(soft upbeat music) - Peace everybody!
Welcome to What's New in EDU live from ISTE.
I'm Tony, and I'm excited to be here in Philadelphia
and back with all of you tuning in from around the world.
Today we're focusing on student-centered learning.
And we have a lot of updates and tools
that'll help equip teachers just like you.
Student-centered learning is about seeing,
caring for and treating your students
like whole human beings not just data points or numbers.
It's about providing an environment where they feel safe
and valued and meeting their needs at their core.
We're gonna show you how Microsoft can help you with that.
But first, we're gonna hear about an exciting partnership
between Microsoft EDU and NASA.
Let's head over to Karon for more.
- Hey, this is Karon from Hacking STEM.
I'm here with my partner from NASA STEM on Station, Becky.
And we're here to announce two big, exciting STEM
announcements here from Microsoft.
The first is, Microsoft Education has partnered
with the NASA STEM On Station team
to bring you eight new lesson plans.
Let's go take a look at some of those lesson plans.
Hey so we're at this first station
which is analyzing the astronauts' photos of the Earth
to predict climate change.
And one of the most interesting things that happens
I hear is that the astronauts spend a lot of time
looking out the window.
- They do, they love to look out the window
and take pictures of Earth and what's super cool
is that they can actually tell where they are
over Earth by seeing what color they see on the ground.
They use a lot of those images to study
what's going on with Earth and actually make predictions
about what's happening to our climate.
- So, this lesson plan looks at helping students unpack
how they could actually make those predictions.
And the first thing they have to do is understand
how computers see color.
Which is through a hexadecimal system.
What is that?
- So it's a Base16 system
and so when you do computer code a lot of times you'll see
a mixture of letters and numbers and that's actually
how the computer knows what color to display.
- So when they start to understand how to do that
they now have to understand about the biomes.
And so they spend some time really understanding
where are those biomes are
and how temperature and precipitation impact them.
And through a series of exercises
they go through, build some charts on those precipitations
and end up being able to map them to each biome.
- They can look at the colors of the biomes
throughout the year and kind of see what changes
happen during the different seasons.
- The hope is, is that the students now can see
how computers are being used
to do that climate change prediction.
- Right. - Let's go take a look
at another one of our lesson plans!
- Sounds good.
- Hey, Brew!
I'm here with my friend Brewster
and he's gonna here tell me a little bit
about the lesson plan.
What do we have, here?
- All right, so today we are looking
at the spectrometer and what it can measure
and the different types of light.
We have RGB, we have IR and we have UV light.
All these different types of light do different things.
- So the students build this spectrometer, right?
- Yes. - And then they take
this spectrometer and they put them underneath these lights
to measure the amount of visible or invisible light
that you can see? - Yes, definitely.
So if you put this under the light it'll give you
a live reaction of what's actually happening here.
- So this one is an infrared light.
- Yes. - So what are we seeing go up?
- We are seeing a lot of infrared,
a little bit of red and green,
and a ton of blue and not much UV.
- And if I were to take this and move this
into another light spectrum I would get
a different reading, right? - Yes, you would definitely
get a different reading.
- Now, I have these very fancy
UV sensitive beads on. - Yes.
- If I put these under a light they should turn color
if there's UV in there, right?
- UV or IR, yes.
- Okay, so I'm gonna put this under a regular LED light
and what's gonna happen?
- It should not change color whatsoever.
- And sure enough, we are correct.
No color.
But if I put this under, now, a IR light--
- Yes, it should change color.
- [Karon] So, I'll put them under for a second--
- [Brewster] It might take a little bit
but it should take a little.
- There's some color in there.
Now let's go put this under a UV light.
- Yeah, I'm sure it'll go.
- You think? - Yeah.
- All right. - Ready?
- Turn it on, one, two, three.
Sure enough, a lot of color.
Hey, thank you very much Brew!
Hey Mark! - How you doin'?
- So the second big announcement we have
is Hacking STEM has partnered with Carolina Biological
to produce kits for, designed for Hacking STEM.
These are gonna be available soon, right?
- Yeah, soon it's gonna have everything
that the teacher needs to be able to implement
these projects in their classrooms.
- So there are four of them, right?
- Yes. - The brain gong,
the robotic hand, the earthquake unit
and the little lemon battery. - That's it!
- And those will be available to be ordered
in a couple of weeks?
- Couple weeks with the Carolina site.
They can go to Hacking STEM site,
click on the Carolina button, order away.
- And they'll be there back in time for back to school!
- [Mark] Absolutely.
- This is awesome news, thanks so much!
So this lesson plan's about astro-socks.
And students design ways to mitigate
the pressure astronauts feel on their feet
while working in microgravity.
What's the problem there, Becky?
- So it's a real problem because astronauts
use the tops of their feet to hold themselves steady
while they're working on the Space Station,
so the calices we get on the bottoms of our feet
here on Earth move to the tops of their feet on space.
- So this is an amazing designing challenge that really
looks at life on ISS. - It does.
- Also, we have a Minecraft lesson plan
where students build modules of the ISS.
Speaking of Minecraft, let's go talk to Nick and Sara
on the Minecraft for Education team.
- This fall, Minecraft Education Edition
will be releasing a back-to-school update
to improve the classroom experience.
We've heard so many inspiring stories
from educators using Minecraft Education Edition
to meet students where they are.
And this new set of features will help teachers
meet the needs of all learners.
As Mike mentioned in the last episode
of What's New in EDU we're bringing immersive reader
to Minecraft Education Edition.
Reading in-game text will be way easier now.
This includes NPC dialogue, game settings and chalkboards.
We even added Minecraft specific images
to the picture dictionary.
Because not everyone knows what a mooshroom is, okay?
We're adding shareable access codes for multiplayer
for better world control, single sign-on
for a simpler, faster login experience.
And improved assessment tools so students can export
their work in more formats.
For those new to Minecraft Education Edition
we're freshening up our training programs
and tutorials for this back-to-school also.
We'll have more online PD available,
updated tutorial worlds in-game
and a first lesson kit to help new teachers get started.
Lastly, here's Nick, one of our awesome Minecraft mentors,
here to make one more exciting announcement.
- Hi, I'm Nicholas Provenzano, I'm a MakerSpace Director
at University of Liggett School.
I'm also a Minecraft innovative educator.
I'm super excited about a new science curriculum
coming from Minecraft.
Minecraft Education Edition
partnered with the World Wildlife Fund
on a new biodiversity curriculum in Minecraft world.
Probably the coolest one yet.
Tour from the Ice Age to the present day
on a time traveling rollercoaster,
learning about what causes species to go extinct
and ways we can preserve biodiversity.
With content aligned to NGSS standards,
this lesson pack provides a meaningful and immersive way
to engage students in science learning.
Coming soon to Minecraft Education Edition.
Now to Kelly and Steve, who have exciting news
about Skype in the classroom.
- Hello everyone, Steve Auslander here,
fifth grade teacher from Indianapolis, Indiana.
- And I'm Kelly Anderson, Major Partnerships Manager
for Skype in the Classroom.
We are so excited to share with you the latest and greatest
from the amazing world of Skype in the Classroom.
So let's get started, Steve?
- June is Ocean's Month for Skype in the Classroom.
And you can deep dive with experts
into the importance of the oceans
to raise students' awareness about marine conservation.
Explore a collection of ocean-related activities
and resources for you and your students right here.
And register for one today.
On top of that, Skype released an ocean-related
collection of emoticons.
Use them before, during,
or after your Skype in the Classroom sessions
to spread some fun when connecting
with experts or other classrooms.
Additionally, an amazing new partnership
with Worldwide Wildlife Fund and lots of virtual field trips
and lessons for you to explore
from polar explorers and scientists,
to taking a virtual tour in their headquarters.
How cool is this?
So if your students are still in school
and not on summer or school break,
don't miss this opportunity.
Register for one of these activities today.
- And, as we announced earlier today, here at ISTE,
Skype in the Classroom is releasing
a new website experience for you this fall.
Thanks to the feedback and insights
from our amazing community of global learners
together we have developed a new platform
that addresses the growing needs
of our educators and partners.
The new website will offer easy navigation and search
to find the specific activities for you and your students.
Through a new keyword search bar on the homepage
and filters you can easily narrow down your activities
by the type of lessons, subject,
age, day and time and duration.
And once you've confirmed an activity
with a click of a button you'll be able to join
your Skype calls and connect with experts
and classrooms with just one easy join link.
And coming soon, we will integrate Microsoft teams
into these global learning experiences
allowing you to connect via Skype or Teams.
Let's send it over to Mark now.
- G'day everyone, from ISTE Philadelphia.
Mixed reality, what's the buzz?
From immersing ourselves in digitally-created worlds
to enhancing our physical worlds
mixed reality is a spectrum that includes
all these possibilities.
Tech Trends Editor in Chief, Alice Bonasio,
recently collaborated with our Microsoft Education Team
to craft a white paper
on immersive experiences in education.
You can download the white paper,
Mixed Reality: New Places and Spaces for Learning.
(upbeat music)
- Okay, all that, and this is just day one.
Make sure you stay with us tomorrow
for the Hack the Classroom event
and then Wednesday for another episode of What's New in EDU.