PLAY TO LEARN. LEARN TO PLAY.
AIMS empowers educators, families, and youth to design, make, and play—connecting classrooms with communities through creative STEAM experiences, real-world projects, and playful, interest-driven learning.
With science education now featured on the California School Dashboard, there’s never been a better time to rethink how we teach it. Design, Craft, and Code is a hands-on workshop series that equips educators to bring the California NGSS to life through a STEAM-integrated, maker-centered approach—including creative connections to computer science.
TurtleStitch is a free, online platform that uses a block programming language to create patterns for digital embroidery machines. Explore how students can engage in CA CSS and other content standards while using TurtleStitch to design and create their own projects.
Coding doesn’t require secret languages or complex symbols—it can be explored through simple, intuitive tools like Scratch and OctoStudio. In this session, we’ll investigate how devices and hands-on materials can interact in creative ways to help us tell our stories.
Have you ever seen an insect “walking” on water? How does that work? What other mysteries does water hold? This Playshop will have us experimenting with water and surface tension. You will be amazed at what you might discover.
We know that solar power can lower our power bills, but can it do anything else? What if we could build some mechanical devices that run on solar power? Let’s try! Come play with solar power, build, tinker, and create, all with the power of the sun.