Lake ECMECC 2026

In this session, you’ll learn how to collaborate with AI to build your first Gemini Gem. I will demonstrate my process for creating a Science Writing Feedback Tool—a Gem born from a science department’s need to improve student skills in CER (Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning).

We’ll explore how to design AI as a guided learning partner that coaches students through the writing process and boosts critical thinking without doing the work for them. I will walk you through the entire journey:

Ideation: Turning a classroom need into a concept.

Iteration: Using Gemini to draft and refine Gem instructions.

Testing: Finalizing the Gem for student use.

The possibilities for enhancing your learning environment are endless! Please come prepared with at least one idea for a Gem you’d like to build to help your students engage with AI in a guided, meaningful way. Let’s build together!

Learning Objectives

• Design a Custom Instruction Set: Participants will learn how to use Gemini to brainstorm, iterate, and refine specific prompts to create a functional, purpose-built Gem.
• Facilitate Guided AI Learning: Participants will identify strategies to configure AI as a feedback coach rather than a "shortcut," ensuring students use the tool to enhance critical thinking and writing skills (like CER) independently.
• Deploy Classroom-Ready AI Tools: Participants will move from a raw concept to a finalized, tested Gem that is ready to be integrated into a guided learning activity for their specific subject area.

Get ready for the new school year by exploring practical AI tools and strategies designed specifically for educators. This interactive session will provide hands-on opportunities to test ready-to-use AI resources that can support lesson planning, differentiation, assessment, productivity, and student engagement. Participants will leave with a toolkit of classroom-ready ideas and resources they can implement immediately.

Join us for a hands-on session to showcase Lumio's Greatest Features! We'll kick things off with a highlight reel, then dive into the essentials: quick sign-in, seamless Google Drive integration, and creating engaging new lessons using ready-made content. Get a firsthand look at Lumio’s cutting-edge AI features and the exciting new Beta features, including the dynamic widget wall and the helpful noise monitor. Leave this session ready to use Lumio in your classroom right away!

Districts are asked to provide engaging, relevant learning opportunities for learners as budgets, staffing, and operational demands remain limited. 
Unpack how technology leaders are able to create scalable learning ecosystems to expand access to high-quality learning experiences without adding significant burden to staff or infrastructure. Participants will explore how districts are coordinating virtual learning experiences across schools and programs to support curriculum goals, career awareness, and student engagement.
In this interactive session, participants will explore a district-ready system for leveraging live virtual field trips that connect students with experts from museums, science centers, zoos, aquariums, national parks, historic sites, and industry partners worldwide. They will discover how these live programs are delivered through existing technology infrastructure within the class, school, and district to eliminate the logistical and financial barriers of traditional in-person field trips and outreach programs.
Real examples will highlight implementation models that reduce scheduling complexity, streamline coordination, and support equitable access at scale. Attendees will have a tool to help them brainstorm how the model can be integrated into their own district systems. Participants will leave with practical tools, planning frameworks, and implementation strategies to build a scalable, budget-conscious learning calendar that maximizes existing technology investments while expanding access to real-world learning opportunities.

Too often, the focus of AI in schools centers on teaching about the tools.This session shifts the focus to AI Life Skills, where middle and high school students practice enhancing their human abilities with AI to think deeper, create better, and solve problems more efficiently than they could alone. We will explore the scientific necessity of keeping students in the as the primary driver of their learning to avoid cognitive debt and provide  frameworks for syllabus policies and assignment redesigns that move AI use from "cheating" to "meaningful collaboration"

Learning Outcomes: 

1. Identify and define the six core roles of an AI-Ready Graduate (Learner, Researcher, Synthesizer, Problem Solver, Connector, Storyteller)
2. Understand the science of cognitive debt and how to guide better learning integratio
3. Develop a personalized classroom AI policy and redesign one assignment using multi-modal or multi-stage strategies