USD 500 microgrants available for workshops, short courses

Your name, and that of your organisation (or the organisation that will receive funds on your behalf).

Rupesh Bhattarai

Habeli Outdoors Learning Center

Name of event. Make another post with another event name if you have another event.

Environmental Science with micro:bit

Email address by which you may be contacted.

mailsikaru@gmail.com

What open science hardware tool(s) will be the focus of your event?

BBC micro:bit and environment sensors.

Describe your course or workshop, whom and what it is for, where and when it will be held, how many attendees (IRL or virtual) you expect.

The workshop is intended for teachers working in schools in Kathmandu. We plan to invite around 25-30 science teachers from around 15 schools. We will be running this workshop in the school where I am currently working.

We want to focus on two major ideas during the workshop.

  1. Outdoor science education, 2. and integrating open-source hardware(mico:bit) to learn from nature.

Brief plan:

Pre-workshop: Teachers interested in the workshop register for the workshop.

Day 1(4 hours): Introduction to open-science hardware and examples of their various applications. Introduction to micro:bit. Exploring different sensors and their uses. Conversation on the potential of a community of teachers exploring open-science hardware in their classrooms. Day 2(4 hours): Using sensors and micro:bit to gather environmental data. A guided activity followed by sharing challenges, insights, and takeaways. Brainstorming the use of micro:bit in lessons in the classroom. Followed by reflection.

Post-workshop: Teachers sign up for the community of teachers exploring open-science hardware.

Do you have plans for ongoing activities after this event OR is it intended that the participants will continue activities after this event? If so, describe the intentions and plans here.

A major motivation behind having this workshop for teachers is that they will continue integrating these ideas in their classrooms. Having a registration link for self-motivated teachers will ensure that the teachers will actually integrate these ideas in their classrooms and also share their reflections with the rest of the teachers.

A rather ambitious aspiration is also that we could have this community of teachers actively participating in the open-science hardware community and we can learn from each other.

What event outputs (e.g. teaching materials, curricula, software, etc.) will you make available? Will these outputs carry an open licence?

We will share the workshop plans. We also intend to create a community of science teachers using micro:bit and other open-source tools in their classrooms who will share their work with the community. We will encourage teachers to share these to open-source platforms.

What you will use the grant for, roughly.

Micro:bits - 10*25$

Sensors: 150$ (various different kinds)

Workshop refreshment: 50$

Printing and other possible costs: 50$ (This includes the costs we might have to make to invite motivated teachers to the workshop, for example, a sponsored social media post with a registration form, phone calls, and text messages)

Provide links (references) to documentation or reviews of similar events or works you have executed. School coursework or projects can be listed, even social media posts. Anything to give a sense of what you’re about and your ability to successfully conduct this course or workshop. To keep this short, just the links and their descriptions will do.

A hike for students during a camp to explore an abandoned marble factory and the varieties of butterflies found in the area.

A webinar for teachers to integrate the 5E model of instruction in their virtual classrooms.

Facilitating a workshop for teachers on critical thinking in the classroom.