The BFS Fan Page Rampage!

In this episode, Dr. Peter Dalmaris talks with James Zaki.

James is a Graduate of Mechatronic Engineering and Computer Science with honors and 14 years of industry experience.

He started in industrial automation and then transitioning to application development.

Outside of development James worked as engineering team lead and management in small-medium sized companies. He worked predominantly with start-ups and small companies, and has spent considerable time abroad (France, China, India), and always connected to the EduTech space. James is skilled in programming for various devices: mobile, Linux, and microcontrollers. He is experienced at turning product ideas into reality and managing mixed developer teams.

James can speak fluent French, which he has taught himself.

He is also one of the organizers of Ozberry, perhaps Australia's largest Raspberry Pi and Maker-related meetup.

The show notes to this episode can be found here: https://techexplorations.com/podcast/stemiverse-0029-james-zaki/

In this episode, Dr. Peter Dalmaris and Marcus Schappi talk with Nigel Cartmell.

Nigel is the founder of AKL Mini-makers. Started in 2015, AKL Mini-Makers' delivers parent-led technology workshops for Primary and Intermediate school-age children. Nigel and other AKL Mini-Makers' members teach design thinking, and maker culture skills, for prototyping – electronics, coding, digital design and 3d printing.

The weekly workshops run weekly workshops started in February 2016, are financially supported by Parents, and partnered with Auckland Council and AUT (the Auckland University of Technology). They aim to grow with the children (currently 11-years old) until they’re old enough to become junior tutors – a wider tutor base enabling an increase in class numbers.

In this interview, Nigel talks about his journey to start the AKL Mini-Makers' workshops as a way to help his daughter to learn and build cool stuff, and to complement what she was learning at school.

The show notes to this episode can be found here: https://techexplorations.com/podcast/stemiverse-0028-nigel-cartmell/

In this episode, Dr. Peter Dalmaris and Marcus Schappi talk with Peter Mahony.

Peter is the manager of Education and Digital Learning for Sydney’s Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. He leads program direction and delivery for the Museum’s school learning experiences including Thinkspace and The Mars Lab, coding and game design. He is a learning leader for MAAS, a lean startup approach that involves staging punk learning ‘design experiments’ in partnership with young people and school educators or the co-design of bespoke learning experiments.

He initiated Sydney’s first Mini-Maker Faire back in 2014, which has since evolved into an annual event. He has a Master of Teaching, Graduate Diploma in Music Therapy, Bachelor of Arts. Peter’s background is performing and community arts. Back in the day, as performer and musician, he toured nationally and internationally with Castanet Club, including the Edinburgh Arts Festival Fringe, and nationally with theatre and cabaret shows. Currently, Peter sings tenor in Sydney gospel choir Cafe of the Gate of Salvation.

The show notes to this episode can be found here: https://techexplorations.com/podcast/stemiverse-0027-peter-mahony/

In this episode, Dr. Peter Dalmaris and Marcus Schappi talk with Simone Maciel.

Simone is a creative individual who revels in educating people. Having graduated from university with a Bachelor in Arts and a Diploma of Education (secondary), Simone spent the next seven years teaching Drama, Music, English, History, Religious Education and Photographic and Digital Media

Her passion for technology imbued itself in her teaching pedagogy and Simone co-led a successful and creative one-to-one laptop program in her time as an educator. Her areas of expertise include movie making, photography, public speaking, and music integration. Simone has spent the past seventeen years involved in musical theatre, and she draws on this experience in her teaching practice.

In 2012, Simone resigned from her full-time classroom teaching role to pursue a career in teacher training and currently runs Professional Development workshops for MAC1 on a plethora of areas, of which the most popular has become STEM with a specific focus on coding and robotics using Apple Technologies. Her focus is to redefine purpose and authenticity in teaching instruction and at the core of her philosophy is a centered approach to ethics in coding.

The show notes to this episode can be found here: https://techexplorations.com/podcast/stemiverse-0026-simone-maciel/

In this episode, Dr. Peter Dalmaris and Marcus Schappi talk with Kieran Nolan.

This episode is special because while it might not seem that it's about education, it actually is! In this discussion, Kieran takes us for a ride in the world of networks, block chains, total online transparency, and ten-year-old students create their own cryptocurrencies. Stay with us; it will be worth it!

Kieran Nolan is a qualified Network Engineer, certified Cloud Migration Architect, and Educational Technologist, with certifications from Google, Microsoft and Cisco and a Degree in Network Engineering.

He has 10+ years of experience working in schools from K-12.

Under Kieran’s leadership, Wooranna Park Primary School (WPPS) has established itself as an exemplar in introducing the digital world to students.

The school has led the way in establishing a ‘24/7

International Virtual Learning Environment’ in Minecraft, Victoria’s first CoderDojo, Australia’s first Immersive Education Club (iED Club), the World’s youngest Cisco class., and the very first ‘School on the Blockchain.’

The show notes to this episode can be found here: https://techexplorations.com/podcast/stemiverse-0025-kieran-nolan/

In this episode, Dr. Peter Dalmaris and Marcus Schappi talk with Viv White.

Viv is the founder of an innovative new design for learning and schools.

Viv taught primary and secondary education for 13 years, worked in tertiary research for five years as a research fellow at Macquarie University and Victoria University, and served as an adjunct professor at the University of Western Sydney.

She is co-founder, managing director and company secretary of Big Picture Education Australia. The work that Viv does in Big Picture Education is the main topic of our discussion in this episode.

Viv has taken the lead in establishing Big Picture Learning International (BPLI), a venture that will influence governments and educational institutions and launch more schools for disadvantaged and disengaged youth.

The show notes to this episode can be found here: https://techexplorations.com/podcast/stemiverse-0024-viv-white/

In this episode, Dr. Peter Dalmaris and Marcus Schappi talk with Josh Cox.

Josh Cox founded Reptile Encounters in 2007, following a lifelong interest in Australian wildlife. With two parents with teaching backgrounds, the idea was born to take animals into classrooms and educate students about nature.

Josh is the soon to be the author of “Better Humans ­ Empower your students to save the planet,” he has a degree in Medical Science from LaTrobe University and worked in the pharmaceutical industry prior to starting Reptile Encounters.

The show notes to this episode can be found here: https://techexplorations.com/podcast/stemiverse-0023-josh-cox/

In this episode, Dr. Peter Dalmaris and Marcus Schappi talk with Saskia and Alastair.

This is the second part of the Barker College Redbacks team interview. If you haven’t listened to the first part, in which we interview Lael Grant, the team coordinator, please do so now before listening to this second part. Everything will make more sense then!

In this episode, we hear from Saskia and Alastair.

Saskia is a current member of the team and one of the Team Captains. She is a Year-11 student.

Alastair is a team alumnus and now an Engineering student.

Saskia and Alastair talk about life and learning as a competitive robotics team member.

The show notes to this episode can be found here: https://techexplorations.com/podcast/stemiverse-0022-saskia-alaster/

In this episode, Dr. Peter Dalmaris and Marcus Schappi talk with Lael Grant.

Lael is computer programming teacher at Barker College, based in the Sydney suburb of Hornsby, in Australia.

At the College, Lael is the team coordinator and part of the mentor team of the Barker Redbacks. The Redbacks have established themselves as one of the leading Robotics teams in Australia. When Lael is not planning the future of robotics and STEM education at Barker, he teaches programming as a part of the Computer Science faculty.

We interviewed Lael and two student members of the Redback team at the Barker College campus. The result is a two-part episode in which we discuss the importance of using robotics as a vehicle to develop multiple skill sets and attitudes in students.

In this first episode, Lael talks about Robotics education at Barker College and the benefits of cooperative competition.

In the second episode, two student members of the Redbacks team (one current and one alumni) give us a student perspective of what team membership is like for them, and how it has helped them develop technical, personal and interpersonal skills. Saskia, a current member and one of the Team Captains, is in Year 11. And Alastair is a team alumnus and now studying Engineering.

I'll take one more minute in this introduction to give you some background on the Redbacks Robotics team.

The team grew from a small number of students in 2014 through to their successes in 2017. In 2017 the team competed in Australia and around the globe in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) and the VEX Robotics Competition (VRC). The team won the most Regionals of any team in FRC and were finalists in their Division at Championships.

The show notes to this episode can be found here: https://techexplorations.com/podcast/stemiverse-0021-lael-grant/