupesh will be sharing experience on Outdoor Learning

Bio

Anuradha (Anu) Shrestha is an educator cum instructional designer. She has spent the last five years designing STEM-based educational programs and activity-based instructional activities. Apart from teaching science to middle school students in Kathmandu she is currently working collaboratively with her passionate friends at Sikaru Learning Expedition whose objective is to integrate outdoor learning experience revolving around deeper concepts of various branches of the natural sciences into teaching and learning.

About Experience Sharing Presentation:

Anu will be sharing experience on Outdoor Learning

Bio

Prokshani Ghimire has completed her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Tri-Chandra Campus. Prokshani’s passion for making children happy is what drives her to lead a project that is impacting over 1500 children every week. Working with her and seeing her play with children is always a treat and a chance to learn many. She has grown quite exponentially as a leader while working on this project. This is because it is not an easy feat to be able to handle operations in 12 schools while at the same time helping to impact more than 200 children every day.

About Experience Sharing Presentation:

• About FunPlayLearn project

• How kids are learning through funplay?

• Impact of the project on youth and community.