Andy Larmand

It really didn’t take very long for us all to recognize (or remember) how fully equitable access to technology isn’t always guaranteed. While equity is the topic for this week’s Rising Resources blog, we’re stepping a bit back from talking about it in the sense that it’s been talked about over the last couple of months and introducing you to

In case you missed it, the shift with the former STEAM supplier, littleBits, to Sphero now seemingly came full circle. Last week, social media posts from all of the former littleBits channels indicated that everything would soon be moving over to the Sphero channels and, a little bit earlier this week, that’s exactly what we saw happen as this merger

This month, the award goes to Save Our Children Elyria, a big afterschool program in Elyria, Ohio! The group helps support many local K-12 students throughout the Elyria City Schools with various academic and nutritional assistance year round and, since learning has transitioned largely online, they’ve created a virtual makerspace for students!

Teachers miss their students. Graduations and proms have been cancelled. Most students already know they won’t be in a school again until (at least) the fall. It’s seriously strange, but, like all of us, we’re trying to make this period of time as normal and productive as possible. That’s why we’re very excited to share more about what they’ve been

Last week, we were fortunate to be able to sponsor one of the sessions of Wonder Workshop’s Virtual Summit. We provided a raffle prize for the ‘Coding Activities for Elementary Students’ session led by fourth grade teacher and Wonder Workshop ambassador, Jasmine Saab, who did a fantastic job of educating, informing, and intriguing the audience.

I am Amrapali Sharma and, as a longtime special education teacher, I often use an IEP (individualized education program) that I’d drawn up for each of my students, keeping in mind their current abilities, and including some set of reasonable goals we want them to work towards. Given what we’re now facing, a lot of that has gotten more challenging.

In my case, my classroom is the largest one in the school. It has anchor charts, word walls, posters—you name it! However, instead of doing a writing assignment, my students practice essential skills necessary to lifelong health. And, just because learning has largely moved online, it does not mean their physical education can stop.

Modeled off of the popular and inclusive Sphero Mini Robot, their Mini Golf Kit comes with a custom, redesigned Sphero Mini that looks like a real golf ball—and students can drive, program, and play with it in all kinds of ways as they try to sink their own hole-in-one! Keep reading to learn more about the simplicity of the Sphero Mini,

Our Wonder Workshop friends revealed the new, virtual environment within which children can program the Dash Robot (available in May)! While that’s all extremely exciting, we are also very excited to be sponsoring one of the upcoming virtual PD sessions. It will be hosted by Jasmine Saab, who is a longtime fourth grade teacher, and it’s taking place on April

With everybody scrambling to find some sort of solution to get as much as they can from this experience and also reminding each other that distance learning does not have to be perfect, some things that students do in their classrooms are going to be fully eliminated or scaled back when it comes to remote learning. And, one of those