Indiana Area Junior High is proud to host the 3nd annual “Southwest PA Combat Bots Middle School

League” competition.

Your middle schools are cordially invited to join our growing league. They are offering an in-service on how to start and maintain a competitive team on Oct. 9 from 7:30/8:00 until 12:00.

Topics addressed will include league rules, guidelines, technical specifications, software, materials, electrical components, documentation portfolio and the competition.

Please RSVP by Oct. 2 to

Scott Herrington – sherrington@iasd.cc

Mike Dolges – mdolges@iasd.cc

Southwest PA Combat Bots Middle School League competition will be held on Friday, May 17, 2024 at the Indiana Area Junior High gymnasium.

inHub is a Community Built by Educators for Educators. Join a community with over 4,500 educators to access resources, professional development opportunities, and experiences designed to inspire innovation, creativity, and invention.

inHub's curriculum resources draw on stories of innovators to help students build knowledge and skills that they can apply in the real world. Their ready-to-use lesson plans and activities — available for grades K-12 — foster innovative thinking skills in your students, preparing them for the future. You can access curriculum and learning resources for free when you join inHub.

goblin.tools is a collection of small, simple, single-task tools, mostly designed to help neurodivergent people with tasks they find overwhelming or difficult.

Use MagicToDo to break down overwhelming tasks. Ask Formalizer to make your text more formal. Create delicious meals by telling Chef what you have available.

If your district uses or is interested in any of the tools listed below, please contact Travis Stormer tstormer@iu28.org, for partnership agreement pricing.

• ClickView
• Kami
• Newsela
• TalkingPoints
• GoGuardian (Pear Deck, Educalstic, TutorMe)
• Parent Square

We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the Fall Pennsylvania Scholastic Esports League and will remain open until September 12, 2023!

Fall PSEL Info Session: If you have questions or would like to meet our team, we will be hosting an info session on Friday, August 25 from 11am-12pm via Zoom. You can register for the Zoom link here. All are welcome as we will be answering questions about registration, team composition, and changes for this season. This meeting is open to new and veteran coaches and administrators.

Eligibility:

• Your organization must be an active member of PSEL. If you have not yet registered with us, you can register here.
• Your organization must be in the Commonwealth of PA.
• Each organization may register up to 4 teams per game title.
• Your organization must commit to having a coach present for all matches.
• Your organization must confirm that your technology is up and running prior to registering.
• Your team must be prepared to play at 3:30pm on the day of the matches, barring extreme circumstances.

Registration Process (new this year!):

1. Create an account in UGC (our tournament platform) and create teams within your account for each team you plan to register

2. Submit this Google form to register (it will require you to have your rosters for each game title including required subs)

3. Once your registration form is reviewed, your team will be invited to join the UGC scheduling system

Participation in the ARIN Lending Library offers you access to over 100 STEM tools. Sign up for an account, search our inventory, request materials, and have them delivered to your school. Our library includes robotics kits for all ages, drones, virtual field trip kits, and more! Click here for more information.

These amazing kits include a teacher guide along with all the materials you need to conduct a hands on classroom activity after diving in to details about one of our amazing Pennsylvania counties. Make paper, explore rubbings of animal prints, create a stop motion movie, and more. The teacher guide includes career connections - perfect for meeting the CEW standards! Click the link below for more information.

ARIN supports the implementation of the Pennsylvania Integrated Standards for Science, Technology & Engineering, and Environmental Literacy and Sustainability (PA STEELS Standards) by providing assistance for building curriculum, instruction, and assessment capacity.

Please click here for details on upcoming trainings and supports for the STEELS Standards.

Design Lives Here is a series of three lessons that equips teachers and students (grades 5th-8th) to participate in engineering activities within their school or afterschool program. Professional engineers serve as mentors to students throughout the year. Schools who participate are diverse – public, parochial and private – and have the option of making this part of their school day or an extended program. Each spring, all the participants come together for a day of engineering challenges, grouped in new teams to compete for prizes. Design Lives Here activities are inspired by the popular PBS KIDS program and website, Design Squad Nation.

Apply to participate in 2023-2024's Design Lives Here.

Click the link below to download the form and follow the instructions.

Application

ARIN convenes diverse stakeholder groups to establish STEM/Computer Science partnerships and create meaningful programs as part of dynamic collective impact networks (STEM Ecosystems) in support of authentic real-world and relevant STEM/computer science learning and career readiness. For more information, please contact Stacie Isenberg at sisenberg@iu28.org.

Armstrong Indiana Career Pathways Partnership

ARIN Career Readiness Updates

Chief Science Officers (CSO) Program

ABC CREATE L.E.A.D.S

ARIN supports the development and implementation of local, regional, and state STEM and Computer Science related competitions.

PA Invention Convention -

• ARIN Regional Competition - December 14, 2023
• State Competition - Hershey Lodge, February 2024

Media and Design Competition (MadCom)

• ARIN Regional Competition -
• State Competition - Dickenson College, May 2024

STEM Design Challenge -

• ARIN Regional Competition - March 26, 2024
• State Competition - Harrisburg, May 2024

24 Math Challenge - April 9, 2024

PA Governor's STEM Logo Competition 2024

• Deadline for submissions is December 12, 2023, at 9:00 PM.

PA Governor's STEM Competition 2024

• Team registration opens September 27, 2024
• Team registration closes on February 5, 2024
• Round 1 of judging will occur virtually from March 7 - 27, 2024
• State Finals will be held at PaTTAN Harrisburg on May 8, 2024

ARIN supports the growth and implementation of K-12 Computer Science Education and the 7-12

Computer Science Educator Certification (CSPG-71) in collaboration with PaTTAN via CSinPA.

CS4ALL SCRIPT Workshops - CS alignment for districts

Workshop offered for ABC CREATE Districts on Feb. 28-29

CSinPA 7-12 Computer Science Praxis Pathway Information (Fall info TBA)

ABC CREATE L.E.A.D.S - CS sessions and PD for K-8 students and teachers

CMU Computer Science Academy

Google CS First

Code.org

The 100% virtual 7-12 Praxis Prep pathway is open to PA 7-12 educators who are currently teaching or will soon be teaching a CS course and are planning to take the 7-12 CS Praxis exam required for certification. October 31 is the deadline to register for the Fall cohort. Additional cohorts will open throughout the 2023-24 school year.

7-12 CS teachers: use this Google Form to tell us your plans for the exam and certification, and if relevant, request reimbursement. The form allows for multiple submissions allowing you to update your status with the exam.

If you are a school or district administrator who wants to learn more about how you can support CS teachers, or teachers integrating CS into their classes, please consider joining us for Cohort 3 of our PIL program Leading the Charge: CS for School Administrators.

For more information, including registration, visit our Smore here.

Birdbrain Technologies PD - Register today to build your skills, get creative, and learn everything you need to spark deep and joyful learning in the classroom with a FREE robot thanks to the support of the Infosys Foundation USA.

Through school counselor-led initiatives, the mini-grants will provide support for increasing access, persistence and opportunity for the computing and cyber security pipeline access for underserved populations. Grants can be used to support acquisition of technology, transportation, community outreach, supporting safety protocols, promotion and marketing, or related event fees (building fees, honorarium). Preference will be towards grants specifically towards supporting and or promoting District involvement in the PASmart Targeted Grants. If you would like to draft this in google docs first, here is a template.

Application Deadline:

• Information Session September 27th 3:15pm.
• Deadline October 20th, 2023

They are anticipating at least 10 mini-grants for up to $1,000 for school counselors to use to help promote access, equity, exposure and support for computer science education.

They are anticipating at least 10 mini-grants for up to $3,000 for school counselors or student/teacher teams leading the coordination of a multi-day program like a summer camp or after school program.