New Opportunities: December 7th, 2020

Year-End Contributions

Please consider donating to the work of STEM West this year to continue bringing STEM programming to our rural students in western NC!


Computer Science Week:

This holiday season, join as we create and give through 3D printing. Introduce your child to one of the most revolutionary manufacturing techniques of this decade, and embark on an exciting journey of discovery and exploration! Kids will learn about the breadth of 3D printing, understand how it works and create their own virtual 3D models using TinkerCAD.
In addition to the students creating their own 3D printed item each day, we will be plugging in live to work with the children of Levine’s Children’s Hospital through Seacrest Studios.

Dates: December 7-10
Time: 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Cost: $25.00 FREE
Location: Virtual


Resources for CS Week from:

Activity Outline: Computer Science Education Week 

Computer Science Education week will run from December 7-11, 2020. Below each day has been broken down into daily activities that can be implemented each day. Each day has a link to daily computer science facts and then either computational thinking activities or applied computer science activities. 

DateActivities for the Classroom
December 7Daily Computer Science Week Cards
Computer Scientist of the Day
Computational Thinking Activities 
–Choose one to implement in your classroom as a warm-up, lesson, or exit ticket. 
December 8Daily Computer Science Week Cards
Code Bytes— Choose one activity to participate in, either live or asynchronous
LIVE ZOOM SESSION: Exploring the Ethics of AI–Scroll down the page to see link to joinLive Webinar at 10:30 – 11:15 am PST 
December 9 Daily Computer Science Week Cards
Hour of Code Activities, Artificial Intelligence
–AI and Machine Learning are impacting our entire world. Join us to explore AI in a new video series, train AI for Oceans in 25+ languages, discuss ethics and AI, and more.
Binary Pixels
–A great activity for a lesson. About 45 minutes
December 10Daily Computer Science Week Cards
Tynker Hour of Code Activities
–Choose One of these activities for your morning SEL time or as a warm-up, lesson, or exit ticket
Building a Chat Bot
–Join a free one hour after school activity to learn how to build a chat bot! A collaboration between Digi Bridge & Dottie Rose Foundation
December 11Daily Computer Science Week Cards
Animate a 3D Logo
–Kids will use their imagination and code to create an animated 3D logo of their name, favorite sports team or anything else they want. At the end, they can download an animated sticker of their creation and share it with friends.
Play that Tune Puzzle
–In this activity, kids will build code to play tunes given in the puzzles. After completing all of the levels, they can code their own tune and download it as an app for an Android device.

The NC Business Committee for Education in partnership with Lenovo has launched cycle 2 of our statewide mobile app development competition- Ready, Set, App!  Registration for cycle two has been extended and will close on January 15, 2021. Can you please share the information below with your network?


Ready, Set, App! Cycle 2 Registration Deadline Extended


     The Ready, Set, App! challenge is an Android mobile app development competition for North Carolina students. Student groups will develop a functional and original mobile app using a mobile app development platform, such as MIT App Inventor, to solve a problem in their community or school. The top teams will get the opportunity to pitch their app at the Virtual Ready, Set, App! Competition in April to win Lenovo-branded prizes. All final teams will receive an appointed intern to serve as peer support and a project workbook to assist with the app development process.



Participants must be in 9-12th grade.This competition is for public or public charter high schools in NC.Teams of 3-5.Each team must have an educator to serve as their advisor.Please note- projects do not have to be completed by January 15th. Register now to gain access to additional materials to support your app development process.



Use the link HERE to register for the program

Visit https://readysetapp.devpost.com/ for more information.Good luck NC Students!

 Join us for Cultural Arts LIVE, a two-day immersive and interactive learning experience for you and your students.Take virtual field trips across the state. Watch and impact an artist at work. Learn their craft. Explore history. Be entertained by dancers and performers. Move along with them. Participate in a virtual choir with students all across NC. Get started now with the pre-conference activities online. The list goes on, and it’s all for free. 

Register now to attend Cultural Arts LIVE brought to you by NC Student Connect on December 15th and 16th.
Don’t worry if you can only attend a session or two or if both days can’t fit into your schedule. We will have recordings of most sessions available following the conference for anything you miss or want to revisit.

See a list of the available sessions and plan your day online now. We can’t wait to share Cultural Arts LIVE with you and your students.  

Graph Maker for Kids!

Check out this resource that allows students to create many different kinds of graphs and it can be used to teach…which graph and why!


Career Exploration Tool!

Career Exploration Tool for NC can be used to explore careers through interests, economic plans, and education.