Once Upon a Tech

Chapter Nine: We talk to student organizers about Bio-Med Tech-Girls

We talk with student organizers about their experience with Bio-Med Tech-Girls. Noelle is a Junior at St. Anne's-Belfield School and a participant for 2 years. She is now the Tech-Girls intern helping out with the program. Sruthi is a 4th year studying biomedical engineering at the University of Virginia and helped design some of the content. Bio-Med Tech-Girls is a collaboration between the UVA Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), St. Anne's-Belfield School and Charlottesville Women in Tech. This year 23 young women from all over the U.S. joined a week filled with guest speakers, hands-on activities and a design challenge focused on the Go Viral Project developed by Dr. Jeff Saucerman and Dr. Shayn Peirce-Cottler from UVA BME. Find resources here.

Chapter Eight: We talk to Lisel Bruscia about STEAM Discovery Academy

Lisel Bruscia is the Executive Director of the STEAM Discovery Academy. She shares with us all about this program that she and her husband founded in 2016. It has evolved from summer and after school programming to including virtual programming and the opening of a new STEAM Incubator space in Charlottesville. Their programs infuse hands-on STEAM activities with play, design thinking and career education in mind. They also offer leadership programs for girls. Find resources here.

Chapter Seven: Sarah and Kim catch up on their summer activities

Despite or maybe because of the pandemic, we are busier than ever this summer - teaching online classes, running summer camps and taking and offering summer professional development. In this episode, we catch you up on all our summer activities and of course, share tons of resources!

Chapter Six: We talk to Jean Weller about #edtech and #GoOpenVa

Jean Weller is the Educational Technology Specialist in the Office of STEM & Innovation for the Virginia Department of Education. She is currently the administrator of #GoOpenVa, an open education resource community and repository for all teachers in Virginia. In this episode, Jean shares how the promises of edtech from the last 30 years finally seem ready to come to fruition and how #GoOpenVa can help teachers and students make it happen in Virginia. Find resources here.

Chapter Five: We talk to Saber Khan about ethical CS and creative computing

Saber Khan is a progressive CS educator, Education Community Director at the Processing Foundation and co-host of the #ethicalCS twitter chat. Kim first met Saber at #MozFest 2016 where he and a colleague, Jennie Crowley, shared ideas for building an open source ethical CS program. In our interview, we explore what’s been happening around the ideas of ethical CS and learn about the power of creative computing with P5JS. Find resources here.

Chapter Four: Stereotypes, failure and the creative side of CS with Camellia Pastore

In this episode, we talk about stereotypes, failure and appreciating the creative side of CS with Camellia Pastore, a rising senior studying computer science at Virginia Tech. We last spoke with Cami during #MorningMeeting. We have worked with Cami through Tech-Girls, Spark Hackathon, Summer Spark and most recently as co-presenters at #MozFest and we are always blown away by this young woman's drive and wisdom. Find resource page here.

Chapter Three: We talk to the creator of Stand with BLM website

In this episode, we talk with Brehanu Bugg, creator of Stand with BLM, a resource to "to inform and provide resources to Black Lives Matters activists". He also happens to be a former middle school student of ours and now a rising 11th grader. During this episode, he shares with us how he is embracing the intersection of technology and literacy through his love of CS, drama and writing. We also find out how Stand with BLM came into being. Finally, Sarah and Kim share a few Black Lives Matter resources that have been impactful on their anti-racist journey. Find resource page here.

Once Upon a Tech: We're Back!

We're back! We so enjoyed our time doing #MorningMeeting, but we are transitioning back to our original idea for the podcast: highlighting people that are working and projects that are happening at the intersection of technology and literacy. We hope you'll join us on our weekly journey! Learn more at www.onceuponatech.com.

Morning Meeting: Day Forty

In today’s episode, Day Forty, we wrap up #MorningMeeting. It has been such a pleasure sharing laughter, resources, special guests and daily challenges with you for the past 10 weeks! We will be back in June with a weekly podcast format. Find resources and stats from #MorningMeeting here.

Morning Meeting: Day Thirty-nine

In today’s #MorningMeeting Day Thirty-nine, we catch up on sharing our resource backlog including Code with an athlete, Varsity Tutors with Leland Melvin, Celebrities read James and the Giant Peach, How let your children be upset, and a mother’s COVID-19 children’s book parodies go viral. The daily challenge is to check out the Fresh Films video challenge and/or the Emoji Summer Reading challenge. Find resources here.