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Icon for: Deren Güler

DEREN GÜLER

Teknikio

SBIR Phase II: Bluebird: Integrated IoT for Educators and Learners

NSF Awards: 1927115

2020 (see original presentation & discussion)

Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12

The Tekniverse platform provides a gateway for students to program and trigger actions across devices, making an end-to-end IoT experience possible in the classroom. Teknikio’s intuitive and affordable platform fosters career readiness and STEM self-efficacy, and facilitates hands-on, self-directed learning, critical thinking, technology literacy, and collaboration for K-12 students. Our ecosystem makes IoT education uniquely accessible and engaging, equipping a new generation of inventors and changemakers with core technical and social skills. Students interact with Bluetooth and IoT devices daily, and Bluebird empowers them to demystify their surroundings. Our “real world” lesson modules cultivate specific skills — like iterative workflow management, character design and storytelling, or complex logic — and match to a range of careers paths where they might be deployed.  Students will carry the credentials, curiosity and technical competence engendered by Bluebird’s experiential learning to new disciplines and broaden their horizons in college and their careers. 

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Discussion from the 2020 STEM For All Video Showcase (18 posts)
  • Icon for: Deren Güler

    Deren Güler

    Lead Presenter
    CEO
    May 4, 2020 | 06:38 p.m.

    Hello and thank you for watching our presentation about Tekniverse! We are very excited to connect with educators and researchers, parents, and STEM advocates exploring electronics, coding, and/or wireless technologies in the classroom. Our focus is providing technology that is accessible not only from a user experience perspective but also in terms of cost and flexibility to integrate with other materials and products. We have a strong focus on attracting girls to STEM through our project themes. Our existing product line of invention kits and custom craftable electronic modules focuses on blending technology with craft through sewing circuits, making paper robots, etc and can be seen at https://www.teknikio.com/pages/shop. Tekniverse is the next level in our learning system, geared towards expanding the scale and potential of student projects. The project has been in development for the past 2 years and is supported by the NSF. We are actively looking for collaborations that will provide feedback, case studies, and curriculum on how Tekniverse can be integrated into the K-12 classroom and beyond. Our platform is designed for classroom use but can be adapted for afterschool, library, makerspace, camp, and other settings. We are currently focusing on themes for virtual summer camps using Tekniverse including designing a Smart City, the Future of Healthcare, Digital Justice, and an intro to Wireless Networks. We enjoy exploring new applications and possibilities for our products and are always interested in different perspectives and look forward to hearing from you!

     
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    Ryan Lindsay
  • Icon for: Michael Haney

    Michael Haney

    Facilitator
    Administrator, Educator
    May 5, 2020 | 12:19 p.m.

    The link to the older devices show how innovative and potentially captivating these can be.  There is a market for such materials and I have sunscribed each of my grandchildren to similar kits that lend themselves to engineering and design experiments.  Your materials are more open-ended also offer the possibility of experimentation.  These types of materials provide experiences seldom offered by schools and allow children to work at their own rates and levels of interest.  So I am encouraging about the Bluebird environment and hope it finds a market in various educational settings.  

    Since this is at least partially funded by an SBIR II grant, I assume you have a market plan.   Schools are a pretty obviously part of the video with the lesson plans and community invention section.  How much training do teacher need to incorporate these into their classrooms?  Are you hoping that the system and devices will be part of future curriculum materials developed by others or do you see these as add ons to existing courses?  How will you reach teachers or teacher educators?  What other communities do you plan to target?

  • Icon for: Deren Güler

    Deren Güler

    Lead Presenter
    CEO
    May 5, 2020 | 05:44 p.m.

    Hello and thank you for visiting our presentation and your interest in our project! In terms of training, a few hours of reviewing the basic concepts and materials we offer should get you quite far. The setup for our native application is extremely simple and takes less than a minute. Setup for third-party platforms like Arduino or Circuit Python is a bit more involved but there is good documentation on this from us and others as these are quite popular. We see this as an add-on tool to CS curriculum but will also be providing curriculum around Bluetooth and IoT, which is sparse. We are working to reach teachers through our networks and PR. Initially, we plan to expand to university-level design and engineering students as well as makers and hobbyists in addition to educators. Please let us know if you have more questions and sign up for our newsletter (link on website) to stay tuned if you would like!

     
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    Michael Haney
  • Icon for: Rebecca Vieyra

    Rebecca Vieyra

    Facilitator
    Project Manager
    May 5, 2020 | 08:59 p.m.

    Dear Deren,

    This looks really neat! Can you tell me a bit more about how you expect teaching learning with Bluebird might look different or result in different outcomes than things like Raspberry Pi or SparkFun kits?

    Additionally, given that you have a programming platform, I'd love to know if you can share out a framework for what kinds of computational thinking or programming practices or concepts students can learn!

     
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    Michael I. Swart
    Perrin Teal Sullivan
  • Icon for: Deren Güler

    Deren Güler

    Lead Presenter
    CEO
    May 6, 2020 | 02:23 p.m.

    Thanks Rebecca!

    To answer your first question: Generally, what sets Teknikio apart is that we focus on engaging younger and beginner users, while Raspberry Pi and Sparkfun can be targeted at an older or more experienced audience. We also focus on using craft materials with electronics, like sewing and origami and design new ways to apply circuits to these surfaces. Sparkfun does have an e-textiles line, but we believe that our fun shapes like stars and diamonds make our products more attractive :)

    For the second: We have a unit on Computational Thinking that is based on curriculum from Code.org. We have compiled a list of platform that provide excellent programming lessons like for all and Code Highschool, and plan to integrate and align with their curriculum as much as possible. Currently, with the Circuit Python, MakeCode, and Arduino integrations, we have you can program in Blocks, Javascript, Python, MicroPython, and Arduino. Hope this helps answer your questions and let me know if you have more and are interested in trying the platform!

     
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    Michael I. Swart
  • Icon for: Rebecca Vieyra

    Rebecca Vieyra

    Facilitator
    Project Manager
    May 6, 2020 | 04:03 p.m.

    Thanks so much for your responses. I do have one additional question! With the focus on programming, do you primarily see this as a way to explicitly teach computer science / computational thinking skills, or do you envision it being used in other STEM disciplinary coursework (like physics, math, etc.)? As a prior physics teacher, I'm always curious to know how "integratable" things are (not that they need to be, but I am curious to know what you think about the possibilities).

  • Icon for: Deren Güler

    Deren Güler

    Lead Presenter
    CEO
    May 7, 2020 | 04:25 p.m.

    Hi Rebecca, yes Bluebird is designed to be extremely interdisciplinary! It easily integrates with Lego so students can experiment with movement and mechanics. For example, one teacher told us her students attached the boards to cars to measure acceleration. We also try to tie all of our own lessons to social impact to challenge students to think about the implications and scale of what they are creating. 

  • Icon for: Jonathan Margolin

    Jonathan Margolin

    Facilitator
    Principal Researcher
    May 6, 2020 | 08:34 a.m.

    Hi Deren, as I work from home for the eighth straight week, I am always looking for project for my kids to do. They have little opportunity to engage in hands-on projects in their distance learning setting. Do you see potential for Bluebird to support students' independent learning from home? 

  • Icon for: Deren Güler

    Deren Güler

    Lead Presenter
    CEO
    May 6, 2020 | 11:21 a.m.

    Yes, Bluebird is great for independent/at-home learning! We have created learning modules that can be followed at home or led by an educator. We are also working on a lot of remote working features to connect students so they can work collaboratively online. The website (coming soon) will have updates on these features: tekniverse.teknikio.com. We are also thinking about a virtual intro the networks and Bluebird camp for the summer.

     
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    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Perrin Teal Sullivan
  • Icon for: Isabelle Herde

    Isabelle Herde

    Informal Educator
    May 7, 2020 | 03:49 p.m.

    Hey Deren - interesting project! I am very interested in learning more about the stories students produced using Bluebird that Dr. Jochum referenced. What was the prompt and what were the expected learning outcomes of having them produce stories using Bluebird? 

     
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    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Perrin Teal Sullivan
  • Icon for: Deren Güler

    Deren Güler

    Lead Presenter
    CEO
    May 7, 2020 | 04:17 p.m.

    Thanks Isabelle! The prompt was: 

    1. With a partner, discuss the roles of narrative and storytelling. What narrative materials might you typically use in your classroom? How might your students engage with them?

    2. Choose a popular story (or make up your own) and brainstorm activities that could bring programmatic thinking and narrative storytelling skills together.

    3. Design a short classroom activity. Briefly outline the relevant material from your curriculum, the learning objectives and outcomes, and at least one Bluebird challenge.
  • Icon for: Isabelle Herde

    Isabelle Herde

    Informal Educator
    May 7, 2020 | 04:36 p.m.

    Sounds great! We use storytelling extensively in our programming and it's always interesting to hear how others are implementing it and to what purpose!

  • Icon for: Perrin Teal Sullivan

    Perrin Teal Sullivan

    Informal Educator
    May 11, 2020 | 03:50 p.m.

    This board looks so awesome! I have been trying to think of ways to play around with and demonstrate how squid behavior in groups is mediated by communication based on visual cues from rapidly changing patterns of chromatophores and photophores in their skin.  In the example of the houses signaling to each other, is that a photosensor in the adjacent house detecting the led (does it require that much proximity to detect the input)? Can these boards be networked wirelessly, too, so that they can interact with each other remotely? Hope to have a chance to try them out! 

  • Icon for: Deren Güler

    Deren Güler

    Lead Presenter
    CEO
    May 11, 2020 | 10:56 p.m.

    Hi Perrin, thanks for watching our video, your work sounds very cool! To answer your questions:

    1. Yes, there is a light sensor on the board, you can set the threshold depending on environmental conditions to trigger at a certain light threshold and this could work as a proximity sensor.
    2. They can be networked over Bluetooth to interact remotely. We are also building a channel for them to communicate through our web App, in which case they would not have to be in the same room/ building (depending on the reach of the BLE radio).

    If you are interested you can get one on our website and try it out:https://www.teknikio.com/collections/parts/products/bluebird-beta-v1-6

    We'd be happy to help you with the squid demo if you do want to try and build it with Bluebird, it sounds right up our alley ;)

  • Icon for: Anne Leonhardt

    Anne Leonhardt

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 12, 2020 | 02:05 p.m.

     Exciting project! This seems really well conceptualized for STEAM programs and I appreciate the varying levels of complexity and areas one can work with. 

  • Icon for: Deren Güler

    Deren Güler

    Lead Presenter
    CEO
    May 12, 2020 | 04:17 p.m.

    Thank you Anne, your project is very cool also, hope we can connect in NYC :)

  • Icon for: Michael I. Swart

    Michael I. Swart

    Researcher
    May 12, 2020 | 03:48 p.m.

    What a cool and complete curriculum! Work with color, sound, movement, drawing, coding, etc., plus a web app that connects communities in collaboration with lesson plans.  Curious how the lesson plans are developed?  How you add new ones?  Is there some type of annual competition amongst users to design a lesson plan that would be added to the permanent collections? Seems like a great way to leverage the communities that are created and perpetuate the expansion of the Tekniverse!

  • Icon for: Deren Güler

    Deren Güler

    Lead Presenter
    CEO
    May 12, 2020 | 04:17 p.m.

    Thanks! We are currently developing the lessons with our in-house education team but looking for educators to collaborate with on making new ones and expanding the ones we already have. We are creating all content as google slides so it is easy to remix. New ones will be added to the website under Resources. I love the idea of an annual competition, let me know if you'd be interested in talking more about that! 

  • Further posting is closed as the event has ended.