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"Changing the world sounds like a tall order. But in reality, educators play their role to help change the world every single day. The summer is a great time to start planting seeds of change in our personal or professional practice. Here are a few quick ideas to keep in mind over the next few weeks before we gear up to go back to school."

We are the stories that we tell and it is the stories we share which unite us. This was the seed of an idea planted by a day with author, artist, musician and story teller Boori Pryor. Understanding the power that our stories have allows us to better value their role in our lives, to see them as more than recounts of the past or imaginings of the future. Stories should be viewed as the powerful agents that they are with the force to shape who we are as much as we shape them.

"Our 5th grade is currently studying the impact on American life that several famous inventors had. When I was brainstorming with Shelley Olin, 5th grade social studies teacher, we began to wonder about connections these standards had to makerspace.  It started as an idea seed and grew into a set of experiences for all 5th graders to engage in. I wanted students to put themselves into the shoes of an inventor so that they could begin to understand the perseverance and curiosity that inventors have. We focused on 3 of the inventors: Thomas Edison (electricity), Alexander Graham Bell (communication), and the Wright Brothers (flight)."

"Whether you're running a sleepaway camp, working as a counselor at a day camp, or teaching at a summer program at your school, we salute our teachers who are working with kids this summer! We've gathered some fun, exploratory resources for you to use as you plan summer fun. This collection of resources is ideally suited for camp counselors and other summer staff looking for fun, educational activities to include in their daily schedule, as well as resources to help seed ideas for introducing topics to campers."

"Our CREATE Education Project champions partner organisations who share our ethos for making 3d printing as easy, accessible and affordable as possible for everyone. In the name of open source we find synergies with many pioneers who understand that sharing is the way forward to developing and seeding innovation for new technologies. When we find these pioneers it is our mission to provide access to our community so that everyone can enjoy the progress and even add to it themselves.  One of the more challenging aspects of introducing 3D printing into schools is the complexity of 3D modelling software and the general cost of having computers that can handle such software. A good majority of schools have adopted a cheaper method of computing which is the tablet. iPads are fast becoming common in the classroom and this is where Gravity Sketch comes in."

"Computer coding is promoted as a must-learn skill for 21st Century students. Dan Donahoo questions what's driving this view. Learning to code has become something of an edtech focus over the last 12 months. Venture capitalists are seeding places like Code Academy, Code.org and any number of mobile, apps and computer games to teach us and our students the language of computation. But, do all students need to learn to code?"

"This is an archived Google Hangout video and audio recording of a STEMseeds interview with K-4 elementary STEM teacher Kylie Sanders (@piedmontstem) on April 4, 2015. We discussed STEM lesson plans and project ideas, Kylie's experiences as a first year "traveling" STEM teacher, challenges aligning lessons to standards and more! Amy Loeffelholz shared updates from her "single gender" STEM Club experiments this semester, and everyone discussed their latest classroom lessons and projects. Check out our shownotes for links to referenced resources."

"Don't try to put making in a box. Don't make it a kit, standardize it, and water it down.  Don't develop a canned-for-sale-program out of it.   Don't make it a packet to sell on website. Don't reduce it to a moment in a day, a day in a week, or a kit from the shelves. Don't make it into a program that a school has to pay billions to be a part of. Don't reduce making to that "thing" that happens in a certain room or a certain space or once a month.  Please just don't reserve making for gadgety electronics or robotics.  Don't just call it STEAM. Making is connecting, interpreting, and building a relationship with the world. Let's make school more about making. The mathematics and patterns in sewing, the joy in colorful art, the visual beauty in cooking, painting, the science of mixing colors, the music of sculpture in the wind, the flow in writing from the imagination, the collaboration in developing something together, the spark in sharing cardboard creations via Skype, the motivation in sharing with the world, the engagement in raw discovery, the fun in tinkering with a pile of junk, the passion in an idea grown from a seed, and the excitement in untouched exploration."

Science Center Where scientists and engineers share expertise and experiences with learners from around the world

"I hope you'll agree with me that we have a serious lack of female engineers, software developers, architects, and mathematicians. Women are painfully underrepresented in the industries and fields responsible for making the products we all use on a daily basis. Women are under-represented in creating the software that makes everything from fridges to turbines "smarter." Women are under-represented in engineering products including those that help us live healthier & safer lives. Women are under-represented in leading research and experimentation. The problem is significant & complex. Many governments & businesses including Apple & Google are actively working to root-cause why the results are so dramatic, and what business, governments and individuals can do to reverse the tide. "

"In Nick Provenzano's book, Your Starter Guide to Makerspaces, he makes the case that a maker space can start a movement inside your school. I agree wholeheartedly. There are many folks who have been saying to "stop" using the word Makerspace, and it shouldn't only be one space. But sometimes this space is the seed that plants a maker movement into a maker culture. At Centennial School District (where I'm the Director of Tech and Innovation) we've been slowly beginning to build a maker culture out of maker spaces. It is a process and one that doesn't happen overnight. Here is a few things/ideas we've done that have jumpstarted the movement towards a culture:"