EdTechTeacher Summit Palm Springs 2018

Silicon Valley is widely recognized as the world's premier hub of innovative design and development. Entrepreneurship and technology is routinely espoused by startup hopefuls, as well as the very largest of corporations world wide. Yet, before five years ago, almost none of our public Silicon Valley schools offered classes to reflect this culture or give opportunity to students seeking to participate in such endeavors. SEARCH class (Science Enrichment And Research) works to merge learning science with business and technology to teach innovation en masse. This semester long science elective class is offered to all 7th and 8th grade students at Joaquin Miller Middle School, a part of the Cupertino Union School District. The presentation will be about my journey as a classroom teacher to create and implement this class that makes applicable all science learned by imposing a business perspective on every student driven project and truly integrate the use of technology for collaborative and creative means. A sampling of the computer applications most useful for the prototyping needs of students and insight into the outcomes that result when students conduct genuine, collaborative, scientific research will be discussed. Hint: students learn more about themselves than anything else in a class like this. SEARCH class provides students a metaphorical playground to explore what it means to bring an idea to fruition. This is the ethos of Silicon Valley.