Here are your “need to know” topics for today:

  1. Regionals Wrap Up
  2. Creative Digital Arts: Registration
  3. Creative Digital Arts: Ideas for Sharing URLs
  4. FOCUS: Creative Digital Arts: About Your Judge
  5. STLP Engineer/Ambassadors: Finalists
Regionals Wrap Up

Congratulations to every STLP that participated in the Level 1 Projects: Regionals last Wednesday. With nearly 800 projects spanning K-12 being presented within a quick 2-hour window from every corner of the state, it was amazing to see our almost 400 judges step up to make sure every student was heard and received specific, meaningful, and kind feedback on their Level 1 projects. Thank you to everyone who helped bring this opportunity to STLP students!

As always, Level 1 Project judges utilize the L1 scoring guide/rubric to determine which projects they deem ready “as is” to continue growing their project ahead of Level 2 at the STLP State Championship (On Track designation), which projects are on the right path, but need some more attention before be ready for Level 2 (Not Yet designation) and which projects might benefit from pausing, rethinking, and returning next year with a fresh start (Reboot). Judges have no quota or limit on how many projects receive each designation and only come to these determinations after collaborative discussions and deliberations. For the next phase, however, Level 2 Projects will compete head-to-head for a spot in the Level 3 judging with a chance to be named STLP State Champions!

While “On Track” teams should continue working on the project until the March 27th State Championship, “Not Yet” teams have until January 8th to submit a response detailing how their project team will utilize the Level 1 Judges feedback to get their project back on track. If accepted, those teams can earn the “On Track” status. This formative assessment model is in line with project-based learning best practices and has proven to create the strongest projects for the State level competition. (NOTE: as promised, any team that attempted to present during Regionals but could not present due to team absences, insurmountable technical issues, etc. are invited to record their Level 1 presentation and submit as a “Do-Over” project entry by the Dec. 20 deadline. Visit https://stlp.education.ky.gov/regionals for more info)

If you’re interested in digging into some data from the statewide Level 1 feedback totals, check out the images below.

graph showing participation in the 2023 Regional event

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STLP23_Level_1_Feedback-Totals

Creative Digital Arts: Registration

Reminder that next week is the deadline to submit your registration for this year’s Creative Digital Arts (CDA) competition. Formerly known as DPOJ, this year’s CDA registration’s earlier-than-usual deadline reflects our earlier-than-usual State Championship date (March 27, Central Bank Center, Lexington). Thankfully, the dates, all rubrics, and registration forms were published August 1st in an effort to provide all STLP’s ample time to prepare students for the accelerated timeline.

Jump to https://stlp.education.ky.gov/cda to access all the helpful resources (Planner document, “which category?” decision tree, view previous champs, rubrics, etc.) and the registration forms before the December 20 deadline!

Creative Digital Arts: Ideas for Sharing URLs

Probably the most frequently asked question from STLP Coaches regarding CDA registration is: how do I create a sharable URL to submit? The CDA registration form asks for a link to the student digital product instead of asking you to upload an actual file. This allows easy digital distribution to all the CDA Judges via a link that schools provide that points directly at the product, freeing judges from having to search or download files to their own devices. But how do you create those URLS?

There are multiple ways STLPs choose to share their digital products. Some create a school STLP website (Google Sites, etc.) and embed the digital products into the website as an image then provide the link to that specific section of the website. But often, STLP coaches utilize Google Drive’s “Share” option. Here’s a quick solution:

  1. Students share/send their files to the STLP Coach (to share outside of your district, files cannot be shared from a student drive due to district security policies)
  2. STLP Coach creates a “2023-24 STLP CDA” Google Drive folder and houses all student entries there.
  3. On each CDA entry, select “Share” and choose “Get Link”,
  4. For General Access, select “Anyone with the link” as viewer,
  5. Copy the link into the corresponding URL field for that digital product in the registration.

PRO TIP: Take advantage of the CDA Planning Tool to save all your URLS in advance inside a Google Sheet. Then you can easily access the registration for each CDA category and quickly copy/paste all the details for each entry at your own pace.

Creative Digital Arts: About Your Judge

An important note about your CDA judge: remember, to remain eligible to participate in Creative Digital Arts competitions, each school must provide at least 1 person to act as a volunteer judge (if school submits more than 9 CDA categories, a second judge is also required).  This is vital to the timeline…without your judge we could never wrap up scoring ahead of STLP State. Bottom line: if your STLP wants to be part of CDA, don’t forget to sign up a judge who will “show up” and complete the task of judging. Register Judges here.

PRO TIP: You can sign yourself up as the judge! CDA is different from project judging which requires your full attention be on judging and away from your participating students. Instead, CDA judging occurs over a weeklong period, can be completed at your own pace and at times that work for you… all online!

STLP Engineer/Ambassadors: Finalists

All applicants have been reviewed by the panel of judges and finalist will be contacted to arrange a short online interview. Ideally, we’ll be able to wrap up interviews quickly so we can announce the team before most district head out for winter break. Be on the lookout for that communication and thanks in advance for your attention to the matter… and good luck to our finalists. Once this year’s team is selected, we’ll announce our 2024 team at https://stlp.education.ky.gov/engineers Thanks to Jim Seward for organizing and leading the selection process and mentoring our STLP E/A Team throughout the year!