This...

was the highlight of my day.  Last week, many of our students at Summit participated in the Hour of Code.  During their Library/ Tech class, I had my K5 students work on the Level 1 tutorials.  The student on the left in this picture stated school in September not knowing any English.  There are still many language barriers for him in school.  Following directions and knowing what to do is a continual struggle for this English language learner.  However, he totally got the language of computer coding!!  When a student next to him needed help, he voluntarily showed her what to do.  The smiles on both of their faces was absolutely priceless.  I was amazed at how engaged all of my students were during this lesson.  I am really glad we used the Hour of Code website for our coding lessons and will definitely do so again in the future.      

Attention SE WI teachers

We are starting a school/library makerspace networking groups for fellow teachers in Southeastern Wisconsin.  If you'd like to be included, please fill out this form

Looking forward to sharing ideas and hearing what other schools and libraries are doing with Makerspaces!

Coffee Cart

A recent new sight in the Summit halls is our Tuesday morning Coffee Cart.  Mrs. Judkins and Mrs. Olsen worked with Mr. Schnoor's class to develop the idea and the logistics of how the cart will run, Ms. Jens and Mrs. Olsen coordinated purchasing the necessary materials, and each week, Mr. Schnoor's students, with Mrs. Judkins' help, take orders from the staff for freshly made hot coffee, chocolate, or tea, and deliver them to classrooms around the building.

All proceeds from the coffee cart are going to the makerspace, and Mr. Schnoor's class has been tasked with the challenge of coming up with projects in the makerspace to expand or develop the coffee cart - some ideas so far have been to sew aprons, build a "snack bar" or a more permanent coffee cart, and to create cup insulators to keep the coffee warmer.  It will be fun to watch this project develop as the year goes on. Almost as fun as it is to get a freshly made hot cup of coffee handed to me every Tuesday morning!!
    

The school year is already flying by!  I can hardly believe that it is November already.  The Lego We Do projects and circuit building kits took a little bit longer than expected.  We also have worked on some computer skills so far this year.  We had to get in the Maker Space again and try a STEM challenge to celebrate Thanksgiving.  The challenge was to build a boat (like the Mayflower) out of one piece of paper, Popsicle sticks, and aluminum foil.  The students then added pennies to their boat to see how buoyant it was.  One group was able to put 80 pennies on their boat before it sank!  The students really enjoyed this activity.  The experimented with different ways to build their boat and really worked well as a group.  I will definitely do this again next year.

"Making" Math

This year we've started a school wide implementation of "PIE" time - Practice, Intervention, Enrichment.  We call it our "Husky Power Time".  I am fortunate enough to get an opportunity to work with 3 grade levels during their Husky Power Time on math enrichment.  With this 30 minutes a day, 4 days a week, I have time to really get into some of the fun STEM applications of math that we haven't had enough time to do before.  And with that taking place in the Makerspace, I am taking full advantage of this time block.

This week my first grade Husky Power group has been working on missing addend word problems like the following: Matt has some sticks.  He collects 27 more.  Now Matt's stick collection is 68 sticks.  How many sticks did Matt have at the beginning?  We have worked through interpreting these problems and representing them with a number sentence.  Today they are working on representing them with Legos as well.  Though many of the students chose one to show after they had solved it, some students realized that the Legos would be a valuable tool to help them figure out the answers as well.  I love watching them so totally engaged as they work with a "toy" to help them organize their thinking!

My fourth graders gifted kids are working through the Khan Academy Pixar in a Box curriculum, which teachers kids the math and science concepts they use at Pixar to make their animations lifelike.  After watching tutorial videos and trying a simulation on the computer, they have a hands on component.  This week, they are making parabolic curves with cardstock and needle and thread.  What a valuable way to reteach and assess learning through these hands on activities.  

My fourth grade Husky Power group is doing a home design project, where they have certain requirements for their house, they have a budget, and they are drawing the plans.  Later this week, as they finish their plans, they will create a model of their home, in whatever way they choose, to show their design.  I have a student using an app called Home Design 3D to create a blueprint, I have a child who is electing do use Legos, I have another who is designing in Tinkercad.  I can't wait to see what the end results look like!

Maker Carts in Action

Check out these pictures of our Maker carts in use all over the building!  The kids are so excited to have them!

Who's the Teacher here?

To put this post in context, these are second graders.  SEVEN YEAR OLDS!!  Most of them have Legos at home, but the WeDo Robotics Kits are new to them.  In the class of 20 kids, I had one who used Legos for the first time (and subsequently went home and asked her mom to get her some for her birthday this year), one who had built plenty of times, but had never followed the pictoral directions for building something specific, and many who were skilled at Legos but were learning how to use the coding tools on the WeDo software to control them.  This video really captures how my role has changed with the addition of the Makerspace - I am not the only teacher in the room.  As a matter of fact, most days I am the facilitator, and they are learning from each other.  What a great experience for the student-learner and the student-teacher!!

Overheard. . .

To set the scene for you. . .

This was in a 3rd grade class, primarily 8 year olds at this time of year, in the second week of school.  They had an hour a week of library/tech time last year, but that did not include makerspace time every week.  We are starting a design project based on the Dyson Idea Box curriculum (teachers, if you don't know about it, you need to look into it!!) which asks them to think about an everyday project and how they're going to improve it or expand on its current design.

Third grade boy to his partner, about a woodworking project they want to undertake for this project -

Student: "Ok, before we do anything, we need to measure really carefully, because it has to be exactly the same on both sides in order for it to work well"
Me: Do you know what that's called?  We call that symmetry, when something is exactly the same on both sides"
Student:  "Really?  Ohh, that's awesome!"

Third grade girl brainstorming for project ideas - 

"I just can't think of anything, it's way too hard, I don't know any products that I could work on"
-15 minutes of group brainstorming later - 
"Mrs. Harrop, I can't decide.  I love all five of my ideas so much, I want to make them all.  Can I just do more than one?  I have too many to pick from."

Third grade boy explaining to me how he plans to design his project - 

"I was thinking about this thing my mom has at home, and if I study that and figure out how it works, I can use that to help me figure out to make mine work."

Every day we're seeing that IT'S WORKING!! All the time, money, effort, stress, that went into designing and creating the makerspace is paying off in so many ways!  Can't wait to see what the year brings!

All Star Makers

Last year at the end of the school year, we challenged our students to continue to "make" over the summer, whether by designing, creating, building, whatever!  We have had projects coming in over the last 3 weeks, from students ages 4K - 4th grade, and we've had so much fun seeing what they did!

Check out the slideshow of projects below!

 

Year 2: Starting off Strong

It's been an interesting 3 weeks in the Makerspace for year 2, because we are really seeing the difference from the beginning of year 1.  Some of the differences have been negative, but the overwhelming majority have been positive.

The biggest negative difference we've seen is that we can tell the kids didn't spend as much time on the computers last year as they had in previous years, when they were with me in the computer lab for 30 minutes a week.  They are missing some of the basics, most obviously with the kids who were in kindergarten and first grade last year.  This is easily remedied, as we are just changing our weekly structure to be sure that our K, 1, 2 classes have a little time on the computers every week, and we are teaching and reteaching the essentials.  I am optimistic that in year 3 we will see this has leveled out again.

But on the positive side, we are thrilled to see a difference in the way kids are thinking!!  Last year, there was a sense of haste to every project.  The kids tended to choose easy and familiar materials, opt for low-tech designs, and be in a hurry to finish first.  This year, I am seeing so much more planning, attention to details, and integration of high and low tech components together.  They are dreaming big, and motivated to learn how to do what they're picturing for their designs.  There's also a creativity that they didn't naturally demonstrate last year.  I think they are more comfortable with the materials, and so they are willing to take risks and think outside the box.

This is all exactly what we were hoping for with the creation of the Makerspace.  We could not be more thrilled with how the year has started!

My first week teaching in a Maker Space!  I am beyond excited to learn how to use this space to develop my students' creativity, collaboration skills, communication skills, and design skills.  There are so many new learning tools to use this year: Osmos, Go Pro Cameras, 3D pens, sewing machines, Makey Makey kits, and so much more.  I know I will learn a lot with the students this year.  This is my second grade classes making circuits with Snap Circuit kits and using Lego We Do kits.  They also spent one week exploring Little Bit circuits.  I learned that some of them have Snap Circuits at home but not Little Bits,  Next year, I would like to spend more time on the Little Bits and see what the students can create!

Through Their Eyes

As a back to school activity, I had the 3rd and 4th grade classes brainstorm a list of words to describe the Makerspace.  I combined the lists and put them into Wordle.net to generate a word cloud.  What I got back speaks volumes.  For those not familiar with word clouds, they are visual representations of a text selection.  Unless specifically excluded, all words that show up in the entered text appear somewhere in the design, with words that were entered more frequently showing up larger in the design.  So for these word clouds, the biggest words in each design are words that showed up the most when they were brainstorming - words like FUN, TEAMWORK, LEARNING, TECH, CHALLENGE, BUILD.  It says a lot about how they perceive what we're doing in here, and it validates that they're getting the very things out of it that we'd hoped.

Check out this video of their word clouds!

Introducing Mrs. Benedict

Hello!  My name is Kimberly Benedict, and I am the new library/ media specialist at Summit this year.  I started my career as an educator in 1999.  I was a classroom teacher and media specialist for the School District of Greenfield for most of my career.  I am beyond excited to be part of the Summit team and work with the students during their library/ technology time in the media center and Maker Space.  I look forward to seeing all the wonderfully creative projects the students design and create this year come to life.  My goal is to encourage the students at Summit to be life long learners, readers, thinkers, and creators.  I know it is going to be a great year of researching, learning, dreaming, and building together!

We're on the Move!

You may remember that last year we were awarded a follow up grant from Oconomowoc Public Education Foundation to create mobile makerspace carts for check out and use in the classrooms. Well, here they are!!

Ms. LaGrange, our exceptionally talented art teacher, once agin designed the carts and all of their unique embellishments, and Mr. Jay, the husband of our health room assistant, built them over the summer.  They are gorgeous!

Our goal was to make them as "ready-to-go" as possible, so that teachers could check them out, wheel them in, and be ready to go, so they have fold out tabletop space built in.

We created four themed carts:

The Creativity Cart - filled with all sorts of building, creating, and crafting materials like burlap, sewing materials, yarn, wood, weaving looms, and glue guns.

The Science Cart - filled with simple machine kits, digital microscopes, Marble Run kits, and tools like funnels, pipettes, hand lenses, tweezers, and petri dishes.

The Engineering Cart - containing Legos and K'nex.

The Technology Cart - including 3Doodlers, Osmos, GoPro Cameras, iPads, and Chromebooks.

We're still waiting on some of the equipment to arrive, but I can't wait till they're out around the school and helping teachers integrate the Maker Mindset into their classrooms!

Be a "Maker" all summer!

We are making plans for our first official "Back to School Maker Faire" in September.  The students are encouraged to build things (independently or with their families) during the summer, post to our Facebook page, and then bring the projects in for display on our Back to School night in August so that we can share them during the first few weeks of school.  I'm hoping we will see lots of fun and creative projects!

This is the information going home to families.

Happy Summer Making!!!

2nd Grade Vehicles

Our 2nd Graders just completed a very long and challenging Makerspace project! In science, they were studying force and motion.  They conducted experiments with toy cars and ramps and then wrote lab reports to share their findings.  In the Makerspace, we took the ideas of force and motion and challenged our students to make a vehicle that traveled FASTER or FURTHER than the toy cars in their experiments.  After creating their cars, testing them, fixing them, and testing them again, students made a video using the Explain Everything app on the iPad.  This project was difficult for all but it truly taught our students the importance of planning, testing, and trying again.  They learned that THEY WILL FAIL but each failure was just a chance to make their projects even better.  We often saw students working together to make their vehicles work and collaboration proved to be a very important component in their design process.

Not just for STEAM!

Recently our third graders finished their persuasive writing unit - a unit they've done for years.  This year, however, the teachers decided it was a great opportunity to integrate technology, the Makerspace, and the Design Process into their writing time as well!  Each student was a part of a "cause group" - working to communicate a message about an issue that affected lives outside of their classroom (for example, protecting the environment or being more physically active).  After completing their research, they wrote a presentation to deliver to an audience of families and students at our Celebration of Learning night.

Most groups opted to use technology to help in delivering that presentation (recording a video on the green screen, using the iPads to create a stop-motion animation video, or creating a presentation in Google Slides).

Then they spent some time in the Makerspace, creating a promotional product to convey their message - we talked about, and looked at, lots of logo items that we get at conferences, businesses, etc. that they might use as inspiration (lanyards, bookmarks, brochures, screen cleaners, mugs, pens, and bags, to name a few).  Each group voted on a product and design, then worked furiously to mass produce something that they could hand out to audience members who listened to their presentation.

 Some groups also opted to make wearable items for themselves, so they could further communicate their message - I saw t-shirts, bracelets and bags.

It was a wonderful culminating activity for them - to take all they've learned in the classroom, in the Makerspace, and on the tech devices this year and put them all together for a purpose!  And I LOVED watching the classroom teachers, who a year ago had no idea what a Makerspace was, thinking about ways to integrate both high-tech and low-tech "making" into every part of the school day.

Family STEAM Night

Last week, we hosted our first ever STEAM Night.  What is STEAM? STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math.  

Over 100 people graced our cafeteria, Makerspace, library, halls, art room, gym and various classrooms. It was a RAGING success!  Upon entering, each family received a STEAM Night packet that listed each activity, location, and extension or enrichment questions to help follow up or promote deeper level thinking.  We also had a raffle at the end if students showed work on their packet!  When planning, we looked at a great blog called Classroom Quests for a lot of inspiration but also used some ideas we've found are fun while teaching in the Makerspace.  

The Activities and Extension/En

Challenge: Build a sculpture or structure using the materials provided by Ms. La Grange.

• What can you add to your design to make it taller?
• Would you do anything different if you were to start again?

Challenge: Answer the clues and complete the physical challenges to solve the final puzzle created by Mr. Dirkmann.

• What was the most difficult clue and why?
• What is a clue you would add to the scavenger hunt if you could?

This was a fun way to incorporate physical movement with mind challenging questions.  For example, the first clue was for families to count the number of squares in the picture, add a zero to that number and run to that room number (The answer is 40, so they ran to room 400)

Challenge: Try using a piece of equipment you’ve never used before in the Makerspace.

• What worked well?
• What was difficult about trying something new?

Challenge: Show a family member something you’ve learned how to do this year in the Makerspace.

• Can you explain why it works?
• How would you use this tool/skill/information in life outside of school (a job, a hobby, etc.)?

Challenge: Get a challenge card from the baskets and complete a Lego building or math challenge activity.

• What math did you have to use in building your creation?  
• What would you do differently if you were trying the same challenge again?

All of our Makerspace kits and supplies were out and available for our families to try. It was a great way for parents to see some of the things their kids are actually doing in the space!

Challenge: Use the binary code key to create a bracelet that spells your initials in binary code.

• Can you explain what “binary code” is?
• Try writing a word in binary code and have a friend figure out what the word is.

We used a key from the Code.org website that helped us set these up.  While it was a fun activity, the idea of "binary code" is pretty advanced and we might want to explain it further during our classes. Compared to all the other fun things we had going on, this station wasn't as popular.

Challenge: Using the materials provided, create a catapult to launch a puff ball.

• How far can you get a puffball to launch?
• Can you change your catapult design to make the puffball go further?
• How does the weight of what you launch affect the distance? (Try launching a small eraser)

This station was a huge hit!  We made some examples but we encouraged students to try and make their own design.  Then we put graph paper on the floor and let them launch their puff balls and mark where their's landed in comparison to other students.  We also provided small erasers so they could see how weight had an affect on distance.

Challenge: Have fun with this mini Cardboard Challenge! Create anything you’d like!

• What did you make? Why?

Our first Cardboard Challenge was such a hit, we figured why not set up another?! It's amazing what families can create with cardboard and duct tape!

Challenge: Create a Thaumatrope (an optical illusion toy from the 1800s).

• What happens with you spin the straw more quickly or more slowly?
• Try drawing different pictures.  What kinds of pictures work best?
• Choose one thing to change (that’s the variable) and make a prediction.

This station was fun and easy! Definitely something both young and old can do!

Challenge: Use the Green Screen and iPads to be a news reporter.

• What other ways can you think of to use the Green Screen?

Our Green Screen is relatively new and we love showing off all the fun things we can do with it.  

Challenge: Go on Code.org and play any coding game you’d like.

• Explain to someone how coding works.  
• Why does the order of the steps matter when writing code?

This station literally ran itself. We set up our computers and let Code.org do all the work! Most of our students have been introduced to at least one, if not multiple, activities on the website so we wanted to give families a chance to see how easy coding can be!

Challenge: Go on Code.org and play any coding game you’d like.

• Explain to someone how coding works.  
• Why does the order of the steps matter when writing code?

This was a craft and also a fun math game. Quiznos donated boxes that worked perfect to make a cash register and we had so much play money, it looked like a robbed a play bank.

Challenge: Meet the members of the various Robotics teams and see how their robots work.

• How did the Robotics teams get involved in making robots?
• What could you do now to prepare for middle or high school Robotics?

We had two different high school Robotics teams bring their robots, equipment, and videos to share with our students.  Our students got to drive the robotics and really interact with the equipment. Some students never left this area! I think we have some future Robotics members on our hands!

Challenge: Examine the archaeological site, also known as “the cookie.”  Map your “site” and extract any artifacts, also known as “the chocolate chip.”

• Graph how many artifacts (chocolate chips) you found. How does your number compare with others?
• What was the most difficult part of your archaeological excavation?

For this station, students mapped a cookie and then dug out the chocolate chips with toothpicks.  Then they graphed how many chocolate chip cookies were in their cookie on an-all school graph.  Not only did we do science and math but we also learned that name-brand cookies had more chocolate chips than the generic version! And we got to eat a cookie when we were done!

Challenge: Launch three angry birds and see how many cardboard bricks you can knock down.  

• Which launcher worked best and why?
• Did you have a strategy when launching? What was it?

We (and by "we," I mean our Guidance Counselor Ms. Jens) bought three stuffed Angry Birds from Amazon and we used different launchers from our Phy. Ed. department to knock over cardboard bricks that our 5K rooms let us borrow.  Students had to change the angle and force at which they were launching to be successful.

Things we would do again:

• Invite as many Robotics members as we could find! The older students were great with our elementary students and their work was inspiring.

• We used Event Brite to have families sign up before they came and that helped us to plan enough activities and have enough materials.  We will definitely use that again!

• Create a packet of activities with extension questions.  The night really ran itself once everything was set up.

• I'm lying...we had AMAZING staff members help facilitate each station and we couldn't have done it without their support of our school and the Makerspace program.

We are already planning for our next STEAM night for the 15-16 school year.  Any ideas?!  Let us know!