Dear Colleague:
I could not be more excited about the once-in-a-lifetime professional learning institute we have planned for you this July. It’s hard to believe that this will be the 15th Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute. It’s shaping up to be the best ever.
Please join us July 9-12, 2024!
#1 There is simply no other professional learning event on earth like Constructing Modern Knowledge.
Each summer, educators from around the globe assemble at CMK for four intense days of learning-by-doing with a world-class faculty, mind-blowing guest speakers, cutting-edge technology, social events, and a mountain of materials. These educators often achieve the impossible and demonstrate the remarkable creativity, competence, and capability that may be found in classrooms. Join us and learn why some educators have returned to CMK for as many as ten times!
#2 AI
Perhaps you’ve heard the buzz about artificial intelligence and how AI is “revolutionizing education.” Constructing Modern Knowledge 2024 offers educators a rare opportunity to learn with Dr. Stephen Wolfram, one of the world’s most consequential living mathematicians, scientists, thinkers, and inventors. Wolfram is responsible for the tools powering much of the world’s computational innovation. Not only have Dr. Wolfram and his colleagues created Mathematica, WolframAlpha, Wolfram Language, their software gives generative AI systems, such as ChatGPT, the ability to perform calculations and solve a universe of problems computational in nature.
If we want students to use primary sources in their learning, the same should be true for ourselves.
Any educator serious about understanding AI, its educational potential, and the importance of developing computational skills in their students or themselves should participate in Constructing Modern Knowledge 2024. Opportunities like this just don’t exist everywhere. We are incredibly blessed to be able to share Stephen Wolfram with educators at CMK 2024.
It is impossible to overstate what a big deal this is. Dr. Wolfram literally wrote the book, What Is ChatGPT Doing … and Why Does It Work? (in addition to some of the most important scientific books of the past twenty years). CMK 2024 may be the closest any of us ever gets to hanging out with a scientist on the level of Sir Isaac Newton or Stephen Hawking.
Learn more about Stephen Wolfram here.
#3 The Gold Standard for Project-Based Learning & STEM
Constructing Modern Knowledge has always been a place where educators invent the future by creating “real” projects using cutting-edge computational technology, craft materials, and assorted junk.The things created are sophisticated learning artifacts, even when whimsical.
CMK is where educators take off their teacher hat, put on their learner hat, and experience the power and intellectual benefits that come from project-based learning. Educators return to school not only with new skills, often on the frontiers of STEM, but reenergized, optimistic, and more effective creators of productive contexts for learning.
#4 When We Say, “STEAM,” We Mean It!
There’s a lot of talk about S.T.E.A.M. in education, but such connections are abundant at Constructing Modern Knowledge. CMK 2024 features author & music educator Tricia Tunstall and Melissa Walker, a Grammy-winning vocalist, activist, and founding director of Jazz House Kids, a large music education non-profit in New Jersey and New York City. Ms. Tunstall is one of the world’s leading authorities on El Sistema, the profound Venezuelan Youth Orchestra movement in which hundreds of thousands of children in one of the hemisphere’s poorest nations play classical music as a vehicle for societal transformation. Walker’s non-profit, Jazz House Kids, brings the spirit of El Sistema to America’s classical music, jazz, with remarkable success. Their conversation at CMK will not only make the case for arts education and its benefits to children, but share practical pedagogical strategies relevant to teachers of any age or discipline.
Where else, but Constructing Modern Knowledge will you find jazz, robotics, artificial intelligence, tinkering, craft, orchestral music, social justice, electronics, and more in the same learning environment? CMK is about connections. CMK is where STEAM comes alive!
#5 Team Discounts
Constructing Modern Knowledge 2024 offers generous team discounts to maximize continuous learning and school transformation once educators return to school. Bringing a team to CMK bonds colleagues and helps shapes a common purpose-driven vision for progress at home. Learn more and register.
#6 Meat on Swords!
The benefits of breaking bread together are well documented and our institute dinner plays a vital role in building community in a quintessential fashion. Over the years, CMK participants have fallen in love with what has been referred to as “MeatFest” or “Meat Night.” As idiosyncratic as it was to find an excellent churrascaria in Manchester, New Hampshire the culinary gods have smiled upon us and this year’s gala institute dinner (included in your registration) will be held at a Brazilian rodizio churrascaria in Chattanooga! (There will be plenty of yummy options for vegetarians and other nutritional needs.) Learn more about the all-you-can-eat gala institute dinner here.
#7 Free Baseball!
A five minute walk from the institute is Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, home of the mighty New Hampshire Fisher Cats minor league baseball team. We will once again be taking CMK participants to the ball park for a glorious grudge match under the stars between the Fisher Cats and Binghamton Rumble Ponies.
Project-based learning is serious fun – hard fun at Constructing Modern Knowledge. Spend 35 hours (or more) working alone or together on personally meaningful projects during the institute. When you love a project, you lose track of time, and and get swept away in the flow of learning.
Create the night away Thursday between 7 PM and midnight at the second annual CMK Project Pajama Party! Yummy snacks, finger food, deserts, and a cash bar will fuel participants putting the finishing touch on their amazing projects.
#9 Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester, New Hampshire has been the site of 14 Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institutes. Approximately one hour from Boston, with a terrific local airport, great weather, and within a day’s drive of the midwest and US east coast, Manchester is a perfect setting for four days of learning adventures. Manchester is a quaint New England city with dozens of restaurants, featuring global cuisine steps away of the the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, home to CMK. Most participants will “live above the shop” at the affordable and comfortable Doubletree. There are art, science, and history museums within walking distance and a 24/7 kitschy diner frequented by Presidential contenders and celebrities just a few blocks away. The natural beauty of New England is just beyond the city limits.
#10 The Future is Now!
Constructing Modern Knowledge depends on you. We have no external funding, vendors, or sponsors to support our amazing institute. The future viability of CMK is dependent on the success of Constructing Modern Knowledge 2024. The future is uncertain in so many ways. If you have ever considered participating in Constructing Modern Knowledge, do so this July! Register today so you don’t miss out!