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Sapna Cheryan and Andy Meltzoff’s videos are among those featured in this UW News article highlighting the six projects that came from the University of Washington.

STEM for All Video Showcase features six UW projects

Kim Eckart Family-focused science lessons, robotics for young children and touch-based programming for the visually impaired are among the University of Washington research videos featured in the STEM for All Video Showcase,funded by the National Science Foundation.

The weeklong online event, in its fourth year, highlights more than 200 projects from universities around the country and allows viewers to vote for their favorites. This year’s theme is “Transforming the Educational Landscape.”

Researchers from the UW have submitted projects from the College of Education, the Department of Psychology, the Information School, the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences and the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering.

The UW projects are:

  • a study showing how stereotypes of computer science deter women and girls from the field, and how those effects can be mitigated when classrooms and workplaces are designed to be more inclusive (Sapna Cheryan , psychology)
  • the invention of a programming prototype called Blocks4All that allows visually impaired children to learn programming on a touchscreen tablet (Richard Ladner and Lauren Milne, computer science and engineering)
  • research finding that 6-year-old girls who learned to program an animal robot expressed greater interest in technology and more confidence in their own abilities than girls who didn’t program the robot (Allison Master and Andrew Meltzoff, I-LABS)
  • a partnership with Seattle Public Schools and the Teaching Channel to add methods of inquiry and evidence-based explanations to elementary science units (Jessica Thompson, College of Education)
  • a collaboration with Seattle Public Libraries, Pacific Science Center and organizations serving Native American communities that provides a series of family workshops around storytelling, robotics and e-textiles (Carrie Tzou, University of Washington Bothell; Megan Bang and Philip Bell, College of Education)
  • an exploration of technologies that support science learning in the community through the Science Everywhere study (Jason Yip, Caroline Pitt, Arturo Salazar and Diana Griffing, UW Information School; New York University and the University of Maryland-College Park)

Visitors can provide feedback, take part in discussions and vote; the “public choice standings” tab shows the results so far. Videos and voting will be available through May 21.

Andy Meltzoff and Allison Master, from I-LABS, participated in the 2018 NSF’s STEM for All Video Showcase to Highlight Innovation in STEM Education. You can watch their video, Empowering Young Girls in STEM here. Sapna Cheryan is a co-presenter: http://stemforall2018.videohall.com/presentations/1092

Sapna Cheryan ’s lab submitted a video for the 2018 NSF’s STEM for All Video Showcase to Highlight Innovation in STEM Education. You can watch their video, titled, Redesigning Environments Increases Girls’ Interest in CS, here: http://stemforall2018.videohall.com/presentations/1198