How Nord Anglia International School is Using TechEd Curriculum

What are the MIT STEAM Challenges?

The MIT STEAM Challenges is a collaboration between Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Nord Anglia Education to enhance the teaching and learning of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) by connecting MIT innovation and culture to Nord Anglia schools globally through project-based challenges.

Nord Anglia schools have been participating in three MIT challenges each year since 2016. The Challenges are in-school cross-curricular experiences for Nord Anglia students based on MIT research. TThe MIT Challenges provide a unique chance for every Nord Anglia Education school, teacher, and student to experience MIT. Each MIT Challenge embodies the teaching and learning culture of MIT, is rooted in the research of MIT faculty, and makes that research relevant and accessible to Nord Anglia students.

This Year’s Theme

The 2018-2019 MIT Challenge is themed “STEAM Superheroes”. Participants are encouraged to take inspiration from three MIT professors and their graduate student research assistants.

The three “STEAM Superheroes” challenges showcase the work of an MIT professor and a graduate student researcher. Nord Anglia students then tackle a project of their own, using the professor and their process as inspiration

The three STEAM Superheroes and their powers are:

Epic Identity featuring Prof. Leia Stirling: Students will learn about wearable technology and its ability to improve human performance.

Super Natural featuring Prof. Anette “Peko” Hosoi: Students will closely observe the natural world and understand the physics behind an animal’s adaptation, then apply that knowledge to engineering design.

Medical Marvel featuring Prof. Chris Voigt: Students will tap into the potential of applying engineering principles to biological problems to improve human health.

BSD Education and Nord Anglia International School, Hong Kong

BSD partnered with Nord Anglia International School, Hong Kong (NAIS HK) in 2017/18 to develop and deliver projects for the MIT STEAM Challenges.

As part of the partnership, BSD trained 4 NAIS HK teachers in 2017 and is currently training 8 in 2018. The 4 teachers developed in 2017, internally trained 4 teachers each, making a total of 20 teachers trained in 2017.

What students will learn to build using BSD Online in 2018-19

Year 3-6 students at NAIS HK are using BSD’s cross-curricular TechConnected to create their own MIT STEAM Challenge inventions. BSD’s cross-curricular TechConnected helps NAIS HK students construct MIT STEAM Challenge inventions. Creating digital artifacts and displaying their work are among the topics covered in this technology education course.

The BSD projects recommended can be used by students to showcase and present work or to apply their learning. For example, students will showcase their work by documenting their journey of researching and building their own STEAM Challenge and present this by creating a digital portfolio. Students learn about the challenges of space travel, the preparation required and what astronauts do when they face problems in space; then students apply this learning by creating a Mission to Mars theme Choose Your Own Adventure game.

All students will be building their own Personal Portfolio Showcase to document their learning and showcase what they have built. In addition to this, students will complete the following projects in each year group:

Firstly, Year 3: Introduction to coding in HTML & CSS followed by coding and designing their Online Poster with a Keep Calm and Carry On theme.

Secondly, Year 4: My First Website to explain and document their STEAM Challenge

Thirdly, Year 5: My First Website with the theme of “Into the Unknown” and Choose Your Own Adventure with a “Mission to Mars” theme.

Lastly, Year 6: Trivia Game and MicroBit Wearables with a “Medical Marvel” theme.

At BSD, we believe in and advocate for introducing technology education, including coding, to students during the primary years. This builds a strong foundation of skills,  knowledge, and experience applying technology that they have created in a real-world context to make them future-ready and prepare them for technology first careers.

If you are infusing your regular lessons with technology skills we would love to hear from you.

Teacher Interview: Shasta Quilala from The Philippines

Our partnership with BSD has, in two years time, provided us with threefold gain in the areas of:

Student Engagement – Their easy to use and navigate platform as well as the unique and unusual projects have seen us gain an increase of at least 50% overall across those subjects using their material as compared to those without. This engagement has also led to better performance in terms of scoring in tests and activities on the part of the student, and much lesser preparation and checking time on the part of the teacher, which in turn allows us to focus on the learning experience itself.

Professional Development – The computational and design thinking principles embedded into the curriculum drive our teachers towards a more learner centric approach in practice, not just in principle. They have also been able to provide us with real time, personalized support that have enabled even our new faculty to maximize the use of the program within their classrooms.

Organizational Growth – Our partnership with BSD has given us a competitive edge over other schools in the market and a unique value proposition that has increased our enrollment. It has also been an integral part of our developing a future ready, future smart curriculum and learning approach that we have used in order to gain accreditation for our programs at GSC.”

– Alessandra Valino, Vice President of Good Samaritan Colleges, The Philippines

Since the Summer 2017 started, we have been working with an amazing school that decided to fully integrate technology education into their subjects and classrooms. We spoke to Shasta Quilala, a teacher from Good Samaritan Colleges who felt empowered learning technology education with BSD. 

1. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and what subject you teach?

My name is Shasta, I am from Dagupan City, Pangasinan. I am a teacher at Good Samaritan Colleges, located at Cabanatuan City and I teach Technology and Livelihood Education (T.L.E.) for Grades 9 and 10. I also teach Computing for Grade 10 with cores Database and Visual Basic Programming.

2. What has kept you busy over the last few months?

The past few months have been very busy because our school decided to run our first ever Summer Camp (Back in March)! With the help of our teachers and the BSD Education team, our students had an in-depth, hands on experience with technology. We received a lot of positive feedback and reaction from the students, even how they felt they were famous techies. They even surpassed our levels of achievement, learning technology education through BSD Online!

When the school year started, we also ran a pre-learning session for technology teachers of Grades 7-10 to introduce HTML and CSS and get students started to help prepare them in using code across different subject areas, like English and Social Studies. It was a bit challenging at first because for some students, it had been the first time they ever used a computer. It was very satisfying and gratifying for us to see our students interests in coding, they could even code better than us!

3. What cool things are coming up in the next few months?

Technology education is being fully integrated into our curriculums this year. I am one of many excited teachers! Some of my colleagues have already started creating their lesson plans with BSD’s integration.

It is wonderful to see that teachers are starting to be more fond of technology and adopting it into their classrooms. They are starting to see code as their partner and tool for teaching, it makes learning more conducive and interesting. We hope it will be as successful as the recent Summer Camp held.

4. What do you want to do next in bringing tech into your classroom for your students?

As a technology teacher, I want to engage students in coding and robotics more, they are very powerful tools for everyone. BSD is a stepping stone for all Filipino students to come out of their shells and develop their tech journeys, we know and can see that there is a lot of potential. As their teacher, I am ready to mold and guide them towards the competitive world outside the four corners of our classrooms.