The holiday vacation is a great time to spark a child’s curiosity and reinvigorate their love of learning. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of fun gift ideas that can inspire kids and keep them occupied during the winter break. Whether you’re an educator, parent, family member, friend, or volunteer this holiday season, buy a gift that can set its recipient on the path towards becoming a lifelong STEM learner! And if you want to test your engineering skills during your holiday break, try out our Engineering IQ Quiz!

We develop curricula that we hope will inspire educators to take engineering learning to the next level. Every year, we are blown away by the stories we hear about the creative and unexpected ways that teachers implement and build upon our curricula. Today, we’re celebrating a few superstar educators who exemplify the values of EiE. Their stories feature powerful social justice connections, history-making STREAM certifications, and a three-legged dog named Champ!

The EiE team has had a busy year! We hosted national and international PD workshops, met countless educators at conferences, and developed, tested, and refined our new curriculum guides and resources. There were so many exciting updates in 2017, we want to make sure you didn't miss a thing! Here are a few of the highlights of the past year at EiE.

Is improving your teaching practice one of your New Year's resolutions? The EiE professional development team can help you with that! They're offering two free webinars to kick off 2018: on January 10, "Getting Started with EiE: Materials Management" and on January 24, "Integrating ELA & Engineering in the Elementary Classroom." In these sessions, you'll learn from the experts as you study classroom footage, get tips you can apply in your own classroom, and more! Read on to learn more about these interactive, one-hour sessions and register today.

Before the holiday break, students (and teachers) are often looking forward to a few well-earned days off. This means their attention spans are short and their energy is high! Keeping kids engaged and focused on learning during this time is no easy feat. Over the years, we’ve heard from educators that teaching fun, hands-on STEM activities in the weeks before holiday break is a great way to reinvigorate students, channel their pent-up energy, and encourage learning even when they’re itching for holiday festivities. We love providing our blog readers with timely classroom activities and helpful teaching tips, so here are a few quick and easy standalone STEM activities that will get your kids moving, learning, and focusing. And if you want to do some activities of your own before break, try out our Engineering IQ Quiz!