Teacher Education | News

Carlow U To Build CREATE Lab Satellite To Improve STEM Ed

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 03/28/14

Carlow University will build a satellite location of Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab using a $205,000 grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.

The CREATE Lab, for Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment Lab, "explores socially meaningful innovation and deployment of robotic technologies," according to information on the Lab's site.

A collaborative effort between Carlow's School of Education and the Campus School, the satellite lab will launch the Arts & Bots and GigaPan projects developed at the original CREATE Lab.

According to a Carlow news release, the goals of the satellite lab are to:

• "Design curricular approaches for teacher education courses and practica experiences (pre-service) that align with integrated STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) education practices and high performance learning;
• Provide professional development opportunities for in-service teachers and faculty to build knowledge and skills related to selected CREATE Lab projects, high performance learning, and co-teaching;
• Identify a developmentally appropriate scope and sequence for selected CREATE Lab projects; and
• Form an Education Innovation Cluster (EIC) to support and guide satellite activities."

"The CREATE Lab is pleased to partner with Carlow to help future teachers prepare their students to become technologically fluent," said Dror Yaron, director of \outreach for the CREATE Lab, in a prepared statement. "The next generation of students should look at technology as a raw material — something that can be used to achieve community and/or personal goals."