Feedback from Participants

Anne Watson: This professional development was some of the most interesting, engaging, and valuable professional development I've done in my career as a teacher. It filled in gaps in my knowledge about physical computing as I don't have a degree in electrical engineering. I would recommend this professional development to any teacher looking to expand their understanding of how computers work and wants to engage their kids in hands-on activities.

Russ La Mantia: The whole experience was amazing. It is always nice to meet colleagues who work in the same field but different schools. The activities were really great. I think that having the students use their phones to do something productive that does not involve social media can be really beneficial. I hope to take many of these activities back to school with me. Thanks again for putting this together.

Conor: This program was one of the most rewarding professional development opportunities that I have been a part of. Tian, his colleagues and students were extremely well-prepared for this workshop. All of the activities were well thought-out and organized. I learned a lot! The fact that we got to keep all of the materials that we worked with will allow me to continue to figure things out and adapt the content for my students. All of the people involved were very welcoming and generous in sharing their facilities and expertise. The food was fantastic. I would definitely return if the program ran again and will spread the word to other K-12 teachers. Thanks to all of you again.

Eli Rosenberg: Engineering & Design Instructor, Main Street Middle School Innovation Lab. This has been one of the absolute best weeks of professional development I've had in my 25 years of Science and Technology teaching. The instructors -- Professors and Grad Students -- were deeply motivated to help us both understand and use the smorgasbord of skills and knowledge on offer. And what an array! The skills we used -- from arduino coding to soldering to circuit design -- all directly apply to my teaching context, and as a result of this workshop, the depth and breath of my science and engineering instruction has dramatically increased. And, in addition, I made a range of valuable professional contacts as a result of this week: colleagues in positions like mine; potential summer-camp co-directors (yep, Anne and I are going to start a circuits summer camp next year: thank you!!); and of course UVM faculty and students willing to make a trek to visit my students. The food, facilities, and materials were absolutely top-notch. By including a large number of take-away items, you increase the likelihood of implementation in classrooms; thank you for this! I am deeply interested in continuing this workshop in the future. If it were possible to set it up as a one-week UVM Continuing Education course or other workshop, I would be able to use my contract's professional development funding: most public school contracts give teachers the equivalent of 6 UVM credits per year. Please keep in touch with me if I can be of any service in preparing a class.

Dan Arensmeyer: The week was nothing short of amazing - one of the most learning and fun- dense weeks ever! I would offer, though, that the soldering activity was a bit frustrating. The tiny features on the board combined with old eyes and a little shake in the hands made success pretty unlikely. I think a simpler design with fewer (and larger connections), a “practice board” to get the hang of soldering, tip-tinner and cleaner, and a stand that holds the board, provides directed light, and magnification would make the activity much more accessible to students of varying physical abilities. Thanks for putting me on the list and keep me in the loop for future, similar events. I’d be willing to help too, if you need it!

Jessica Handrik: I would rate my experience at the UVM SPARK in Microelectronics program as excellent and outstanding. This professional learning opportunity will have a real impact on my work next year, both as a work-based learning coordinator responsible to knowing about and exposing students to STEM careers and as the founding co-coach of Winooski High School's robotics team. The materials were high quality and real-world, the instruction was an effective mix of lecture style and coaching style and 1:1 support from other students in the department was invaluable. All of this made the content accessible and exciting. I appreciate that once the organizers knew that they would have space left (and that all science teachers had been contacted and all who were available had signed up) that they were inclusive of a person in my particular role. Given the goals of the program, I do think that I will be able to advance the goals, i.e. making sure Vermont students know about Microelectronics as a career pathway and UVM as an excellent part of that pathway. I think that a one-day "survey" version of this day for Work-based Learning coordinators would advance the mission of increasing awareness of career pathways in STEM -- and microelectronics specifically. I also think that a set of experiences that includes visits to Global Foundries, to UVM, etc. so that students can see the academic and industry contexts. It is clear that an enormous amount of care and preparation went into this week and I am very grateful to have been a part of it. It reconnected me with what it is like to step out of my comfort zone as a student and I am leaving with truly applicable new skills, learning, and materials to impact our after school program, which is both a STEM Career Discovery Club and a Robotics Team (Dr. Luis Duffault is one of our mentors, an engineer from Global is also a mentor and a science teacher is my co-coach). Thank you for an incredible week!

Philip Gervais: This was a fantastic opportunity to experience the inner working of an electronics program at UVM. All of the instructors, assistants, and staff were top notch and incredibly patient. We went through an amazing amount of technical theory and put it to work with well crafted hands-on projects. The projects were challenging enough to keep us focused and introduced many real world teaching use cases. UVM was very welcoming, making us feel at home, providing all the support we needed. I look forward to the continued educational partnership and the potential to help expand this resource. Thank you.

Phil Surks: This was a fantastic workshop with lots of amazing new learning for me. It far exceeded my expectations for content, preparedness, and support. The equipment that we got to keep and share back at school and the stipend were also great. I would highly recommend this workshop to anyone interested in STEM. I would also advise them to strap in for a busy week and to prepare to be challenged. Thank you!

Jennifer Harper: As a 4th grade teacher with 33 years of classroom experience, this was my first time ever exploring microelectronics—and to be honest, it felt overwhelming at first. Being in a room with high school teachers who had been teaching this content for years brought on a lot of anxiety that took me a full day to work through. But thanks to the patient, knowledgeable UVM professors and the incredibly supportive student mentors, I found my footing and began to genuinely enjoy the learning process.

The way the UVM team structured the week-long learning institute was truly top-notch. Each day thoughtfully built on the previous one, starting with the absolute basics of microelectronics. From understanding breadboards and basic circuits, to coding, soldering, robotics, and even lithography, the progression made the content accessible and empowering. It was hands-on, engaging, and expertly scaffolded to meet participants where they were—whether total beginners like me or more experienced educators.

What struck me most is just how vital this field of science is. Microelectronics is everywhere in our modern world, yet students often don’t encounter it until much later in their education. This experience has reinforced for me the importance of introducing STEM—and specifically topics like electronics and coding—early in elementary school. By doing so, we build a foundation for curiosity, confidence, and future career interest in high-demand STEM fields.

Another added bonus of this program was the connections I made throughout the week. Building a network of like-minded educators—people I can now tap into for resources, guidance, and support—was invaluable. As someone who teaches in a very small, rural school in Southern Vermont, access to this level of professional development is rare. These new connections, along with the content I learned, will fundamentally change how I teach science and the types of opportunities I can now create for my students, especially as I transition this year to teaching 6th grade.

I’m incredibly grateful for this week-long, fully hands-on learning experience. The opportunity to immerse myself in such a thoughtfully designed program—and then walk away not only with a deeper understanding of microelectronics, but also with a box full of equipment to use in my own classroom—is unlike any professional development I’ve ever experienced. Thank you to the entire UVM SPARK team for creating an experience that was meaningful, empowering, and truly unforgettable. 

Casey Kelsey:

I loved this PD! Best PD I have ever done.

Day 1

it was really fun to play around with the two analog circuits and see how adding/moving around components (capacitors) could improve the sound quality of the microphone. It got me thinking about how I could stress the fun of experimenting with components and the electrical engineering side of troubleshooting (usually when we try to make a project better my students are messing around with the code!)

For me using the circuit diagram was the right level of challenge. To make this activity more accessible for folks who don't have much experience reading circuit diagrams, having a visual schematic of the components on a breadboard would provide more scaffolding. You could offer the circuit diagram as the challenge level and the visual schematic as the intro level.

Day 2

Loved this day! One suggestion for improvement is give people the code prewritten. Focus the typing/notes on annotating the code instead of people writing the code themselves.

Day 3

My favorite day - using easyEDA was so fun and totally new for me. It is very easy to use and very powerful! BUT something that you should know is that we are held to tight privacy standards for sharing student data (FERPA) When I asked the tech department at my school to check easyEDA for use it did not meet FERPA privacy requirements so I can not use it with students.

Do you have any other websites that you can recommend that do the same thing?

lithography was also fun and interesting - I had no idea how chips were made and the lesson with sun prints was interactive and very clear!

Day 4

Soldering was really engaging and hard! I had done it before and I still struggled with my project. It was fun doing it once and learning that it would be a lot easier if I thought in advance about the order in which I should add the components to the board. Idea for next year is have a smaller board that is a "learning" to solder circuit (maybe only an LED, resistor, button and header pins for battery jumper wire?)

The afternoon polishing circuits in and looking at them in the lab was also very fun and interesting - an activity that I could directly do with my high school students.

Day 5

I liked the Bluetooth communication project a lot. It was again something I could take back and use with my students.

The robotic cars were really engaging and fun to build but I am not sure that I could use this activity in my classroom. The elegoo cars are pretty expensive and the app that we used to control them did not meet the FERPA rules so I couldn't use it with students. I liked the activity myself but I would have to think pretty creatively to adapt the lessons from this session to use it at my school.