Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez are the hosts of the Constructing Modern Knowledge Summer Institute and the authors of the best-selling Invent To Learn – Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, known world-wide as the “bible” of the maker movement in schools. Invent To Learn has been translated into nine languages.
Our mission is to help educators create spectacular learning adventures for students as they construct knowledge in the modern world.
We do this by offering unique professional learning experiences like CMK. We also write and publish books that provide both vision and action, grounded in research and standing on the shoulders of giants in the field of education.
Gary S. Stager, Ph.D.
Since 1982, Dr. Gary Stager has helped school educators around the world embrace computational technology as an intellectual laboratory, vehicle for self-expression, and window onto a world of possibilities for amplifying the potential of each student in preparation for an uncertain future. All of his work is rooted in the Piagetian notion that “knowledge is a consequence of experience.” His activities with teachers and students are guided by a focus on learning-by-doing.
Gary is one of the world’s leading experts and advocates for computer programming, robotics and learning-by-doing in classrooms. In 1990, Dr. Stager led professional development in the world’s first laptop schools and played a major role in the early days of online education. In addition to being a popular keynote speaker at some of the world’s most prestigious education conferences, Gary is a journalist, teacher educator, consultant, professor, software developer, and school STEM. Director. An elementary teacher by training, he has taught students from preschool through doctoral studies.
Dr. Stager’s most recent book is Twenty Things to Do with a Computer Forward 50: Future Visions of Education Inspired by Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon’s Seminal Work.
When Jean Piaget wanted to better understand how children learn mathematics, he hired Seymour Papert. When Dr. Papert wanted to create a high-tech alternative learning environment for incarcerated at-risk teens, he hired Gary Stager. This work was the basis for Gary’s doctoral dissertation and documented Papert’s most-recent institutional research project.
Dr. Stager’s work earned a Ph.D. in Science and Mathematics Education and he collaborated on a project that won a Grammy Award. Recently, Gary was invited by Fondazione Reggio Children to lead a public seminars on education and teach students in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
Gary is on the advisory board of the NSF-funded project, BJC4NYC: Bringing a Rigorous Computer Science Principles Course to the Largest School System in the US and maintains the world’s largest archive of text and multimedia by Seymour Papert at The Daily Papert.
Gary is the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge Summer Institute for educators.
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Contact Gary at: gary (at) stager (dot) org
Visit Gary’s website: Stager.org or blog: Stager-To-Go
Sylvia Libow Martinez, M.A. Education Technology
A former aerospace engineer, Sylvia Martinez helps teachers bring the exciting tools and technology of the modern world to classrooms. She advocates for student-centered project-based learning with an emphasis on STEAM for all.
Sylvia is principal advisor to the Columbia University FabLearn Fellows, a group of global educators researching and developing hands-on, minds-on projects and curriculum. She also ran educational non-profits and headed product development for consumer software, video games, and educational games at several software publishing companies.
Sylvia is the president of Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, publishing books that offer high-quality content and ideas for education in the modern world based on time-honored principles of hands-on, minds-on education.
Martinez started her career designing high frequency receiver systems and software for GPS navigational satellites. She holds a masters in educational technology and a bachelors in electrical engineering.
Contact Sylvia at: sylvia (at) inventtolearn (dot) com
Visit Sylvia’s website and blog: SylviaMartinez.com
Follow Sylvia on Twitter