Cohort 3 FabLearn Fellows

The selected Fellows represent a vast array of maker educators who are making a difference in children’s lives worldwide. They come from schools and community organizations serving populations that include several age groups in North and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Europe. They are newcomers and veterans devoted to the idea of empowering learners, immersing them in rich learning environments, and connecting educational spaces and communities. The Fellows are trying to create deep, impactful learning experiences for children, avoiding the trivialization of maker education.

Latest Posts from the 2020 FabLearn Fellows

Lars Beck JohannsenMay 3, 2024Beyond the Marble: How Modular Mazes Build Skills and Spark Wonder Building a marble maze is more than just a fun challenge—it’s a gateway to exploring a world of scientific, mathematical, and creative concepts. But what if those explorations could go even further? Modular marble mazes are designed specifically to foster open-ended play, collaboration, and… Read more » [...] Read more...
Charles PimentelFebruary 27, 2024  In the Data Age, where data is as valuable as oil in shaping our world, how can 21st-century schools prepare learners and educators to effectively navigate this reality?     The 21st-century school arrived over 20 years ago, a fact that the calendar does not allow us to contradict. This school finds in the… Read more » [...] Read more...
Charles PimentelApril 5, 2023Digital Fabrication in Education – Empowering Math Classes with an Active and Meaningful Approach Introduction When it comes to the learning process of Mathematics, studies show that different factors lead students to have poor performance in the subject. Ziegler & Loos (2017) indicate that the difficulty that students have in their learning is related to… Read more » [...] Read more...
Lars Beck JohannsenFebruary 20, 2023“In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the way we teach and learn. One promising application of AI in education is in coding, where tools like OpenAI Codex are changing the way students and teachers approach programming. OpenAI Codex is a state-of-the-art language model that can… Read more » [...] Read more...
Charles PimentelJanuary 16, 2023Artificial Intelligence: Is ChatGPT a threat? OpenAI’s ChatGPT is a newly developed Artificial Intelligence (AI) agent designed to perform high-level cognitive tasks and produce original text that is indistinguishable from the human-generated text. https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt. It is essential to highlight that AI only reproduces the processes of our society, in activities for which it was trained,… Read more » [...] Read more...
Charles PimentelJanuary 11, 2023Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics STEM Education finds consistent support in Maker-Based Learning through Design Thinking “STEM Education is far more than a “convenient integration” of its four disciplines, rather it encompasses “real-world, problem-based learning” that links the disciplines “through cohesive and active teaching and learning approaches” ” (STEM Task Force Report, 2014) STEM was… Read more » [...] Read more...
Charles PimentelJuly 15, 2022This text was written with the collaboration of Nicolly Figueiredo, my 11th year math student, at Polo Educacional Sesc in Rio de Janeiro. Thanks Nicolly! Motivation: On March 9, 2019, a Saturday, I was in New York City attending the FabLearn Conference, and in one of the hallways of the Teachers College (TC) at Columbia… Read more » [...] Read more...
Michael MumboJune 3, 2022In January 2022, Edutab Africa had a great opportunity to facilitate a robotics session during the 12th edition of Think Young Coding Summer School in Nairobi, Kenya. This presented a chance for collaboration between two Fablearn fellows, Michael Mumbo, the co-founder of EduTab Africa, and Brenda Nyakoa from the International Rescue Committee. Our avid love… Read more » [...] Read more...
Lars Beck JohannsenMay 10, 2022This summer we wanted to host a MakerCamp for Kids in their first week of the summer vacation. My initial idea was to run it as an open lab, but since many kids doesn´t really know what they could expect by turning up, we decided to buy a classroom kit of 6 Air:bits for building… Read more » [...] Read more...
Charles PimentelApril 19, 2022A device that makes the common classroom become a space for innovation, creativity and student entrepreneurship In this text, I report the experience of implementing maker education activities using the GoGo board 6, a low-cost science, computer science, and robotics platform, which has the potential to democratize STEM education in public and private K12 schools… Read more » [...] Read more...

See all blog posts from Cohort 3 FabLearn Fellows