These are discussion sessions that aim to bring together experts on a topic, which they will discuss during the session and will have a longer and more interactive discussion with the audience.
Workshops are subject focused sessions that provide participants the opportunity to gain knowledge and learn skills together. This can range from professional development topics, such as teaching strategies, to timely theoretical topics.
A formal, speaker-led session where an expert or group of experts present on a specific topic related to the maker mindset. This session is designed for attendees to gain new information, insights, or perspectives on a focused area, typically including slides, data, or case studies. Audience interaction is limited to Q&A at the end, allowing for in-depth exploration of the presented material.
Interactive sessions led by a facilitator where participants share ideas, experiences, and challenges around a focused topic. The facilitator guides the conversation, encourages diverse perspectives, and helps the group generate practical insights and takeaways
2026 Sessions Include:
Session Title: Make it Clean: Soap Creation, Box Engineering, and Marketing
Presenter: Yvonne Richard & Casey Holbrook
Session Format: Workshop
Description: Have you ever wanted to make soap? Can you engineer a box for transporting soap? Can you design a logo for your very own soap company? During this session, participants will experience Glo-Germ and discuss integrating the health standards into the regular classroom. Participants will then use simple materials to make soap (that will be able to take home with them by the end of the day). Participants will also create a box for soap transportation and marketing. If time allows, participants will create a business logo for their new soap company. Find out how to tie these activities to Standards of Learning.
Session Title: Integrating Literacy with Ozobots
Presenters: Dr. Laura Goll
Session Format: Workshop
Description: This is a practical, hands-on workshop where participants will experience simple ways ozobots can increase literacy motivation and engagement while making learning come to life. Participants will leave with ready-to-use resources.
Session Title: STEMify
Presenters: Lisa Lewis & Dr. George Meadows
Session Format: Workshop
Description: Learn practical, easy to implement strategies to integrate decomposition, abstraction and algorithms in all subjects. Make problem solving engaging while building essential 21st century skills.
Session Title: Hands-On, Minds-On: High-Impact Math Strategies
Presenters: BensonVoss - Amber Benson & Ruby Voss
Session Format: Workshop
Description: Bring Virginia’s five math process goals to life in this interactive session with BensonVoss. Explore engaging routines, language-rich strategies, stations, and real-world tasks that foster problem-solving, reasoning, communication, and connections. Leave with classroom-tested strategies and ready-to-use ideas to boost grades 6–12 learners’ ownership of mathematical thinking.
Session Title: Let's Get Graphic: The Value of Integrating Visual Representations as a Form of Content Assessment
Presenter: Dr. Courtneay Kelly
Session Format: Traditional Presentation
Description: Today's students face a myriad of assessments each year. Often, these assessments are designed by districts and/or states, which do not allow for teachers' ability to modify them. This session will focus on the assessments that teachers design for their students, and will review the process of and integration of alternative assessments , focusing specifically on visual representations of taught content.
Session Title: Fail-a-bration!
Presenters: Casey Clark, Stephanie McKeever & Heather Eland
Session Format: Traditional Presentation
Description: A Fail-a-Bration is a joyful gathering that honors our failures and transforms our mistakes into a source of learning and deeper connection. Hartwood's STEAM team will share how they collaborated to design a schoolwide event to develop perseverance and build teacher and learner agency through STEAM and Arts Integration.
Session Title: Building Thinkers: Essential Strategies for New Teachers
Presenters: Taylor Mackey & Jordan Shearer
Session Format: Traditional Presentation
Description: New teachers, or teachers new to implementing STEAM activities, will explore strategies for fostering thinking and problem solving skills in the classroom through STEAM activities. Participants will learn effective ways to introduce materials, manage student engagement and inquiry, and create an environment focused on purposeful creation rather than chaos. While this session is designed with grades K–2 in mind, educators of all grade levels are welcome to attend.
Session Title: Mathematics PBL Panel Discussion
Presenter: Lily Cleary & Diane Wagnon
Session Format: Panel
Description: Participants will collaborate to explore effective strategies for planning and integrating project-based learning (PBL) within the mathematics curriculum. The session will also address challenges specific to skill-focused classes and highlight how to apply the seven essential design elements and teacher practices that define Gold Standard PBL.
Session Title: Excellence Unleashed: Pocket Tech Meets Robotics
Presenters: Eileen Malick
Session Format: Workshop
Description: Discover how pocket-sized AI tech and robotics ignite future-ready STEM learning in this hands-on, creativity-fueled Maker Mindset session.
Session Title: The Storyline Approach to STEM Education
Presenters: Marie Schuh
Session Format: Workshop
Description: Move beyond disconnected topics and become a science storyteller! This workshop teaches the "storyline" approach, where a real-world phenomenon drives an entire unit of study. Learn to design engaging and differentiated learning journeys where students act as investigators, fostering deep understanding and sense-making.
Session Title: Decision Making as Learning: Designing Lessons With Choices That Matter
Presenters: Kevin Johnson
Session Format: Workshop
Description: Single class decision-making activities have had my students reflect on the choices they made to get where they ended up. The most effective sessions involved students making decisions that could result in success or failure. In this workshop, I will go over the steps and strategies in planning a good lesson so it stays focused on the learning objective while also challenging the student to succeed, survive, or beat the game.
Session Title: From Data to Daylight - Examining needs for Solar Energy
Presenters: Leslie Lausten
Session Format: Workshop
Description: How can we turn raw data about energy into meaningful insights for our future? In this interactive session, participants will explore the role of solar energy in meeting human needs while making sense of real-world data and community perspectives. Using sensemaking strategies, we will analyze how solar power is captured, converted, and applied to everyday life, and consider the benefits and challenges of expanding solar use in Virginia and beyond.
Session Title: Creating a Maker Mindset in Your School Community: Unlock Creativity and Embrace Opportunities to Resolve Relevant Problems
Presenters: Dr. Troy Wright
Session Format: Facilitated Discussion
Description: The purpose of this session is to share proven strategies from teachers and administrators on creating a maker mindset by centering the work of the stakeholder groups around real and relevant problems.
Session Title: Beyond the Build: Exploring the Language of Creative 3D Design
Presenters: Nathan Sekinger
Session Format: Workshop
Description: "Go ""Beyond the Build"" by exploring the language of design and powerful maker tools. Participants will use beginner projects in Tinkercad and Canva to prototype with laser cutters and 3D printers. Discover how iterative design empowers students to develop agency, demonstrate creative problem-solving, master vocabulary and foster discovery.
Session Title: Vibe-Coding with AI: Creative Problem-Solving Beyond Code
Presenters: Dr. Anand Rao
Session Format: Workshop
Description: This hands-on workshop introduces vibe-coding, an AI-powered no-code approach that empowers students to design creative solutions to social and market challenges. Participants will explore accessible AI tools, collaborate in group projects, and discover cross-disciplinary ways to bring computational thinking and real-world problem-solving into any.
Session Title: From Knowledge to Application: Making Learning Stick with Real-World Connections
Presenters: J. Andrew Ewing
Session Format: Traditional Presentation
Description: Abstraction is a powerful learning tool as it enables us to see patterns and connections that are otherwise lost in superficial differences. However, when the connection between the object and its representation is lost, any learning is ultimately meaningless and any knowledge obtained is useless.
Session Title: Decisions in Action: Empowering Young Minds during Design Challenges
Presenters: Elizabeth Larson
Session Format: Workshop
Description: Discover how young learners make decisions during design challenges, based on doctoral research. Engage in a hands-on activity, experience the decision-making process firsthand, and walk away with creative lesson ideas to inspire critical thinking and problem-solving in your own students.
Session Title: “The Power of Simple Science: Deep Learning Made Easy”
Presenters: Georgette Willis
Session Format: Workshop
Description: Simple science can lead to big thinking! In this session, you’ll learn how to stretch everyday activities into meaningful discoveries that engage curiosity and build deeper scientific understanding for elementary learners.