April 12

Making With Less

I recently had the opportunity to present at a conference in Puerto Rico. The conference was focused on restructuring education in Puerto Rico to have a focus on Design Thinking and Project Based Learning. I was the elementary contingent of our team and I presented on MakerSpaces. This should have been very easy for me, having started the makerspace in my school and having presented on MakerSpaces at regional and national conferences.  Upon scrolling through some of my previous presentations, it became apparent that I’d have to make some changes. While I often talk a lot about the students projects ranging from hi-tech to lo-tech, I knew this presentation would have a singular focus on lo-tech to make the transition easier.

From my experience working with elementary students, I’ve learned that it’s not about the hi-tech gadgets at all. Large sums of money were spent on a 3D printer in the early days of our Makerspace. It was a shiny new toy, but didn’t have the lasting effect I had hoped for. The greatest creativity and innovation grows from working with familiar materials and having opportunities to work with readily accessible materials. Little kids can do great things with less.

In reviewing the top projects and interests in our makerspace over the past 5 years, my list of materials to start a Makerspace now looks like this:

  • Safety is first so kid sized goggles and work gloves. Our goggles were donated from Google Science.
  • Real tools: can be used and obtained through donations from parents & community-Hammers, screwdrivers of all sizes, pliers, wire cutters, nails, screws, hinges,  hand saws, and a drill.
  • Fabric and sewing needles
  • Wood: all kinds and all sizes  – think “Block of Wood Challenge: When Is a Block of Wood No Longer a Block of Wood?”
  • Sandpaper
  • Cardboard: lots of odd shapes, sturdy flat, cereal boxes, tubes of all sizes
  • Paint and brushes
  • Coin batteries and LED lights of all colors.
  • Copper tape for paper circuits
  • Chibitronics sticker LED lights
  • PVC pipe cut into various lengths with elbows, t-connectors and end caps for marshmallow shooters and building large structures
  • Duct tape of every color and pattern you can find
  • Batteries of all sizes 
  • Small motors
  • Insulated wire and wire strippers
  • Electrical Tape
  • A plethora of art supplies: paper, scissors, markers, felt, pipe cleaners, glue,
  • Rummage through old science supplies for magnets, magnifying glasses, beakers, interesting loose parts for game making, etc.

Things we’ve collected over time have also been popular for game making. Old board games, discarded electronic toys, random game pieces, cards, marbles, plastic bottle tops, etc. Electronics that are no longer being used are often donated and they are the best for UNMAKING. We use the Thinking Routine from Harvard’s Project Zero titled Parts, Purposes and Complexities.

Lego Robotics was worth the investment (and a few kits go a long way as kids can share them). The Robotics are great because once kids master the instruction booklet, they can hack the projects and start to create from their imaginations.

Edison Robots  are good for teaching our youngest students coding and are fairly inexpensive. Scratch is another way to teach coding and is web based and free.

Countless resources will also help your students find ways to make more with less: Design Squad Nation , The Exploratorium, Rube Goldberg Machines and Caine’s Arcade are our favorites.

It’s easy to get caught up with stocking the MakerSpace, but it’s important to always come back to the “why.” Why are we doing this? It’s for the children, so spend some time with them and ask them what they want to make. Provide inspiration and then be prepared to get out of their way.

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March 14

How MakerSpace and MakerFaire Can Unlock a Student’s Love of Creating

The saying, “If you build it, they will come” may have been referring to baseball stadiums, but it may also be the favorite mantra of makerspaces across the country. Since creating our school’s makerspace in November 2013, I’ve seen a small revolution start to grow within our elementary school and also across our district. A makerspace is a learning environment where children can tinker, design and create collaboratively using a variety of materials.
However, a makerspace is so much more than a physical space, it’s a mindset that embraces making as a necessary component of learning. In the past two years, I’ve worked with colleagues to incorporate changes within our curriculum that tap into a child’s natural love of creating.

GETTING STARTED WITH A MAKERSPACE

Our makerspace is a small room off of our library that was once an office and storage space. It is now a vibrant hub of activity, stocked with a variety of high-tech and low-tech supplies that challenge and inspire our little makers. I was fortunate to have been given an old storage room to convert into the physical makerspace; however another challenge persisted and that was, what to put into the space. The ultimate goal for me was to help teachers create new learning experiences that empower the students and incorporate next generation skills.
Having the learning extend beyond the classroom walls and creating vertical curriculum where students teach students is magical when it happens and something I thought could grow out of our makerspace. So it was critical that the items that filled the shelves in our makerspace inspire and facilitate this growth. Staying focused on the idea that, while the 3D printer and coding programs are very cool, it’s truly not about the technology but about transforming teaching and learning experiences for our students.
My love of building and creating actually comes from my own two boys. Watching them create trains, castles, superhero costumes and monster webs out of cardboard and duct tape made me realize that not only were they enjoying a childhood rite of passage when they commandeered the large boxes, but they were applying the 21st Century skills that all educators talk about. They were planning, designing, iterating, collaborating and writing a fantastic story that grew with each step of the process. I needed to bring this love of learning into my classroom and into my school!
Having like minded grade level colleagues and the flexibility to enhance curriculum made it easier to incorporate more hands on project based learning into the 5th grade science units. Rocketry was our first and biggest change as we went from a cookie cutter prescribed way of creating soda bottle rockets to an inquiry based open ended, steeped in design thinking challenge – this documentary says it all. We also were able to make over our unit on models & designs to incorporate our makerspace and the 3D printer. This also “upped the ante” on our students Rube Goldberg projects as well as their own models designed and printed in school.

MAKING MEANING

Most recently, I revisited the idea of homework and asked my students, “What do you want to learn? How will you learn it? and How will you show what you know?” They are researching, documenting (through writing, sketches, photos and videos), interviewing experts in their field of interest and creating something so meaningful that no testing agency in the world could measure.
Initially, I thought parents might be upset by the absence of traditional homework, however their reaction was the polar opposite. Parents were emailing me stating how proud they were of their child’s efforts and creativity. Many parents even took an active role in this month-long homework assignment that came to be known as The Passion Project.
Ethan taught himself how to use Sketch Up to make a 3D rendering of a fort he wants to build in his backyard. Using foam core he made a model to scale as well as drawings on graph paper. Construction on his 46 sq ft fort begins next week.
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Ethan and the scale model of his future fort.
Juliette designed and made her own garden (including the fence). She plans to use the vegetables for cooking and healthy salads. Allie is learning the art of graffiti and even found a local expert to interview and take a lesson with. The list goes on…
Screen Shot 2015-04-24 at 6.22.07 PM
Allie’s graffiti inspiration board.
When it comes to change, I have to jump into the deep end or I will end up overthinking it. Alan Watts said, “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”While I know that is how I feel, I do respect that others often wade into change. Building the makerspace didn’t automatically bring classroom teachers in droves, but rather in a trickling stream, and by working with several colleagues and our PTA president.
This past year has helped to give our maker movement stronger momentum with the addition of school sponsored clubs (multi-grade makers club and Lego Robotics). These clubs have introduced more students to the space, and encouraged cross grade/school collaborations to incorporate making into the curriculum. And perhaps one of the most ambitious projects of all is our inaugural HExpo(Heathcote Elementary Expo) – our version of a makerfaire.

MAKERFAIRE

The upcoming HExpo is truly going to be a celebration of the positive changes that are happening around our school and district. It’s a celebration of the planning, designing, iterating and collaborating that has grown out of our makerspace and it’s our contribution to the growing maker movement. We have partnered with community members, parents, former students and local businesses and museums to design a series of hands on workshops for students to participate in.
Our impressive line up includes furniture design, architecture, bridge building, 3D design, coding, a mobile planetarium, 3D animation, collage, and several tinker tables for open exploration. Our school’s green club is busy making their version of Cain’s Arcade for the HExpo.
While the makerspace may be one room in our building, it encompasses a mindset that encourages exploration, imagination and prototyping. This room symbolizes a change where problem solving and creativity are at the core of learning. It’s only one room but the impact is slowly reaching far beyond it’s four walls. HExpo ‘15 will be the first of many to come.
Originally published on April 29, 2015 daily genius
Category: design thinking, documenting learning, experts, growth mindset, HExpo, makerfaire, makerspace | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 7

Columbia University’s Makerspace


This summer I was fortunate to be invited to tour the makerspace/design labs of Teacher’s College Columbia University with a colleague.  Our host was Richard Jochum, professor of art and art education as well as the visionary who wrote the curriculum for their new program in Creative Technologies.  What I learned that day was both inspirational and affirming.


VALIDATION
The first room we toured was their original digital photography lab.  Walls were lined with computers, scanners and printers.  Shelves housed 3D printers and several storage carts caught my eye: Makey Makey kits, alligator clips, wire, batteries – basically the exact same supplies that were in my makerspace!  Here I was in a prestigious university and the students there are using the same exact materials that my students are using!  Validation of the highest form!  The second room we toured was more sophisticated in it’s tools and technologies but very similar to what our high school is planning for their design lab. Again, validation!  The walls were adorned with examples of student work; a small gallery celebrating student learning, a final project highlighting the integration of making and writing, a work in progress waiting for it’s owner to return.  In all, it was a beautiful sight knowing that audience is a vital part of student motivation and planning for new ways to celebrate learning in our makerspace.


COMMON DENOMINATORS
Beyond the materials and machines lay a glorious commonality within the maker world no matter the age of the student; educators want to promote a community of risk takers and problem solvers. Professor Jochum sat with my colleague and I for over an hour talking about the future of makerspaces, the importance of vertical curriculum and how we play a part in creating such students.  Change is happening in education on all levels, it’s slow but it is happening.  Changing the space, we have all come to learn, is the easy part.  It’s the culture change within individual school buildings that is more challenging. However, after this day, thinking about the parallels between my students and the students at Columbia University, I was inspired to start a new school year and “make” it amazing!

 

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