From Aug. 2-5 2016, Eduporium is participating in the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) Make Learning Happen event in Syracuse, NY. We were selected as the event's preferred vendor after spending much of the last couple of months working to create, procure and customize EdTech bundles for PK-12 students in the districts they serve. Our staff collaborated with the BOCES to gauge their needs and the end result were thoroughly comprehensive bundles covering some of the most important STEAM concepts in modern-day education, including circuitry, robotics, engineering and the environment.
It was an exciting process and we would up with 17 custom created technology bundles that were engineered specifically to advance learning in the 21st century, but the creation process was much more of a journey. Starting back in May, each member of the Eduporium team worked tirelessly to try to provide the perfect product. There were long nights, countless revisions and, of course, submitting the final bundles five minutes before the deadline—just to make it interesting!
We began by deciding which products we wanted to include. Some we already had in our store and others we had to track down in order to create bundles that would flow perfectly. Once we decided on a list of products (pretty much all of ours and some new ones sprinkled in), we began dividing them by grade level, creating a place (or two) for each product to land. The grade level breakdown, after some debate, wound up being PK-K, Grades 1-3, Grades 3-6, Grades 6-8 and Grades 9-12, giving us a comfortable number of five levels in all.
Then, came the tougher task of placing products into the most advantageous grade level, made a bit more complicated by their versatility and ability to be used at almost any level of learning. Our intent was to feature some of our more well-known products, like littleBits, Makey Makey and Ozobot at least once in each grade level, but we found that we had curated such a large selection that it would be tough to fit them each in more than once or twice despite there being 3-5 bundles to fill in each grade level.
We wanted to create bundles filled with technologies that could be combined to create innovative learning opportunities every day. Producing something with educational value was extremely important to us, but so too were the concepts and skills that kids will learn. We tried to incorporate numerous ways for them to use their critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, creativity, collaboration and a whole bunch of modern-day skills that they need in order to be successful. The bundles also included replicated or original activities for children to complete while using each product!
Thankfully, after some pretty relentless work, our bundles were approved and we began ordering the products! As they started coming in, we realized just how big the order actually was going to be and needed to come up with a creative way to ship them from Boston to Syracuse. So, we bought some bins and some super huge boxes and spent quite a few hours carefully packing them for their journey to New York.
When we got word they had arrived at the school, we finally realized how far our hard work and determination had gone and took a great deal of pride in being able to give children an advantage in learning. We’re happy to report that we were able to save the OCM BOCES over $1,600 by packaging tech together and vetting our vendors to get the cheapest prices possible!
Each of the 17 bundles are now available on the Eduporium store and can be purchased together or separately by a school, district or individual!