Participation Up 26%
Throughout July, as part of Infosys Pathfinders Summer Institute 2025, members of the Chibitronics team hosted our most ambitious virtual professional development event to date.
Even with an expedited registration window (which occurred as a result of unprecedented interest in Summer Pathfinders courses in general) active enrollment in our classroom-tested course, Start with Art: STEAM Learning with Chibitronics Paper Circuits, increased by a whopping 26%!
As a result, we trained 84 public and charter school teachers and librarians in 30 states and provinces. Over 61% teach at Title 1 schools, amplifying our reach to underserved communities.
From K-5 to 9-12 and beyond, educators brought skills in computer science, technology, math, art, English, and library science. Together, we impacted 24,352 students across public schools, charters, and libraries. We thank you, Infosys Foundation USA, for empowering learning and driving innovation!
In addition to receiving full scholarships for hands-on virtual professional development, and FREE kits of our newest, LEARNER FRIENDLY supplies (valued at over $250), this year’s participants also benefited from systemic updates designed to make engaging with our content even easier!
Participating educators/librarians were treated to:
- flexible scheduling
- on-demand office hours
- a dynamic series of highly engaging webinarsâtaught by experts in the fields of education, art, graphic design, robotics, artificial intelligence, paper engineering, and programming!
Along the way, our enthusiastic, “Chibitastic” participants learned how to build simple and parallel circuits, add switches and bridges, and even operate a multimeter (to measure voltage, current, and resistance)!
They debugged!
They developed and designed!
They engaged in hands-on learning!
Participants in our summer course learned how to use resistors, pressure sensors, and our new and improved paper circuits software, Circuit Sketcher!
By enabling participants to design and test circuit templates using our real-time simulator, participants quickly innovated, experimented, and practiced designing increasingly complex circuits virtually, to conserve materials and ensure that they work in the real world!
Testimonials
Based upon testimonials that were shared with us, we learned that even educators with experience creating paper circuits deepened their learning during our summer course!
My favorite thing was getting to do hands-on learning and seeing everyone’s ideas!! I was familiar with paper circuits and felt fairly comfortable with them, but this PD took me to a whole new level!!
Sarah Robinson, High School Science Teacher
Participating in the course was amazing- I am looking forward to working with students this year to use what I have been able to learn and practice.â
Mary Amy Senn, Middle and High School Science Teacher
Iâm very thankful to the Infosys Foundation USA for providing these opportunities. As a Title One school, our funding has other focuses, and itâs difficult to get funding for things like STEM/STEAM in our schools. It would be nice if public education was fully funded.
Edith Owens, Elementary Art Teacher
Your gift of supplies and motivational support has inspired me to get a grant and do Chibitronics with my entire 4th grade. So far, we have done simple and parallel circuits. Looking forward to their art ideas using the lights. Thank you for pushing all of this cool stuff out to us so we can introduce paper circuitry to our student community.
Eileen Lengenfelder, Elementary STEAM Teacher
Special Shout-outs!
Thank you to everyone who participated or expressed interest in the Infosys Pathfinders Summer Institute 2025. With continued support from our partners at Infosys Foundation USA, we look forward to hosting our paper circuit series again next year!
Thanks also to all the past and present members of the Chibitronics team who have allowed Pathfinders to evolve over the past decade!
On board in the planning and execution of this yearâs event were Jie Qi, Jessica Frost-Ballas, Barbara Liedahl, Kristin Osciecki, Kathy Ceceri, Jill Dawson, and Shiela Lee.
Special thanks also go out to our Guest Educators: Jasmine Florentine, Amanda Jean Strode of CodeJoy, Colleen Graves and Sarah Fitzhenry from Makedo!
And last, but not least, we are incredibly grateful to Infosys Foundation USA for giving full scholarships to our participating teachers and librarians, allowing them to attend and receive free bundles of Chibitronics supplies.
