Project Zero Sparks 2022

Re-energize your practice through inspiring talks, interactive workshops, and thoughtful conversations with colleagues! Join Project Zero researchers and educators from around the world for an exciting day of learning. “Spark” your thinking with . . .

• Fresh takes on some of PZ's most popular and enduring frameworks and how to use them to inspire students’ deeper learning and thinking across grade levels and subjects.
• Strategies and resources for supporting students to engage thoughtfully with one another as they grapple with complex issues and challenges in the world around them.
• Approaches to engaging students with systems thinking in ways that inspire their imagination, creativity, and agency.
• New thinking routines for helping students reflect on their social, emotional, and civic life in complex digital spaces as well as in face-to-face relationships.

Project Zero’s second virtual Sparks conference will be held Thursday, July 21, 2022. Due to Harvard’s policies and the unpredictability of the pandemic, we are once again unable to gather in person; however, we embrace the accessibility and convenience that an online learning experience offers, and we look forward to a day of sharing inspirational ideas as well as practical and useable examples and strategies for making those ideas a valuable and supportive part of classrooms and other learning spaces.

Quick Links

• The Shape of the Day
• Who Should Attend?
• Registration, Tuition, & Scholarships

The Shape of the Day

PZ Sparks 2022 will take place Thursday, 21 July, 8:30am - 4:00pm (Boston Time). The day will include two dynamic plenaries and two interactive workshops.

Featured plenary speakers include:

• Ron Ritchhart
• Carrie James
• Emily Weinstein

The plenaries will be both live and recorded, with recordings available to participants for three weeks after the conference.

Workshops are highly interactive. Workshop leaders include both Project Zero researchers as well as experienced educators who have applied and adapted PZ ideas and frameworks in their practice. Not to be confused with webinars, these interactive sessions involve breakout groups and live discussion with presenters and other participants. Workshops will not be recorded.

Participants will choose two interactive workshops from a set of workshop offerings. Workshops will be announced in early June, and workshop selection will open June 5th. All who register for the conference prior to June 5th will be given first priority in the workshop selection process. More info on workshops will be shared here when the workshops are announced.

Schedule

• 8:30 - 9:00 - Opening Session
• 9:00 - 10:00 - Plenary
• 10:00 - 10:15 - Break
• 10:15 - 12:00 PM - Workshops
• 12:00 - 12:30 - Break
• 12:30 - 1:30 - Plenary
• 1:30 - 1:45 - Break
• 1:45 - 3:30 - Workshops
• 3:30 - 3:40 - Break
• 3:40 - 4:00 - Closing Session

Who Should Attend?

Educators from all backgrounds and disciplines as well as those working with any student age group are welcome - classroom teachers, early childhood educators, school leaders and administrators, after-school coordinators, informal/nontraditional learning instructors, museum educators, homeschoolers, nonprofit coordinators, and more. Whether you are new to Project Zero ideas or on a Project Zero ideas learning journey of adapting and applying them in your own practice , Sparks is an opportunity to reflect on your pedagogy, renew your inspiration for teaching and learning, and recharge.

Registration, Tuition, & Scholarships

$195 per person.

Groups of five or more attend for $165 each ($30 off each registration).

Scholarships are available for educators from qualifying organizations (apply for a scholarship). Scholarships for this event cover ~80% of the tuition (total cost to scholarship recipients = $40). Applications (here) must be submitted and accepted prior to registration. If you would like to apply for a scholarship, please do NOT register for the conference until you have completed the scholarship application and have been approved for scholarship. Those who register for the conference prior to applying for a scholarship will become ineligible for the scholarship.

Scholarship Eligibility:

• In the United States, public school educators working in schools with a free and reduced lunch rate of 25% or more OR educators working primarily with students who attend these schools.
• Outside of the United States, educators whose schools or organizations serve 25% or more students whose families meet the country-defined standard for low-income.
• Scholarship applications must be submitted and approved *prior* to registering for the conference.

Apply for Scholarship Register for Sparks

Deadline for registration: July 8, 2022 at 11:59pm Boston Time

Please note: Space is limited. The event may fill prior to the registration deadline.

Requests for refunds and participant substitutions must be submitted by July 8, 2022 at 11:59 Boston Time.

To request a refund, modify your registration, or to ask questions, please email pzlearn@gse.harvard.edu