All Schools Day brings component districts together to share Video Conference courses from within and outside the region. CABOCES Distance Learning hosted a successful All Schools Day February 9th. Lead by the Distance Learning Coordinator Karen Insley counselors and administrators from nine districts met in person and over Zoom to offer and seek video conferring courses. Video Conferencing courses are live courses where students and teachers meet from different locations utilizing a video and audio connection. Exciting offerings for next school year include College Biology from Belfast, College Sports Management from Boliver-Richburg, College Calculus from GV, and a suite of Agricultural Business courses from our partners in the Erie 2 BOCES region.

You can learn which video conference courses are available for the next school year on the Distance Learning Database located on the CABOCES Distance Learning webpage. The guest username and password are distance.

By:  Justine Lombardi, CABOCES Learning Resources

On February 5th and 6th, CA BOCES’ Digital Star Lab visited Friendship Central School (FCS) providing students in pre-k through fifth grades a sampling of what the digital planetarium offers.  David Yochum, the middle/high school science teacher, arranged for the visit and offered four of his 10th grade students an opportunity to instruct an eighth-grade class on pertinent topics using this technology.

During my two days at FCS I was able to introduce students to an outer space view of planet earth, moon phases, constellations, nebulas, the milky way, and the planets in our solar system.  Each field trip ended with watching the sun rise from the surface of Mars.  Students were awed by the experience and demonstrated an increased awareness of our solar system as the planetarium allows for on-demand instruction regardless of temperature and time.
Collaboration with your school librarian is made easy when resources, like the following suggestions, are paired with lessons:

• Pre-school & Kindergarten: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown; Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle
• Kindergarten – 2nd Grades:  Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes; Sunshine Makes the Seasons by Franklyn Branley; Gravity by Jason Chin; The Big Dipper by Franklyn Branley and Molly Coxe; The Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons.
• 3rd -5th Grades: Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter; Zoo in the Sky: A Book of Animal Constellations by Jacqueline Mitton; Find the Constellations by H. A. Rey; They Dance in the Sky: Native American Star Myths by Ray A. Williamson.
• 6th Grade – 12th Grades: Heroes of the Night Sky: The Greek Myths Behind the Constellations by Tom Kindley; Space, Stars, and the Beginning of Time: What the Hubble Telescope Saw by Elaine Scott; Planet Hunter: Geoff Marcy and the Search for Other Earths by Vicki Oransky Wittenstein; Earthrise: My Adventures as an Apollo 14 Astronaut by Edgar Mitchell; The Dialogues: Conversations about the Nature of the Universe (Cartoon Book) by Clifford V. Johnson; The Cartoon Guide to Physics by Larry Gonick.

The StarLab may be reserved through the SNAP system at snap.caboces.org. 

​By:  Cece Fuoco, CABOCES Learning Resources

Check out this month's AdvancingSTEM Challenge!   

AdvancingSTEM Challenges are designed to bring engineering and design to your classroom in a simple, easy-to-implement, challenge-based way.  Modify our Advancing STEM Challenges for your classroom.  A new challenge is posted monthly.  

Post a photo of your students in action in our comment section or post a comment on how you modified the Challenge to work in your classroom.  ​

Welcome to digging a little deeper into the resources we have available to our component school districts in our warehouse.

This month’s spotlight is…..the GoPro! Why go amateur when you can go pro!
How can this be used in the classroom?

Here are a few examples:
A class in Pittsburg used the GoPro Hero3+ camera and chest mount so that they could film each of three amusement rides from the rider’s perspective. What made this project increase its learning value was that a student next to the camera was equipped with a smartphone and an app called Physics Toolbox that captured acceleration data during the ride. The video they submitted presented a multi-split screen that allows the viewer to experience the ride while watching real-time graphs of the measured accelerations. Students correlated the action in the video with the graphed accelerations and related these to the physics concepts involved in the ride, specifically Newton's Laws of Motion.
 
Or, most schools have a morning news segment performed or produced by students. GoPros can be used to add content comprised of student-made videos. Student created videos can create quite a bit of excitement for these news show and get even more students interested.

Or, CABOCES has been working with Houghton College and UB for our Writing with Video series. Composing with GoPros? Yeah! You can do that!

So what are you waiting for? Take a look at our warehouse and give GoPros a try!

By:  Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources

Last week District Superintendent Lynda Quick, Esq. learned that Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES has been awarded a grant for $466,686 from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The grant, known as the Rural Utility Service (RUS) Distance Learning grant, will be implemented by Cattaraugus Allegany BOCES and eleven area school districts to upgrade video conferencing equipment and other technologies.

The equipment upgrades will provide all three Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES Career and Technical Education (CTE) Centers, as well as Belfast, Bolivar-Richburg, Cuba-Rushford, Franklinville, Friendship, Genesee Valley, Hinsdale, Olean, Salamanca, Scio, and Wellsville Central School Districts, with new portable, high definition video conference capabilities that schools will use to provide students and teachers with a variety of distance learning opportunities including videoconference courses, virtual field trip experiences, and expanded access to nanotechnology capabilities.

This is not the first USDA RUS Distance Learning grant received by Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES and component school districts. The Distance Learning Team at CA BOCES has been applying for and receiving RUS grants since 1997, resulting in eight previous awards and millions of dollars in equipment for our schools.

“Over the years, USDA funding has built a virtual school in our region," stated Lynda Quick. Over forty virtual classes connect via video conference every single day, allowing schools to share the instructional expertise of their outstanding faculty members. Additionally, hundreds of students to take other online courses because of this funding. These virtual courses are critical in expanding offerings in small rural schools that, over time, have been stripped of the ability to offer many (or any) AP, college credit, or elective courses to their students.
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Lynda Quick also shared, "This award helps put a dent in leveling the playing field. It helps our students build a transcript that can be competitive in the post-secondary arena." Grant implementation will begin immediately.

In addition to the virtual field trips we offer, FieldTrip Zoom allows students the opportunities to visit faraway places and interact with experts in a particular field, museum, aquarium, etc.  FieldTrip Zoom offers both interactive and recorded opportunities for teachers to bring the world into their classroom.  This is in addition to the virtual field trips that we have traditionally offered.  Contact Karen Insley or Carrie Oliver to get more insight into this great offering.

To Access Fieldtrip Zoom:
Teachers create an account (using their school email) at fieldtripzoom.com, book a program that fits your schedule from the Zoom Zone calendar, and then you and your class can sit back and enjoy the trip! There is no need to fill out a request form for the Zoom Zone trips since you book them on the FieldTrip Zoom Zone calendar.

You can also connect anywhere with Zoom.  Each district in the Distance Learning COSER is given a Zoom Pro Account for use with administrators, faculty, and students.  Zoom allows multi-user video conferencing, small group conferencing, content sharing, and so much more!  Zoom is very user friendly and versatile.  How will you use it with your students?

Contact Karen Insley for training or suggestions for Zoom use within your district.

By:  Karen Insley, CA BOCES Learning Resources

The American Association of School Librarians recently released its updated National School Library Standards.  Concepts imbedded in the new standards include shared foundations, key commitments, domains, competencies, and alignments which strongly supports new standards in school curricula. Recently, district librarians came together to review the standards and participated in collaborative activities and developed activities for student engagement.

Collaboration occurs through different venues and a Zoom meeting was used to connect more than 50 librarians from CA BOCES and Eastern Suffolk BOCES.  Shared ideas for student engagement using library books included: Snowflake Bentley and making snowflakes, reinforcing the concept of symmetry, and a STEM challenge involving falling snowflakes; and Bill Nye’s Germ book, growing germs, identifying bacteria, and a STEM challenge involving germ fighting products. 

The Extraordinaire Design Pro kit was introduced for Maker Space ideas with some participants enthusiastically embracing the design challenge.  Also demonstrated was the use of Zome Tools for grades K-12 with ideas for ELA activities and STEM challenges. 
With Zoom’s increasing availability, participants were encouraged to consider its use in connecting students to learning beyond walls, buildings, and geographic locations.

​By:  Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources

Many teachers committed to the Writing with Video: Rural Voices Summer Institute over the past two summers and now attend quarterly reunions throughout the year in order to plan, collaborate, and write about the upcoming Southern Tier Annual Film Festival (S.T.A.F.F. Awards).

Teachers from the institute are invested in including digital audio and video assignments in their classrooms throughout the year in order to help students solidify their writing process through planning, pre-writing, and reflection. Students complete a variety of video projects including research, narrative, poetry, remix, vocabulary, and themes that they will then present to their classmates, publish, and screen to a larger audience.

Students who have created video projects across the region are invited to submit original films. The submission deadline is April 13, 2018. All student films will be judged by University at Buffalo graduate students in the education program.

Students whose films are chosen will have their films shown at the S.T.A.F.F. Awards which will be held at Cuba-Rushford Central School District this year on Friday, May 18th. Students will have a chance to see student-produced films from across the region, eat snacks, vote alongside the entire audience, and help choose a winning entry. The winning student or team will take home the traveling trophy to their school.

If you would like more information or would like your student to submit a video entry, please contact Christina McGee at christina_mcgee@caboces.org.
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By: Christina McGee, CA BOCES Learning Resources

This summer I played, and I learned simultaneously. I had the opportunity to attend the Writing with Video: Rural Voices Summer Institute with Dr. Sunshine Sullivan, associate professor of education at Houghton College, and Dr. David Bruce, associate professor of learning and instruction at the State University of New York at Buffalo (University at Buffalo) Graduate School of Education. Under the guidance of Tim Clarke, Senior Program Manager for Professional Development at Cattaraugus Allegany BOCES, this summer institute was presented to area teachers throughout Cattaraugus and Allegany counties for two consecutive summer sessions.

During the week-long institute, I worked alongside many other English teachers including Lacey Gardner (Whitesville), Michelle Grillo (Cuba-Rushford), Brendan Heaney (Fillmore), Michelle McGraw (Cuba-Rushford), Micah Rust (Fillmore), Suzan Snyder (Allegany-Limestone), Stephen Sorensen (Olean), Louis Ventura (Olean), and Sally Ventura (Olean). We collaborated, learned to use digital media on the fly with guidance from Dr. David Bruce and Dr. Sunshine Sullivan, and then created our own projects including narrative sequences, “Me in Six Words/Images,” video vocab, multi-genre e-publications, and “This I Believe” digital essays. These projects became model projects for our students when we incorporated similar projects into our curriculum. These models would help students use media alongside written reflections and heuristics to present their understanding of content and concepts.  

The whole week was one of the most rewarding, challenging, and engaging professional development opportunities that I’ve been fortunate enough to attend – and it was difficult work. As Sally Ventura, a teacher at Olean High School said, "Rural Voices has been such an energizing experience!  It has been as fun as it has been challenging. It has been a pleasure working with smart, creative colleagues in the area.”  

The days at the institutes were packed and I was always surprised that it was time to go home. The amazing thing was that I didn’t stop learning and thinking when I walked out the door. Instead, I continued ruminating on the drive home. I tinkered with ideas at home. I filmed at home. I reworked difficult pieces.  I researched. The entire week, from the moment that I woke up until I went to sleep, was spent planning, collaborating, developing, creating, and reflecting – exactly the kind of experience I want for my students. As Brendan Heaney said, “The work being done at the Institute is revolutionary.  Teachers will learn how to truly incorporate technology in a way that enhances student literacy and composition skills.  If you buy into this and utilize it in the classroom you will see student engagement go through the roof.  You will also see some of the best quality work you’ve ever seen from students.” 

Out of this experience, a project was born. Brendan Heaney worked tirelessly to help organize the First Annual Southern Tier Film Festival, an event where students from five districts competed for a prize for the best film. All the teachers involved in Rural Visions collaborated to help plan, develop, and contribute to this amazing event. The film festival was advertised regionally through social media, local newspapers, and radio stations.

​On the night of the event, parents came to see their children’s work and creativity. Teachers attended to see their student’s efforts. Administrators attended to see the work of their teachers and their students and to have an opportunity to relax and enjoy some great film. It was truly a community event where students showcased their videography skills, thoughtfulness, and ingenuity to a real audience and competed for a chance to bring their school home a traveling trophy.  

The film festival showcased thirty student films over the course of three hours with breaks and refreshments offered between each of the hour sessions.  The audience voted for their favorite films with one final vote at the end to determine the school winner.

Out of this amazing grass-roots effort, came a multitude of class projects which culminated in an annual film festival. This year’s Southern Tier Annual Film Festival will be held tentatively at Cuba-Rushford toward the end of the school year.
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Many of the teachers involved in the summer institute went on to present their learning experience using digital video in their own classrooms at the New York State English Council ( NYSEC) Annual Conference in Albany, NY held in October this year.  Projects ranged from research thesis statements to video poems, documentaries, film class projects, and six-word memoirs. Dr. Sullivan remarked, “It was a privilege seeing our teachers present what they are doing in their classrooms as a result of our summer institutes and how well received it was by their audience at NYSEC. Our teachers are becoming teacher leaders in the field in writing with video. We are also looking forward to seeing our teachers attending and presenting at NCTE in St. Louis later this month.”

If you have an interest in entering student work in this year’s Southern Tier Annual Film Festival or attending the festival in preparation for next year, please look out for upcoming announcements at your school district or contact Christina McGee at christina_mcgee@caboces.org or (716) 376-8281.

If you would like to learn more about the Writing with Video: Rural Voices Summer Institute, please contact Tim Clarke at 716-376-8321 or tim_clarke@caboces.org. 

By:  Christina McGee, CA BOCES Learning Resources

In an effort to the meet the ongoing math needs of our district, Learning Resources is currently working with a vendor called CueThink. In a nutshell, here’s what it is.
 
Funded by The National Science Foundation, CueThink is an innovative application and a pedagogy focused on improving critical thinking skills and math collaboration for students in grades 2-8. Their mission is to foster a growth mindset and empower students to see challenges as opportunities.
 
Students apply mathematician George Pólya’s 4 phases of Understand, Plan, Solve and Review to slow them down and explain their thinking.  Students unpack the problem by answering the questions: "What do you notice?", "What do you wonder about?" and "What is your estimate?" We help them "Choose a strategy" and "Write a plan". Once they have created their solution, CueThink provides checklists to help them review their math and their recording.
 
In CueThink, students create "thinklets" or video vignettes of their solutions using the drawing and writing tools we provide. They record their voice as a think-aloud or a presentation. The teacher then uses these digital artifacts to highlight errors and missteps as well as illustrate effective solutions. Individual student solutions become part of the learner's digital portfolio, showcasing growth and change over time.

Students become teachers as they view each other’s solutions. They offer thoughtful, intelligent feedback through annotations and also reflect on and revise their own work. The goal of CueThink is to foster digital citizenry and build a community of social math learners in the classroom. 
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We are demoing CueThink for all districts this year, for all students in grades 2-8. Please contact me if you would like to know more or if you would like me to come out to your district to roll this out. Let’s make math social!
 
Alexandra L. Freer, CABOCES Learning Resources

Welcoming West Valley students into the school library this year is a new space designated for S.T.E.A.M. activities.  Jody Thiel, SLMS, is offering students the opportunity to explore coding, collaboration, and creativity with $500 raised through Donors Choose. Mrs. Thiel purchased over ten interactive resources to engage student learning and encourage a growth mindset (See photo).
 
A struggling middle school student recently demonstrated growth mindset as he was putting together circuits.  When a bulb failed to light, he blamed it on dead batteries – several times.  Mrs. Thiel did not offer correction on his design but simply told him the batteries were new and encouraged him to try again.  The student figured it out and was so proud of himself!  Taking risks in a safe environment allowed for experiencing success.
 
For younger students, Mrs. Thiel purchased the FisherPrice Code-a-Pillar.  This is a colorful robotic whose pre-coded segments are put together by the student.  Once segments are connected the Code-a-Pillar crawls across the floor to find a predetermined target.  Quick feedback allows for student correction.  Additional segments can be purchased for increased challenges. 

Elementary and middle school students enjoy the Code & Go Robot Mouse and no doubt high school students and adults will too.  Similar to the design of a BeeBot, Robot Mouse can be programmed to find a block of 'cheese' within a maze.  The maze offers a variety of design challenges to engage “steamers” of all ages. and provides small groups with collaborative opportunities to problem solve.
 
Displayed among the LittleBits, Magformers, and Snap Circuits was the Osmo.  This product utilizes an iPad, stand, mirror, and apps to teach coding, letters, words, numbers, and drawings.  I tried the drawing app which uses a mirror to project an image onto a piece of paper that can be traced.  Lettering is also available to make attractive thank you notes or sayings. (See photo).  The tools available to use with the Osmo clearly makes an interactive tool for students K-12. 

By:  Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources

All students in CA BOCES, but especially those in grades PreK – 8th will enjoy the premium version of Tumble Books.  Offered in a French, Spanish, or Mobile interface, over 1400 eBooks are available with Wi-Fi connection. 

• Early readers will benefit from over 280 animated, talking picture books
• 90 second National Geographic video clips
• ESL and ELL students will improve word pronunciation by listening to popular read-alouds
• Students with IEPs can search by lexile level to books that support curriculum and personal reading interests
• Fun math stories including those featuring Sir Cumference
• Popular graphic novels like Geronimo Stilton and Nancy Drew
• Mysteries, Classic Characters, Advanced Readers, and more
• Links to Common Core provided
• Accelerated Reader Quiz Number provided
• Teacher portal set-up for student statistics
• Simultaneous use makes it perfect for a class project
• Popular authors: Kate DiCamillo, Neil Gaiman, Annie Barrows, Mark Twain, Doreen Cronin, Robert Munsch, Matt Christopher,  Eve Bunting

Students may access TumbleBooks through snap.caboces.org with school username/password. Contact your school librarian for log in information, or Cece Fuoco at cfuoco@caboces.org  for assistance or training. 

By:  Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources

This summer, Cuba Rushford Elementary School incorporated a STEAM camp into their summer school curriculum. Students were hand-picked to participate in this innovative twist on learning and spent time working with coding, robotics, research projects, and solar ovens.
 
All of the projects were interesting to the students. But the solar ovens had a prize at the end! I will give you s’more information on that later!
 
As part of this experiment, a great deal of work was spent digging deeper into the Engineering Design Process, wherein students are encouraged to ask, imagine, plan, design, and then improve. Students researched to discover the mathematical relationship between reflection, transmission and absorption. They didn’t stop there, though! Students then applied their knowledge to building and testing a solar oven based on the supplies provided through CABOCES. In an extension, students investigated how these principles can be used as sustainable energy sources for our area through passive solar heating.

After the testing phase was completed and all the kinks were worked out, the students put their solar ovens in the sun and let the cooking begin! Chocolate and marshmallows were placed on a graham cracker. After about an hour and a half: voilà! Success. It was so good, some kids wanted s’more!
Interested! Order solar ovens from our SNAP page and get cooking!

By:  Alex Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources

Check out this month's Advancing STEM Challenge!

Sliding Down a Slippery Slope

Advancing STEM Challenges are designed to bring engineering and design to your classroom in a simple, easy-to-implement, challenge-based way.  Modify our Advancing STEM Challenges for your classroom.  A new challenge will be posted monthly.  ​

Over 300 school librarians converged in Buffalo May 4-6, 2017 to attend the state’s annual school librarians conference. Thirty-nine vendors were available to discuss databases, continuing education programs, cataloging systems, and books that support learning standards as well as popular fiction.  Co-chaired by Pioneer school librarians Maria Muhlbauer and Tina Pierce, this year’s theme Make. Learn. Inspire. was a hit! 

Make. Learn. Inspire. offered professional development workshops specific to the needs of the school librarian.  Keynote speaker Gene Luen Yang, a former high school teacher, has been a recipient of several national book awards. Yang’s engaging style, peppered with humor, brought attention to using comics in education and the importance of representing diversity through the comics medium.  Yang’s message was fitting in that it supports the current initiative by CA BOCES’ Brendan Keiser and Cece Fuoco in building graphic novel kits for classroom use next school year. 

Thirty-six workshops were made available including“Fostering Civic Engagement Through Archival Research”, “The Differentiated Makerspace”, “Sensory Storytime”, “Game Design”, and “Genrefying Your Library”.  One workshop held by Scio librarian, Mary Zdrojewski, had a packed room of 75 attendees who came to learn about using a Breakout Box to teach library skills.  Bolivar-Richburg librarian, Karen Fox, (see photo) presented to over 50 attendees on “21st Century Toolbox for the School Librarian”. Fox capitalized on skills she learned as an employee of Apple and Starbucks to streamline the process for managing her library resources and tracking students.  

Librarians also enjoyed hearing CA BOCES’ S.T.E.M. coordinator, Clay Nolan discuss using common fiction stories to create S.T.E.M. activities to support ELA standards.  After introducing the book Timing Races: Measuring Time by Dianne Irving, Nolan challenged participants with Zometools to create an object that could spin and outlast others (see photo).  It was a fun activity and participants’ phones were busy capturing the learning and competition taking place.

Returning to their schools across the state, librarians left inspired to make new learning opportunities for students. 

By:  Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources 

Digital Learning Day, hosted by Betsy Hardy, Distance Learning Coordinator for Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES (CA BOCES), was held mid-March this year at the Main Center in Olean. There was a record turnout from neighboring districts, with more than 55 educators from across the region including attendees from six regional BOCES, traveling to learn about implementing online learning in their districts or how to enhance current programs.

The day was split into rotating sessions with vendors that CA BOCES currently has partnerships with or with vendors that may be of future interest to any district hoping to broaden depth of transcripts, assist struggling students with unit, quarterly or full credit recovery, or generally provide multiple pathway of learning for their students. The day’s focus was on credit accrual or electives through Edgenuity, world languages, CTE courses, and electives through EdOptions Academy, unit and credit recovery through APEX Learning, homebound tutoring with iTutor, middle school content through Spider Learning, and K-12 collaborative and customizable digital content aligned to standards through Buzz at OHM BOCES.

Overall, the day was a huge success. At the beginning of the day, two rotating sessions with 25 minute overviews of the various kinds of curriculum and implementation methods were held. Lunch and breaks provided time to meet up individually with vendors to ask more district specific questions. The day was rounded out with presentations from Andover, Franklinville, and Allegany-Limestone sharing successful implementation stories of language programs, electives, and credit recovery programs respectively. 

Fortified with information from the day, many districts are developing a plan for digital learning and reaching out to CA BOCES as they bring new curriculum to students across the region. For more information on online learning, please contact Learning Resources at 716-376-8281.

By: Christina McGee, CA BOCES Learning Resources

If it not there already, coding will be coming to a school near you really soon! But why is there so much of a push for this?

Coding has many education implications: it is a way for students to design, create, and express themselves while solving problems, creating games, and having fun. Additionally, there are many opportunities in the area of computer science that students can consider when looking at careers. Website design, app creation, business management and many other fields have jobs that require some understanding of computer code.

Learning to code prepares kids for the world we live in today. There are tons of jobs and occupations that use code directly, like web designers, software developers and robotics engineers, and even more where knowing how to code is a huge asset—jobs in manufacturing, nanotechnology or information sciences. However, career prep is just one facet.

The skills that come with computer programming/coding help kids develop new ways of thinking and foster problem-solving techniques that can have big repercussions in other areas. Computational thinking allows students to grasp concepts like order of operations and cause and effect. Much like following a recipe, coding is systematic and students can see that attention to detail and sequential thinking are necessary to create a workable code.
 
And then there’s the simple fact that coding is fun! Most kids play games already, so learning the code behind the games takes engagement to a whole new level.
So get ready! Coding isn’t the future….it is the present!
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By: Alexandra L. Freer, CABOCES Learning Resources

Check out this month's Advancing STEM Challenge!  Keeping Afloat - Oh Buoy!

Advancing STEM Challenges are designed to bring engineering and design to your classroom in a simple, easy-to-implement, challenge-based way.  Modify our Advancing STEM Challenges for your classroom.  A new challenge will be posted monthly.  ​

Library makerspaces are becoming more popular in schools and using technology is often part of the experience.  Some school librarians in CA BOCES are becoming familiar with coding, programming, and open source software.  As a result, makerspaces are frequently the place where students can explore, create, and learn.  eTextiling is one method of using technology to engage students with varied interests. 
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eTextiles use circuitry to create interaction between the wearer and his or her environment.  As a way to introduce fashion and technology to teachers, an eTextiling workshop was offered through the 510 Coser.  Facilitated by S.T.E.M. Coordinator Clay Nolan, and School Library System Coordinator, Cece Fuoco, participants learned the basics of circuitry through the use of copper tape, a battery and an LED light. 

Participants then used conductive thread to sew a circuit. 

Open source technology allows for programming a component to make an LED light respond to sound or movement.  The opportunity exists for students to work together, especially when a student’s interest is stronger than his or her ability. 

An eTextiling workshop will be available again next year with the anticipation that this year’s participants will share what their students have created.  If you would like more information about eTextiling, please contact Clay at Clay_Nolan@caboces.org or Cece at Cece_Fuoco@caboces.org.

By:  Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES School Library Coordinator

In December the Board of Regents approved new Science Standards that will take effect in July of 2017.  This means schools will need to coordinate their transition away from 1996 Science Standards into new standards so that students are prepared for assessments that will likely be implemented in three years.

It is predicted that new Science assessments will begin in 2020, three school years away.  With this in mind, CA BOCES will begin transitioning Science Curriculum Kit titles so that students reach their assessment prepared.  Title transition will take place over a three year period.  The chart below outlines the planned transition.  

All curriculum kit titles can be explored at our new website:  www.advancingSTEM.com

Explore the new New York State Science Learning Standards: www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/mst/sci/nyssls.html