Science Technology Engineering Art Math
“I can build a computer
doing this with Piper.” said one of 7th grade students, “This is so
cool!”
Piper, a start-up gaming
company, is designing kits that allow students to assemble their working
computers and begin their journey into creating lights, motors and DIY
hardware. Piper is currently partnering with the Madeleine to bring engineering
into the school’s STEM curriculum.
Mr. Willers describes Piper
this way, “Think: Erector-Set meets
Minecraft. Where you build in the real world and create in the
virtual.”
Mr. Willers met the
co-founders of Piper at an EdTech Summit, hosted by BrightBytes (a technology
company that measures the impact of technology on learning and education) this
fall in SF. At the summit Mr. Willers commented when he saw the kits, “Our students
would love this. So many of our students are doing Minecraft anyway, lets bring
what they’re doing at home into the learning that’s happening at school.”
Wasn’t too long after, that
Piper and the School of the Madeleine formed an innovative partnership. As
Willers put it, “Think: Where beta-tester and student engineer become one. One
of the parents remarked, “What a great opportunity for students to experience
engineering while helping the developers create their product for launch.”
On November 21, 2014 Piper’s
founders, Mark Pavlyukovskyy, 23, and Alex Stokes, 24, brought their
‘build-it-yourself ‘ engineering kits to the Madeleine for beta testing with
our students. 18 Madeleine students, ranging from 3rd to 8th
grade, formed cohorts of three to a kit.
Each cohort embarked on a collaborative and student-directed learning
experience with out any instructions or guidance from the founders.
“I was amazed at the
engagement levels of the students,” remarked Mr. Nagel, eighth grade teacher.
After the visit, one of the
founders, Mark, sent the principal the following e-mail, “Working with your kids
at the Madeleine actually really inspired us. Your kids not only completed the
entire game level we were testing with them, but gave us really valuable
feedback that we are currently incorporating into our platform. We really
enjoyed working with you and Ms. Anthony and your children are really blessed
to have such enthusiastic mentors.”
The
Madeleine continues to partner with TechEd companies and Piper is the latest
partnership to date. “If we want our students to thrive in the 21st
Century, we have to provide them with opportunities of self-directed learning.”
Willers believes, that TechEd companies like Piper, inspire students to own and
initiate their own learning while developing the critical thinking skills
around engineering concepts. TechEd Teacher, Ms. Anthony observed that, “With
no instructions, our 3rd through 8th grade students moved
through Piper’s entire sequence of challenges of building circuits and
semi-conductors using only Minecraft and the collaboration of their classmates.”
The
STEM curriculum at the Madeleine is literally, ‘out of the box teaching.’ “If
these type of partnerships continue,” Mr. Willers says, “I’m confident our
students will be building computers as part of our curriculum—and that is
really cool.”
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