Summer Institutes

California Summer Institute at Sonoma State: June 22nd-26th

Texas Summer Institute at Angelo State: July 6th-10th

California specific

Hello from the STEMACES Team!

It's almost time! We are so excited to see you at the 2026 Summer Institute. It is a lovely June here at Sonoma State, with blue skies and warm afternoons.

Darlene sent out an email about your lodgings. Please let us know if you did not receive this. Here is more information about the hotel. We are busy finalizing preparations for the institute and wanted to share more information for your planning.

During the Summer Institute, everyone will have the opportunity to get to know each other as a team, working together through the STEMACES activities. To get the ball rolling on this, we’ve created a slide deck of “Who-is-who” slides. Please find your slide, and then please share a little bit about yourself in it. Then, add a photo by clicking the photo icon in the circle. Please also let us know what you like to be called so we may create your name tag.

Location and Parking: Our campus is located at 1801 East Cotati Drive, Rohnert Park, CA 94928. Parking permits are required each day at SSU and you are responsible for paying for your own permits, as we are unable to cover this charge. We are including parking and driving directions, and each day you will park near the library. Located within the traditional homelands of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, Sonoma State offers deep gratitude to the original stewards of this land. Here is an overview of this beautiful spot:

Our Agenda for the Week:

Welcome to EdEon: We have several Peanuts characters around campus to greet you. They celebrate local artist Sparky Schultz and reflect the support of Charles and Jean Schultz. EdEon is on the third floor of the Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center, our library. We will have coffee, tea, and water for you, and our team will be here to welcome you, too.

Food: We have terrific lunches planned for each day, with snacks and beverages to help you stay energized through the afternoons. We are hosting dinner on Thursday night, but otherwise each evening is on your own, and we are happy to provide suggestions. Sonoma County has fantastic food. Please reach out with any specific dietary restrictions or preferences (vegan, gluten-free, non-dairy, etc.).

Clothing and Climate: Sonoma County is casual and comfortable. While daytime temperatures may reach the upper 80s, we also may have morning or nighttime fog. We will be mostly indoors with varying AC, but our beautiful campus may call you outdoors for a brief stroll. Layers are best.

We have one late afternoon into evening outing to a local farm planned, so please pack a sunhat or sunglasses, comfortable shoes, and casual pants to change into before we leave campus on Thursday. We will carpool to Veronda Falletti Ranch, connect our STEM training with farm composting, and then walk to dinner.

Laptops: Please bring your school-issued laptop. Your device should have gone through the IT security permissions process shared in a previous email. If your laptop does not work, we have chromebooks available and will provide a binder and materials to support your professional learning.

CEUs: If you would like to sign up for CEU credit, please see the information and QR code attached: CEU.pdf. We will also have this available at the Summer Institute.

If you have any other questions, please email Barbara and the team. We are so looking forward to working with you.

Tech To-Do List

Please find below the to-do list of what needs to be done and checked on the computer you will bring to the Summer Institute.

Learning by Making (LbyM) Platform Technology access requirements:

• Ensure your computer has the Chrome app. This is the best browser to use with the Web App.
• Check that your computer can save to the cloud (Amazon Web Services).
• Ensure that your UART serial port is available for use. This will allow you to connect successfully to the Arduino.
• Download a driver. These drivers will allow your computer to talk to the BasicBoards (more specifically, the Arduino on those boards), and we have created a guide for the process that you can find attached to this email.
• Ensure that you can login to the Web App with your school or personal email address.
• Ensure that you have access to the following urls:
  • https://LbyM.sonoma.edu
  • https://stemapp.lbym.org
  • https://app.lbym.org

If your computer is a district-issued computer, you will need to ask them to do this for you. If you or your IT staff need support beyond this guide, we are here to help! Please feel very welcome to respond to this email with any questions or obstacles and we will follow up as soon as we are able.

These are the same types of procedures that the student computers will need to have completed prior to use of the technology in the classroom. If you are interacting with your IT Department, it will be useful to tell them that they will be helping your students have this level of access as well.

PDF Resources

Preview the institute packet below or open it in a new tab for full-page reading.