A total of 42 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Mathematics and English Language Arts. An engaging and effective way to meet these standards is through classroom engineering—and Engineering is Elementary offers convenient CCSS Alignment Guides to help you make the connections.

Have you remembered to “spring forward" yet? If you were up very early on Sunday morning, you might’ve noticed the clock on your phone suddenly jumped an hour into the future—don’t forget to reset your watch, too! This leap marked the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, the period from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November when clocks are set one hour ahead of Standard Time. While the extra hour of sleep gained during the return in the fall to Standard Time is quite popular amongst night owls and college students, this biannual time adjustment is also responsible for plenty of headaches. One of the complications it creates is also an interesting engineering problem—how do you make sure everyone is “on time”?

We’ve been very excited to roll out our new online professional development offerings over the past few months—we’ve conducted webinars about habits of mind and engineering in out-of-school time and we’ve had some amazing discussions with educators around the country about STEM integration and ELA connections. Now, we’re ready to take online PD to the next level with the very first online workshop series this summer. We’re looking for a small group of highly motivated teachers to help us pilot test this new experience. If you are selected, you’ll receive a scholarship that includes:

• three online professional development sessions
• an EiE teacher guide of your choice
• the EiE materials kit for the unit
• a classroom set of 24 storybooks for the unit
• a $150 stipend for your feedback about the experience

One of the EiE staff’s favorite classroom engineering moments from our video entry to the NSF 2016 Video Showcase is when young engineer Max says to his classmate Charley, “Before this, I didn’t know Charley was a genius about this topic!” Charley responds, “I didn’t know I could even say that much or learn that much,” to the well-deserved compliment. This vignette perfectly illustrates one of the engineering habits of mind we hope all EiE learners develop: to see themselves as engineers and as problem solvers. In addition to engaging students like Charley and Max in engineering activities, we’ve learned that exposing them to positive role models they can identify with can also help accomplish this goal. So, in honor of Women’s History Month, we hope you’ll share these role models to inspire your own “genius” moments.

March is an exciting time here in Boston—the snow is melting, spring is nearly here, and we’re ready to hit the road for conference season! We love meeting EiE educators, answering your burning questions, and finding out about the amazing things you’re doing in your own classrooms or districts. And when you come visit us at a conference, you’re guaranteed to have fun and learn something new. Find our booths to check out our new materials kits or ask us about a new project you’re excited about (like early childhood engineering or digital storybooks). And visit our hands-on sessions, where you’ll get the chance to get your hands dirty and dive deep into some of our tried-and-true (and brand new) engineering design challenges. Check out our spring schedule to find out where and when we’ll be in your area, and let us know if we’ll see you there!