I love EVERYthing about this Makerspace experience from start to finish! As the Innovation Coordinator for our TK-8 school, I have the great privilege to be able to work with all grades and all content areas, both students and teachers.
My goal is to bring in the innovation to their content areas (design thinking, STEAM, technology, coding robotics, engineering, etc) to prove how learning can be hands-on, innovative, & incorporate the 4Cs. It's TRULY my jam! SO....2 weeks ago, knowing 7th History was slotted to be in our Makerspace, I met with the 7th History teachers and we started brainstorming what Makerspace experience students could have to go with their learning of Medieval Japan. The History teachers started thinking of STEM activities (build the tallest pagoda, make their own paper, etc) They started to get overwhelmed and so I guided them to shift the focus on what the TEACHER would create for students to make, to what the STUDENT would make to show their learning of the content. I asked for a list of topics (12 total ranging from origami, paper lanterns, puppet theater, sumo wrestling, Samurai, sushi and more) ð These topics got me ALL excited! What if we could have design teams pick the topics they are interested in, research more deeply, then create an exhibit to teach others in an engaging, interactive way?? Fastforward, the entire week in our Makerspace blew us away and made my innovation teacher heart SO big! Most importantly, I guarantee they'll retain a lot of this history content because they had so much fun, were engaged and 100% ALL in!
This is one of the last Makerspace Design Challenges we did before leaving due to COVID19 and I am cherishing the memories of the collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, perseverance and major content knowledge involved in this one robust lesson! I first taught this lesson to 3rd grade due to their area and perimeter content standards but after "skimming the surface" I KNEW I had to bring it to our upper grades math students to truly prove how much content+innovation is critical! Read below. LISTEN to the creative chaos of the Makerspace and learning, and click on the link below to access the lesson to use for your own students. Let me know how it goes!
I truly enjoy our after school Lego Robotics Club! The collaboration, across-age friendships, the critical thinking, and hands-on practice in computer science and engineering...it's so impressive and I wish it could be done during the school day. However, due to the amount of time to build and our Innovation schedule, it works best as an after school club. Historically, I have had more girls involved and it made me so sad we just had a handful this Spring. My plan was to market it and showcase to future students (girls and boys) but we were cut short due to COVID19. So these are the few highlights of my rad little innovators who quickly surpassed my computer science/robotics knowledge and impressed me beyond words!
Oh, how I LOVE Adobe Spark! SO when I get to work with my older innovators (13 yrs & older) I bring out all the cool #edtech tools I can't with my Tk-6! NOTE: If your district agrees to terms, you may be able to use with your youngest innovators! For now, read below and check it out for yourself. Adobe Spark and Canva are my favorite graphic design/creation tools.
What do you do when your local Girl Scouts troop reaches out for help in earning their 3 Robotics Badges!? You can NOT say no to Girl Scouts (I mean....come on) so you whip up a super fun 2 Day after school class!
These Innovative girls learned about robot parts, how robots can help us solve problems then launched them into a quick rapid prototyping DesignThinking Challenge in our Makerspace! Next, they collaborated with a Thanksgiving Dinner Challenge to teach Dash to be a very good robot and eat his dinner :) Click on the links below to modify for your own Girl Scouts and/or students!
After teaching my TK-8 students in all things innovation the past 4 years, I knew I wanted to step up MY game by bringing them into the Augmented and Virtual Reality world. I knew I would need devices so I reached out to a local company and convinced them to donate the old phones that were just laying in that drawer waiting for student innovators to learn! Once we got 10 Samsung Galaxy and 10 iPhone 6 devices, we were off and running!
Please see below to access my AR/VR presentation, resources, and read all about how our student innovators learned and created through the amazing CoSpacesEdu!
Click to set custom HTML
Stepping up from the Makey Makey Interactive Posters and moving from the Innovation Lab to the Makerspace are the Interactive Museums and Prototypes lessons. These focus on making prototypes interactive, engaging and teachable. Most importantly, this can be used with ANY subject and content area. Read more below and check out the resource links to try for yourself. SUCH a fun Makerspace lesson!
I don't know about you but we go BIG during Computer Science/ Hour of Code Week! It is usually the 2nd week of December and we begin prepping for it a month before. Read below to see how we celebrate and feel free to modify the resources linked below for your own classroom, school and/or district.
Managing a school-wide Makerspace is a huge job! It definitely "takes a village" to keep it running smoothly in regards to organization as well as procedures and the success of the lessons. Here is my latest iteration on what works well for us so far. There is a student contract and also a Makerspace Tour Video that may help. âFeel free to modify for your own STEAM Lab, Makerspace, or even classroom. Happy Making!
Click here to visit Presentations & Conferences page to access!
Got a School Makerspace? I highly suggest NOT accepting supplies/recyclables all year long. Instead celebrate a week-long Innovation Drive where you can enlist parent helpers (or students, volunteers, whatever youâve got) to help manage & organize it all! Making it a fun event with all involved brings in the donations (sometimes even NEW Innovation resourcesð) & you only have to deal with the #creativechaos of managing it all a couple times a year!
Click on the link for an editable Parent Donation Request list.
A huge part of my job is teaching teachers & students how innovation (tech, coding, robotics, making, design thinking ,etc) doesnât have to stand alone.
In fact, I'm kind of passionate about proving how curriculum and content can be incorporated so easily in all innovation & vice versa! :) Click on the links for resources and read below to see some of the many ways we weave innovation through the curriculum!
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