I am beyond elated – our PreK-6 elementary school received monies, through our district’s Computer Science Resolution 2025, to create a STEAM (science, technology, arts, math) makerspace. I never thought our Title 1 school would get the opportunity to create such a space. I never thought I would get the opportunity to help create a fully equipped makerspace. A few of use spent the past few weeks rearranging our library so that one side contains our books and the other our STEAM materials.
Do you know how to change the oil on your car? What about how to knit a scarf? Or how to make compost?
If you need some help with life’s little chores, the internet is full of guidance. But which sites should you head to when you need some advice? Here are 12 how-to sites that everyone needs to have saved in their bookmarks.
Building musical instruments from upcycled materials. MaKey MaKey and Scratch. Composing songs. Creating ways to write down our songs so other people can perform them. Playing our instruments in a public orchestra.
The Maker Movement is a technological and creative revolution underway around the world. Fortunately for educators, the Maker Movement overlaps with the natural inclinations of children and the power of learning by doing. Embracing the lessons of the Maker Movement holds the keys to reanimating the best, but oft-forgotten learner-centered teaching practices. New tools and technology, such as 3D printing, robotics, microprocessors, wearable computing, e-textiles, “smart” materials, and new programming languages are being invented at an unprecedented pace. The Maker Movement creates affordable — even free — versions of these inventions, and shares tools and ideas online, creating a vibrant, collaborative community of global problem-solvers.
Collaborating is an essential part of integrating maker education into your curriculum. Not only is it important for support, but collaboration can also help to inspire and motivate you.
In this post you will find ways you can collaborate with other educators, parents, your community, students, and people online to boost your maker education.
Thanks to Benjamin Riley, this morning I learned about the results of a big new growth mindset study that was released yesterday, Where and For Whom Can a Brief, Scalable Mindset Intervention Improve Adolescents’ Educational Trajectories? (happily, not behind a paywall).
It’s written by a zillion of the biggest names in Social Emotional Learning Research (David Yeager, Paul Hanselman, David Paunesku, Christopher Hulleman, Carol Dweck, Chandra Muller, Robert Crosnoe, Gregory Walton, Elizabeth Tipton, Angela Duckworth).
Using a representative sample of U.S. schools and their students, they found that students doing two twenty-five minute online lessons about a growth mindset resulted in a small but important academic gain (measured by GPA’s), with larger improvements found among students who had a track record of experiencing academic and socio/economic challenges.
How do you paint with watercolors without showing the brush strokes? How do you make gradient colors? What kind of paper should you use? In this helpful video, watercolor illustrator and YouTuber Kasey Golden shares seven of the most commonly asked questions that she gets about painting with watercolors. Her answers are also great tips for beginners. She adds:
The biggest tip I can give anyone wanting to get into watercolor is to JUST START! Pick up a cheap set and see how you like them, play around, and see what works!
What if students began each week by making and designing and creating? What if kids stepped into the classroom each with a sense of wonder and excitement?
This is the idea behind Maker Mondays. It begins with a simple premise: start the week off with hands-on creativity. It might involve Scratch Video Game coding projects, a maker challenge, a Minecraft challenge, or a divergent thinking activity with random items. Students might blog or create videos and podcasts. They might do sketch animation videos. Or they might do circuitry, robotics, or fabrication.
There are so many options and opportunities. You don’t need the fanciest gadgets or high-tech machinery. It might be as simple as cardboard or duct tape or the smartphones we already have in our hands.
I realize that an hour each Monday morning isn’t enough. Creativity should be integrated into each subject each day. But this Maker Monday can be the creative spark that leads to something bigger.
A great challenge for students to engage in, especially at the beginning of the week. The videos have distinct proposals for students like design the most eco-friendly house. Hence, having a growth mindset.
Interfacing LCD to Arduino - Tutorial on how to interface arduino to lcd screen (16x2 lcd, 20x4 lcd) with arduino code/program, lcd pin diagram and circuit.
Interfacing LCD to Arduino - Tutorial on how to interface arduino to lcd screen (16x2 lcd, 20x4 lcd) with arduino code/program, lcd pin diagram and circuit.
Makerspaces are a recent trend to create hands-on, innovative learning spaces in school. These spaces are inspired by the maker movement, a global revolution combining futuristic technology like 3D printers with the resourcefulness of the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) community. Crafts and engineering combine to give students creative opportunities as they explore important STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) concepts. In schools, makerspaces are both labs and studios, where high tech meets creativity and 21st century learning.
When Ocean City Primary School, where I work, asked a group of 8-year-olds to create something, the students were given one design requirement: Whatever they created had to better the school community and solve a problem. This allowed students to be creative and explore their interests in addressing a real-world issue. Students realized that they had an authentic opportunity to make a difference in their school.
Temperature & Humidity monitor using Arduino NANO + DHT22 + 0.96 inch 128X64 I2C OLED WE were playing around a lot already with I2C-LCD displays <===> https://gustmees.wordpress.com/?s=i2c+lcd <===> but not yet with I2C-OLEDs. In this tutorial WE will create a <===> Temperature & Humidity monitor using Arduino NANO + DHT22 + 0.96 inch 128X64…
Temperature & Humidity monitor using Arduino NANO + DHT22 + 0.96 inch 128X64 I2C OLED WE were playing around a lot already with I2C-LCD displays <===> https://gustmees.wordpress.com/?s=i2c+lcd <===> but not yet with I2C-OLEDs. In this tutorial WE will create a <===> Temperature & Humidity monitor using Arduino NANO + DHT22 + 0.96 inch 128X64…
In a thriving makerspace, there is a balance. Design challenges allow students to work together on a similar theme coming from a design prompt. The challenge creates constraints, but not necessarily structure. Workshops are focused more on learning a specific skill. Usually everyone makes a similar project. There is more guidance and structure to these activities, much like guided projects. Open Exploration, on the other hand, is a time with little structure. Students can express their voice in choosing what tools and materials they use, what they want their projects to be. What they make could be practical or whimsical. It could be for a class or it could be a way to express their fandoms. Ideally, a makerspace should have a balance of open exploration, workshops and design challenges, although the proportions of each can and should vary depending on school culture and programs.
This soft circuit tutorial will teach you the basics of sewing circuits and even crafting your own DIY electronic components with conductive thread. The full guide with breakout tutorials will be available at labz.makeymakey.com soon!
Three years ago I shared my Makerspace Starter Kit with you or what I was buying to boost our Makerspace area using four empty Library study carrels that no longer held desktop Macs. That post has been consistently one of the most viewed posts every week for years and years and with more than 83 THOUSAND views I thought maybe it was time to update it. *
Since then, I've had some Makerspace successes and a couple dismal (and expensive) Makerspace failures! So, it's time I updated this post for ya'll giving you the good, the bad, and the bloody awful!
BBC Micro:Bit board was first announced in July 2015. Designed for STEM education, the board was then offered to UK schools in March 2016, and a few months later UK store would start selling it worldwide. It’s now available pretty much anywhere, and you can likely find it in a local store or online.
The Thai government must have seen this, and thought to themselves “If the British can do it, we can do it too!”, as the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) part of Thailand’s Ministry of Science and Technology designed KidBright32 board and courses to teach STEM to Thai students.
BBC Micro:Bit board was first announced in July 2015. Designed for STEM education, the board was then offered to UK schools in March 2016, and a few months later UK store would start selling it worldwide. It’s now available pretty much anywhere, and you can likely find it in a local store or online.
The Thai government must have seen this, and thought to themselves “If the British can do it, we can do it too!”, as the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) part of Thailand’s Ministry of Science and Technology designed KidBright32 board and courses to teach STEM to Thai students.
A pesar de que hay muchos espacios que en esencia son muy parecidos unos de otros, no hay un enfoque único para planificar espacios de creación como los makerspaces. Estos espacios deben ser tan únicos y significativos como las comunidades a las que se destinan. Los enlaces y espacios que se describen en el presente artículo pretenden ofrecer una perspectiva nueva y única de lo que pueden ser los makerspaces. Cada espacio que se describe a continuación es único, enfatizando diferentes habilidades o temas. Aunque algunos de estos espacios no se encuentran en las escuelas (K-12), sin duda hay cosas que se pueden aplicar muy bien a la educación. (Laura Fleming, World of Learning, April 4, 2017).
Below is an example of a maker unit that I have done with my fourth-graders. We have worked through this unit a couple of times, and each time I make changes to create a better learning experience for my students. This is also a great way to scaffold research and making so that kids can be successful working through Genius Hour projects. Of course, in order to make anything work in your own environment, you need to take ideas and create a process that works for you and your students.
Every week in geometry class, more than two dozen Eureka High School students stow their backpacks and cellphones in their lockers and don hard hats and goggles.
Instead of sitting at desks, they slice wood with power saws, measure wood to be cut and hammer together the skeleton of a new tiny house — a fully habitable dwelling, just 26 feet long — all with little teacher help.
In less than two months, they have almost finished building the entire frame of a 14-by-26-foot house from the ground up.
“We’re not getting results that we’d like to get for our students, so we’re looking for additional opportunities that could make math relevant for students. This program does that.” Mike LaChance, Ritenour School District’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
“You actually have to try in this class,” said Tucker Burt, 14, a freshman. “It’s a lot more fun. It’s a lot more hands-on. It’s a lot more interesting.”
Recently I bought myself the latest model of 3D-printers from Formlabs, the Form2.
The Form 2 delivers high-resolution prints in Industrial 3D printing quality and it is very, very expensive. (I had been waiting (and saving money) for 3 years until I made the financial plunge to get such a machine)
But it has the huge advantage that dosen’t require a lot of tweaking and experimenting to run, you just take it out of the box, you install it and it runs !! It comes with the right software, the materials you need to use are in sich a packaging (1 Liter resin cartridges !) that you can concentrate on the objet you’re printing and not on the maintenance of the machine. The system recognises the resin type, configures settings, and allows you to keep track of resin supplies.
The Form 2 is a SLA printer where SLA stand for Stereolithography. SLA is an additive manufacturing – commonly referred to as 3D printing – technology that converts liquid materials into solid parts, layer by layer, by selectively curing them using a light source in a process called photopolymerization. SLA is widely used to create models, prototypes, patterns, and production parts for a range of industries from engineering and product design to manufacturing, dentistry, jewelry, model making, and education.
Recently I bought myself the latest model of 3D-printers from Formlabs, the Form2.
The Form 2 delivers high-resolution prints in Industrial 3D printing quality and it is very, very expensive. (I had been waiting (and saving money) for 3 years until I made the financial plunge to get such a machine)
But it has the huge advantage that dosen’t require a lot of tweaking and experimenting to run, you just take it out of the box, you install it and it runs !! It comes with the right software, the materials you need to use are in sich a packaging (1 Liter resin cartridges !) that you can concentrate on the objet you’re printing and not on the maintenance of the machine. The system recognises the resin type, configures settings, and allows you to keep track of resin supplies.
The Form 2 is a SLA printer where SLA stand for Stereolithography. SLA is an additive manufacturing – commonly referred to as 3D printing – technology that converts liquid materials into solid parts, layer by layer, by selectively curing them using a light source in a process called photopolymerization. SLA is widely used to create models, prototypes, patterns, and production parts for a range of industries from engineering and product design to manufacturing, dentistry, jewelry, model making, and education.
Over the past decade, Making has transformed education with its emphasis on innovation, collaboration, and hands-on problem solving. Along the way, new tools have evolved to help teachers ignite creativity and tackle real world challenges. EdSurge has shared these educators' stories—as well as those of students who tinker and take risks, build confidence and develop resilience.
No longer confined to a corner space in the back of the library, Making activities are finding their way into lessons on history and biology, literature and language. We’re now watching another transformation as Making itself moves from the periphery of learning into the heart of K-12 programs. No longer confined to a corner space in the back of the library, Making activities are finding their way into lessons on history and biology, literature and language. Most exhilarating of all are the skills, mindsets and deep learning practices sparked by Making activities.
To envision how a 21st century school might infuse Making into most classrooms, we teamed up with Autodesk and design firm, Killer Infographics. Although we’re in the habit of using words to tell stories, we leaned into this challenge to show you what inspires us. (And yes! We had a lot of fun with this approach!) Even more, we hope our vision will spark ideas for how you might transform your students’ learning.
It’s the first day of school for most of the kids and teens here in Homer. In anticipation of the buzzing afterschool energy level we see each Fall, I’m back to featuring passive programs kids can try out. The STEAM activities are meant to get even older kids (7-12) playing, tinkering, fiddling on their own terms while at the same time addressing the mischief that sometimes arises when kids hangout at the library for long periods of time while they wait for their working parents and caregivers. Each program or activity is low cost and requires minimal effort and time. Most activities are set out for 1-2 weeks depending on the activity.
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