The DTC9 TechTry Digital Playground area offers an opportunity for hand-on immersive experiences with a variety of devices. Participants will be able to see, try, and learn about the latest devices available for a range of digital learning classroom experiences! Staffed by some school STSs’ as well as individuals who are part of our district’s Leading EDGEucator Academy, or who have successfully applied for and received a Davis District Technology Innovation Grant, experts are on hand to answer any questions and provide information. Be sure to enter the drawings to win some of the products shown in the TechTry Digital Playground!
TechTry Playground Stations:
Sphero
Sphero Edu provides a toolset that is unbounded in its potential. Using both block and text coding, to program spherical robots, students can create a painting, navigate a maze, mimic the solar system, swim across a body of water, have a dance party… the only limit is students’ imaginations. While coding and 21st century skills are necessary, the system also goes beyond code by incorporating robotics and technology with collaborative STEAM activities, nurturing students’ imaginations in ways no other education product can.
Osmo
Play beyond the screen! Osmo is an award-winning game system that will change the way students interact with the iPad by opening it up to hands-on play. See apps such as:
CODING JAM: Who doesn’t love music? It’s fun. Arrange coding blocks into patterns and sequences to create music, and the volume of fun gets turned up a notch.
CODING AWBIE: uses hands-on physical blocks to control Awbie, a playful character who loves delicious strawberries. Each block is a coding command that directs Awbie on a wondrous tree-shaking, strawberry-munching adventure.
TANGRAM: Arrange wooden puzzle pieces to match on-screen shapes. Animals, objects, humans and more. Play with a friend or challenge yourself to increasingly more difficult levels as your handiwork lights up with each victory.
PIZZA CO.: Make pizza... grow your profit! Quickly cook pizza & calculate change using topping & money tiles. Invest profits to upgrade your shop or open new locations as you bake your way to becoming “the big cheese”!
MONSTER: Bring your drawings to life! Each item you draw for Mo will be magically pulled into his world. Together create animated activities to share with family and friends.
NUMBERS: Add, count and multiply the tiles to match the numbers on the bubbles. Popping enough bubbles will free the fish and unleash a storm of lightning and thunder! Big or small, even or odd, will you become the Numbers Master?
MASTERPIECE: Unleash your inner artist! Pick an image from the camera, web or curated gallery and Masterpiece will transform it into easy-to-follow lines, helping you create beautiful drawings.
WORDS: Guess and spell the on-screen image. Team up or compete in-person with friends or family to see who will get their letter in first! Download free content like trivia, geography or upload your own like family names. The possibilities are endless!
NEWTON: Newton works with any object or drawing — Mom’s keys, hand-drawn basket, even toys you already own. Simply place the object/drawing in front of the screen and manipulate it to guide the falling balls into the target zones.
Ozobot
Ozobot robots, the app, lessons, and workshops are designed to supplement elementary to high school curricula (K-12).
Bit and Evo… “Bit” is the world’s smallest smart robot. This right brain/left brain integrating bot builds both creativity and coding skills in ages 6 and up. Advance from basic color coding to intermediate block-based programming with Bit.
“Evo” — the smart and social robot — entertains right out of the box with autonomous behavior. Then, app-enabled Evo connects you to the world, bringing updates from friends and dynamic gaming and coding challenges to keep you ahead of the curve.
Dot & Dash
Award-winning robots with easy-to-use apps and engaging curricular resources this product offers hands-on play and learning to make creative problem-solving concrete and tangible. With the five apps – Go, Path, Xylo, Blockly, and Wonder – students tackle a series of challenges and in-app puzzles that introduce the fundamental concepts of coding.
VR Goggles
Presented by DSD’s AMAZING STS’s, see some examples of what’s available for inexpensive-yet-durable VR goggle classroom solutions, and ways in which to use them to break down the wall and barriers geographic learning and place the world within students’ reach!
Swivl (available from 9:40 – 11:35)
Swivl offers a variety of products to assist in increasing the efficiency of both teacher and student classroom observations. The Swivl allows an iPad to track the movement of a teacher and record them during an observation. The Swivl could also be used by a teacher in her classroom to allow students to record presentations and other projects, to record small groups, or to record students’ behaviors in order to evaluate and set goals with the students and parents. Special markers can be placed throughout the recording environment in order to record the audio of individuals or groups being recorded.
PIPER (available from 11:45 – 1:35)
Piper is a computer kit that kids assemble themselves, advance through a Raspberry Pi Edition of Minecraft Story, and learn concepts of physical engineering and electronics in the process!