We are excited to announce the newest addition to our Northwest Ohio Steam Lab! Meet Indi the latest robot from Sphero. indi joins our lineup as a programmable robot that is so easy to use that a preschooler can use it!

The indi lab made its first visit to one of our schools in early November. Our first school to borrow the lab was North Central Local Elementary school in Williams County. 

I had been in contact with Pre-school & Pre-Kindergarten teacher Amanda Fellers who requested some team taught STEAM for her younger students. Originally we were going to take the Lego WeDo kits to her classroom. Thanks to Northern Buckeye and Northwest Ohio Educational Service Center, we were able to order the indi kits which had just become available.  read more

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Professional Development, two words that often have negative connotations amongst fellow educators. If you attend any PD sessions put on by your school district, there are generally two options; the PD you have to attend and the PD you actually want to attend.

At Northern Buckeye we have always tried to be innovative in our approach to the training we offer to our membership.  We want to be remembered by teachers as having provided them with training that was both useful and good enough that they would want to recommend it to their colleagues. read more

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Last week I was invited to tour Edgerton’s new STEAM Space by high school science teacher Tracy Rendleman who has with the assistance of the district administration and fellow science teachers Olivia Schaffner and Seth Schroeder, built a new learning space in the space formerly occupied by the library.

We started with a visit to her Biology class who were busy turning a pile of random lego bricks into something. These students are experiencing their introduction to form and function via STEAM  by trying to make something using their imagination. I asked the students if they liked playing with Legos again. There was a mixed response. One student noted that “I don’t know what to make. ” This highlighted for me the importance of trying these types of activities to re-engage the students using their imagination and to solve problems. read more

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