Workshops
Offered in Partnership with Tekmania GmbH
Our workshops are offered on-demand and provide a unique experience that combines experimental learning with tools and techniques that educators can implement to help promote creative thinking and collaboration with their students. Developed with support from EPFL and ETHZ, and domain experts from ICT and Education, our workshops offer a great way to introduce the foundations of engineering, innovation, and algorithmic concepts with your students.
The world of teaching is changing, and there is a need to enable teachers to use new technical abilities and knowledge with their students. In our courses, educators will understand these abilities and be able to use them to educate children according to Lehrplan 21 requirements, preparing them to meet 21st century demands.
We focus at the primary school level and we can customize our offering easily to provide the exact training you need.
Please feel free to contact us directly at info@tekmania.ch if you are looking for a specific workshop not mentioned here, have special requests or any questions on our workshops.
(8-15 participants) Add-on 90 minute available
Student animation is one of the most exciting advances in education technology, allowing students the opportunity to be endlessly creative in designing their own stories. This workshop will provide you with an overview of two popular animation apps for education: Toontastic and GoAnimate. Designed for 8-15 participants, you will be able to start teaching with these animation apps after this workshop. Available also as a 90 minute workshop with hands-on projects, we provide creative ideas that help meet Lehrplan 21 requirements for you to share or customize for your students.
(6-15 participants)
This 45 minute hands-on overview covers all the basics you need to introduce and use Thymio II with your students immediately. No programming required, we will walk you through all of the six pre-programmed behaviors and their didactic uses. Everyone will also receive an Introduction Lesson Plan that covers vocabulary and Lehrplan 21 requirements you can either use directly or modify to use with your students. Additional online links to educational material will also be provided. Designed for a minimum of 6 to 15 participants, contact us for further details, pricing and how to register your group.
(8-15 Participants) 90 Minute Add-on Available
This 45 minute hands-on workshop will enable you to directly use Aseba VPL with your students. You must already have a comfort level with Thymio II and its six pre-programmed behaviors. This workshop will provide hands-on training and specific knowledge on how to program Thymio with VPL with didactic approaches for your students. Everyone will also receive a useable Lesson Plan that covers vocabulary and Lehrplan 21 requirements you can either use directly or modify to use with your students. The workshop can be customized as an intensive 90 minute workshop to include all of Thymio's six pre-programmed behaviors and their didactic uses. Additional online links to educational material will also be provided. Designed for a minimum of 8 to 15 participants, contact us for further details, pricing and how to register.
(8-15 Participants)
One of the most popular programming languages used in schools today, this 90 minute hands-on workshop covers all the basics you will need to introduce and program with Scratch Jr. with your students. This workshop will provide hands-on training and specific knowledge on how to program using Scratch Jr showcasing didactic approaches and challenges for your students. Utilizing vocabulary and Lehrplan 21 requirements you will have resources you can either use directly or modify to use with your students. Additional online links to educational material will also be provided. Designed for a minimum of 8 to 15 participants, contact us for further details, pricing and how to register.
(8 - 15 Participants) Add-on with Thymio or Ozobot available
Similar to Scratch and used by both Ozobot and Thymio educational robots, Blockly is a visual block programming educational tool that goes beyond event-action pairing and introduces additional fundamental coding concepts including counting loops, decision conditions and logic flow. This 45 minute hands-on workshop will provide hands-on training and specific knowledge on how to program with Blockly and covers didactic approaches for your students. The workshop can be customized as an intensive 90 minute workshop to include programming with either the Thymio or the Ozobot educational robots. Additional online links to educational material will be provided. Designed for a minimum of 8 to 15 participants, contact us for further details, pricing and how to register.
(8-15 Participants)
Scratch is designed and maintained by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab and designed primarily for children ages 8-16. It is a visual block styled application language that helps foster innovation and creativity in addition to learning programming fundamentals and algorithmic thinking. This 90 minute intensive workshop covers its programming basics and provides challenge samples you can customize and use with your students. Working hands-on will provide training and specific knowledge on how to program with Scratch and apply didactic approaches for your students. An overview of vocabulary and Lehrplan 21 requirements will be provided along with additional online links to educational material, lesson plans, and the Scratch On-Line Community. Designed for a minimum of 8 to 15 participants, contact us for further details, pricing and how to register.
(15-25 Participants)
CS Unplugged is a concept that uses activities to experience questions and challenges that computer scientists experience, but without requiring to learn programming first. Designed for introducing Computer Science concepts without equipment, we have two workshops "How does the Internet Work", and "How do you Search on the Internet" specific for primary school level. This presentation will give you an overview of the concept of CS Unplugged, these workshops, and how they can be integrated with your curriculum to cover Lehrplan 21 requirements without need of computers. Workshop material and additional supporting information will also be provided.
(15-25 Participants) Add-on for hands-on challenge available
The Design Sprint is a five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas. Developed at Google Ventures, it's a “greatest hits” of business strategy, innovation, behavior science, design thinking, and more—packaged into a battle-tested process that any team can use. Ideal for helping teachers to understand how to think along the lines of innovation and how to adapt those ideas for their students, this 45 minute theory overview describes and explains the techniques used by industry leaders today. Designed for a minimum of 15 - 20 people, we can customize this workshop for 90 minutes to provide a hands-on exercise that enforces the ideas of Design Sprint Theory. We will also supply several challenges you can customize to do with your students plus additional online links and educational material.
Design Sprint Theory Intensive Workshop
(15-25 Participants) Add-on 5 Day Workshop Available
Designed to follow our Design Sprint Theory Overview, this intensive workshop describes and explains Design Sprint Theory techniques in detail. Designed for a minimum of 15 - 25 people, this 3 hour workshop provides a hands-on exercise that details two of the five key areas of the Design Sprint Theory. Also available as the full 5-day course that walks you thought the actual process used by industry leaders today, it is perfect for ICT week. We supply several challenges you can customize to do with your students plus additional online links and educational material.
