Classroom Best Practice  |  

Wonder Workshop Heads to the Windy City

Jun 24, 2018

Curious about what we are up to at #ISTE18?

The Wonder Workshop team is heading to Chicago, Illinois, for the 2018 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference! We can’t wait to see all our educators and innovators from around the world and hear about the ways they are using Dash, Dot, and Cue to weave computer science into everyday teaching and learning.

Making your way to #ISTE18 too? We would love to meet you! Drop by our booth (#5418) to learn more about what we at Wonder Workshop have been up to recently. Come learn to code in just minutes with our DASHketball Challenge — no experience necessary! If art is more your thing, try bringing code to canvas with Cue and our newest robot accessory, Sketch Kit.

Swing by to hear about our solution for middle school, bundled to bring you savings: Cue the robot, Cue for Education app, Sketch Kit, Applied Robotics Curriculum, and our Teach Wonder Professional Learning Program. And for all those looking for advice about adoption, setup, curriculum, or more, come sit and chat with one of our Education Team members for some valuable one-on-one time. Plus, we will be giving away five prize packs at the end of each day!

What is Teach Wonder Day? We have decided to celebrate our new professional learning program on Tuesday, June 26th, by hosting a free breakfast bonanza in our booth (#5418) from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. And … FOR ONE DAY ONLY … we are offering a 12-hour online PD course + robot of your choice for the deeply discounted price of $150 (a $450-$500 value) at www.teachwonder.com! *All U.S. and Canadian residents can take advantage of this one-day-only offer; and you don’t have to be at ISTE! Can’t wait to learn more about bringing computer science into your classroom every day? Take a peek at all things Teach Wonder here and mark your calendars for Tuesday, June 26th.

Buy Now

Want to find more Wonder? Come find us elsewhere at #ISTE18 to learn more about Dash, Dot, Cue, and some of our fabulous partners:

Need some tips and tricks on how to tackle #ISTE18 before you go? Check out the webinar The Game Plan of What You Can’t Miss, from our very own Bryan Miller and Katrina Keene. They will help you get the most out of your #ISTE18 visit and ensure that you are ready to go when you get to the Windy City.

Not able to make it to #ISTE18 this year? No worries, follow along with us as we share on Twitter @WonderWorkshop. Also, check out our Outreach Team’s tweets:

  • Bryan Miller: @edtechnerd
  • Katrina Keene: @drkatrinakeene
  • Naomi Harm: @naomiharm
  • Jeff Mao: @jmao121

Wonder League Robotics Competition FAQ | Year 8

Hello, robotics enthusiasts! If you’re here, you’re probably as excited as we are about the 8th Annual Wonder League Robotics Competition! To help you and your teams have the best possible experience competing this year, we wanted to share answers to some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

Who Can Compete:

Any kid, anywhere in the world, ages 6-8 (Innovator Cup) and 9-12 (Pioneer Cup). There are two age brackets: 6-8 and 9-12 and team members have to fall within the age category at some point during the competition. Participants must be the qualifying age for their bracket on the last day of the competition, but if they gain a year during the competition, that’s OK. They won’t age out! 

Competition Brackets:

  • Innovator Cup (Age 6-8)
  • Pioneer Cup (Age 9-12)

What Makes a Team:

A team is made up of a supervising adult coach, and one or more children (up to 5). That’s right, kids can compete solo, but a coach who is 18+ is needed to help with the submission process. For multi-kid teams, each member must be in the same age bracket. Coaches may have multiple teams and can register all their teams after registering as a coach. Please keep in mind that each team will need a separate Class Connect registration.

Note: Younger students may participate in the 9-12 age category, but please be aware that the missions have been designed with older students and advanced coding skills in mind.

What a Team Needs to Compete:

Class Connect subscription

The team is made up of a supervising adult coach and one to five members

  1. Compatible device
  2. 5′ x 8′ mat of 30cm squares and basic prototyping materials
  3. Teams in 6-8 & 9-12 age brackets will need a Dash robot
  4. Internet access to download and upload materials

Teams will need one Dash robot: https://store.makewonder.com/products/dash

Check Device Compatibility here: https://www.makewonder.com/compatibility

We will be offering a mat image that you are welcome to use and print with your local printer, but teams are absolutely encouraged to make their own if they prefer. For more on how to make your own mat, check out this blog post.

Coaches will, of course, need internet access to download the apps and keep up with the competition as it progresses, and may want to print out some kid-facing materials that we will provide at each stage.

Class Connect Subscription:

To register for the 8th Wonder League Robotics Competition requires a subscription to Class Connect, providing additional resources like standards-aligned content assignable right inside a student’s Blockly app. Learn more about Class Connect here.

If you already have a Class Connect subscription, you have access to register a team, based on your student license amount. If you have more than one team of 5 students, you will need to purchase another Coach Success Pack or consider a larger subscription to accommodate more teams and students.

  1. A Coach Success Pack provides:
    Participation in the WLRC for up to 5 students
    Access to all Missions
    Full access to Class Connect, (including Math Activities and Dash’s Neighborhood), for 5 students and 1 teacher for 7 months
    A discount code for a Dash robot from our online store at https://store.makewonder.com

Please note: Teams will need a physical Dash robot to complete the Missions.
The Coaches’ Dashboard in Class Connect will help our coaches register and manage their team(s). The dashboard will be your one-stop shop for all Wonder League Robotics Competition management. You will be able to access the Coaches’ Corner–where all competition-related content and resources will be hosted–the Heartbeat community forum, and all the submission forms right there on the Dashboard.

Accessing Missions for the Innovator Cup and Pioneer Cup:

Once your purchase is completed for Class Connect, you will receive an email to activate your Class Connect license.

Once this license is activated, you will be able to register yourself as a coach and register your teams. This is done on your portal page under the Robotics Competition tab.

Once your team/teams are registered, you will get an additional email from CoAssemble, our partner hosting the missions this year. This email will state you have been registered for the “2022-2023 Coaches Corner Course”.

Click on the link to be redirected to the CoAssemble website, and you will see the course and can access the Coaches’ Corner Guide as well as the Missions (available November 3, 2022).

Still having trouble accessing all the resources in the Coaches’ Corner? If you have previously had a license to Class Connect and registered as a coach, and have not seen Coaches’ Corner added to your CoAssemble list of courses, please email us at support@makewonder.com, and we will provide assistance.

Last Year’s Missions:

Taking a peek at last year’s missions might help you get a sense of what the competition is like. Just sign in with your Class Connect subscription and register as a coach to take a peek at the previous years by going to the Coaches’ Corner and selecting the desired year.

2022-23 Wonder League Robotics Competition Milestone Dates:

Here are important milestone dates to keep in mind as coaches develop timelines for teams competing in the 2022-23 Wonder League Robotics Competition.

 

  1. October 21, 2022: Student Team Registration Opens
  2. November 3, 2022: Round One Opens + Five Mission Released
  3. January 13, 2023: Student Team Registration Closes
  4. January 27, 2023: Mission Evidence Submission Closes 
  5. January 28-March 5, 2023: Invitational Round Notification 
  6. February 6, 2023: Invitational Round Opens + Final Mission Released
  7. March 24, 2023: Invitational Round Submission Due 
  8. April 10, 2023: People’s Choice Voting Opens 
  9. April 21, 2023: People’s Choice Voting Closes 
  10. May 4, 2023: 2022-23 Wonder League Robotics Competition Winner Announcement

NEW Award Category: WLRC People’s Choice Award

Teams may opt in to participate in the WLRC People’s Choice Award category by creating a :30 second video explaining the Team’s Invitational Round Final Mission solution that will be shared with the community at www.makewonder.com/classroom/robotics-competition/ in an “online crowd vote” competition. The WLRC People’s Choice Award allows teams to share and celebrate their work in the WLRC and encourage community support in voting for their team. This is an optional category for teams to enter and will not impact scoring of the Invitational Round submission as they will be judged by STEM and Coding experts using a published rubric.

Children’s Privacy:

We take our participants’ privacy very seriously and comply with COPPA when collecting any information. In the invitational round we ask only for the students’ first names, and request parents’ permission. For those that make it into the Invitational Round, we ask for full names, again with permission. We are never marketing, selling to, or corresponding with children. All contact is through the proxy of the coach.