I was one of the presenters at the ECISD (Ector County Independent School District) Math and Science Institute. I presented activities from my book Science, Math, Checkmate: 32 Chess Activities for Inquiry and Problem Solving. Since roughly half of participants over the two days of workshops did not have prior experience with playing chess, I chose activities that did not require previous chess knowledge.

Through participating in the activities, educators learned how the chessmen moved, check, and checkmate. And they also understood how the chess activities met national standards in math and science.

More details: On June 2, I presented a six-hour workshop (participants earned gifted-and-talented continuing education credit) to 20 secondary educators. Most taught grades 7-9, but there was also a handful of educators for grades 10-12.

On June 3, I presented to elementary educators. Five attended the three-hour morning session and 12 attended the three-hour afternoon session.