This year, Constructing Modern Knowledge offers two incredible hands-on pre-institute workshops on July 10th from 9 AM to 3 PM for institute attendees interested in enhancing their learning experiences. These workshops are optional and not included in CMK 2023 registration.

You will be able to register for these workshops during the CMK registration process. These workshops run at the same time — you cannot register for both!

  1. scintillae – Play and Learning in the Digital Age
  2. Introduction to Learning with Electronics

Workshop #1: Scintillae – Play and Learning in the Digital Age – A unique workshop in collaboration with educators from Reggio Emilia, Italy!

Constructing Modern Knowledge 2023 is thrilled to offer institute participants a rare opportunity to learn with two educators from the scintillae team from the Fondazione Reggio Children—Centro Loris Malaguzzi in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Scintillae – Play and Learning in the Digital Age, will be a full-day pre-institute workshop on July 10th at the site of CMK 2023 in Manchester, New Hampshire USA.

This workshop is named after scintillae – play and learning in the digital age, an experimental research project led by the Fondazione Reggio Children – Centro Loris Malaguzzi. The word “scintillae” means small sparks or flashes, and reminds us that being attuned to the smallest of sparks is a crucial part of understanding learning.

In our digital age, scintillae represents a learning context characterized by a natural and playful approach to digital technology, where the physical and digital worlds interact, creating unexpected and unusual encounters for learning, designing and building knowledge and images together.

The workshop will explore these ideas in a full-day experience, led by two Reggio Emilia educators from the scintillae team. One of the many gifts Reggio Emilia has given to the world is the process of documentation – observing, interpreting, and communicating artifacts, interactions, and experiences in order to make invisible thinking visible. Although widely recognized as the best preschools in the world, the powerful ideas of the Reggio Emilia Approach can and should inform teaching any subject at any age.

scintillae aims to create and offer contexts where the expressive potential of play and digital tools generate ideas, connections and new knowledge. The project is based on the assumption that the playful dimension is part of every day learning and that children actively build, through reciprocity and sharing, a model of the world through play. In our digital age, scintillae represents a learning context characterized by a natural and playful approach to digital technology, where the physical and digital worlds interact, creating unexpected and unusual encounters for learning, designing and building knowledge and images together. (Learn more about the scintillae research project)

In the spirit of reciprocity, a critical value of the Reggio Emilia Approach, Monday’s scintillae workshop leaders will then participate in the Constructing Modern Knowledge institute as learners.

Only at CMK 2023!


Workshop #2: Introduction to Learning with Electronics

Brian Smith helps participants in the Introduction to Learning with Electronics workshop at CMK 2019

Jumpstart your CMK 2023 learning adventures by joining veteran educators and longtime CMK faculty member Tracy Rudzitis in her popular workshop, Introduction to Learning with Electronics, where electronics and coding are demystified. Learn about circuits, switches, power. Learn to program the low-cost and incredibly powerful BBC micro:bit and build whimsical robotics projects with the Hummingbird Bit Robotics Kit. This focused, nurturing, and relaxed workshop provides a solid foundation for Constructing Modern Knowledge project development!


You will be able to register for these workshops during the CMK registration process. But remember, these workshops run at the same time — you cannot register for both!

Workshop leaders subject to change