Light up the Songs

 It was the perfect message for any shopper. An email was sent that said we are giving you $___ to go shopping. Start building your Makerspace. What?!

The amount was amazing but shopping for robotic items isn't on the cheap side. This led me to do quite a bit of research as to the best way to use the money. The tools had to be inventive, user-friendly for all ages, adaptable, reuseable and can be withstand the creative mind of elementary engineers. Makey Makey proved to be a great fit for this endeavor.

Watching webinars and reading manuals was a great place to start, but working with it alongside an experienced creator is where the learning took a major turn. I reached out to my IFT (Instructional Facilitator of Technology) community and learned that colleague was well connected with the head trainer of Makey Makey!      Colleen Graves

Skyped in one afternoon from Texas and taught myself and colleagues how to begin using the tool.

After the successful training, it was time to translate this to the class. Students were introduced, briefly, to the tool. They were given Play-doh and a laptop and navigated to a website with a piano. Students worked feverishly to play music touching the Play-doh! You can read more about the experience here. 

After succeeding with this skill, Mrs. Gratz came with to use Makey Makey to light up holiday trees during the grade level's winter concert.

Makey Makey was brought to her room, students learned how to use and they began coding. Through the process students connected the robotic tool to low voltage Christmas lights strands. They cut apart the battery pack and used the power of the tool and computer to light the tree. Three head engineers, all 3rd grade students, were in charge or ensuring the trees were all the same height, alligator clips attached to the correct places, copper tape cut to the correct length and each strand of light could shine to show their own color. When complete, 12 different trees and lights were connected correctly.

The final step was to make the trees glow brilliantly to match the song they and their classmates were singing. The music was taught in their specials class by our fabulous teacher, Mr. Pennix. His teachings were brought to the class and they paired the lights with recording shared by him. Below is a clip of their performance.




The story doesn't end here. After sharing the concert with Colleen, it was requested that the students document directions for how it was done. Makey Makey has a section of free resources for their users where teachers can locate instructional guides to build a variety of things. Mrs. Gratz had her students created a PDF and video that explains how other users can replicate this same project.

Thinking about Building a Car

Each week classes enter into a Makerspace lab for a design challenge. They may build a cardboard arcade game, bridge for a turkey to escape the inevitable or a video game based on the four layers of the ocean.

Planning 

This room is so successful because it allows every student, every type of learner and all content areas to be combined into an activity where all members of a class can excel. What makes a Makerspace Lab so successful is the creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking (4 C’s in education) and the design thinking model. At no time will you find students sitting quietly, unengaged and waiting for a direction. There is a challenge that all students will find their strength and can add to the process. They are given a task, more recyclable and craft items they can get their hands on and a time frame to achieve it.

Recently a third grade class came into the Makerspace Lab and handed an ipad. This was atypical because in the past a conversation was had about what would be built. Although a fine system, it left out the pieces of planning and evaluation-two integral parts of the engineering process. On this day, the ipad would be the tool that allowed time for this to happen. Using SMART Technologies SMART Learning Suite Online activities (SLSO), a free part of their software, students logged in and completed a Rank Order activity. Nine thoughts were presented and they had to sort them from the first step to the last step while sitting in their groups. There was no right or wrong order stated and left much discussion to be had. Some groups agreed right away while others debated about the best way to tackle the challenge.

Once complete, the challenge was presented to the students. You have 40 minutes to
build a car. No rules, no descriptions, no list of items that need to be used...only to build

Students building while recording
data on a Shout It Out activity.

a car. The discussions and what some may call a disaster,commenced as a variety of tools was spread across the room. Conversations ensued as the builders spoke about what tools would be best for their car. As they were building, they returned to the SLSO Lab activities but this time a Shout It Out was used. Three columns were set up (materials, challenges and successes) where students filled it out as they build their vehicles. Finally, they needed to complete a 5 open-ended questions where they evaluated the process, tools used, collaboration and successes.

What did the engineers learn? By completing the different SLSO activities, the students were able to focus more on the path to success instead of only achieving the goal. The following week, the students received the same activities and a new goal. Using it a second time the students were ready for the process of the Makerspace planning and 4 C's to a goal that they all achieved.

This process will be discussed in greater detail on Sunday, December 2, 2018 at VSTE's Conference.

Color Coding

Robots are everywhere and have been for some time. They have been used to make our lives easier. In the last bit of years, they have become 'toys' for our young engineers. Children have been learning how to build them and how to make them move. The language used, coding, can be seen in different forms:

OSMO Coding Blocks

HTML Code

Scratch Coding Blocks

As students learn different types of coding, they can program a variety of objects. OSMO coding blocks teach Kindergarten students coding through a physical map of connecting the pieces. The OSMO app will 'read' the blocks and show what it looks like on a screen. Scratch will take it to the next level. The physical blocks are now on the screen and organized by type of movement they want their character to move. The character will be displayed on the screen as they create and test the code. A sample of completed Scratch coding project can be seen below.

All of this leads to this week in the Makerspace Lab. Students in 5th grade have been working on coding and practiced their skills on Code.org. After grasping the concept they moved on to coding Ozobots.

Ozobots code on color. Students needs to create a drawing using four colors: black, red, blue and green. Each color has a job and the small robot will respond to it depending on the length of each line, color or color combination and how wide the markings are. The directions they were given were quite minimal to encourage the critical thinking need to become successful. Below are samples of their work along with a successful roller coaster.

Map for Ozobot

                                            

Makerspace or Tornado

The Makerspace Lab has been one huge venture. We went from an empty classroom to a space to create, make messes, make mistakes, try new ideas and create amazing projects. In the short time it has been open, so much has happened.

Students have created trees out of blocks and pipe cleaners, leaf cleaning machines, cardboard games, video games, pianos and so much more.

How does this tie into the curriculum? All of the projects do have content connection are tied directly to SOL standards, but they are so much  more. No project will ever be completed as an individual. Students may or may not be placed in teams meaning the teachers may assign groups or the students can choose who they want to work with. Does this present issues? Sure does! There are obstacles the young minds must overcome.

They must learn to respect other's opinions. They must learn to listen with an open mind. They must learn how to share their ideas knowing they may not work. They must learn to compromise.

As planning continues with the team of teachers, we continue to find new
ideas and adapt to meet the standards and team work that is expected in the room. There will be weeks the students may learn individually, such as 5th grade using Code.org. This skill, along with others will lead to larger projects and creating more amazing things.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Who wants to venture to the center of the earth? Fifth graders learn about them but we all know that just reading an article may not help them grasp a concept of something they can't touch. Clearly we can't head there on a field trip...What if (the start of every amazing creation)...what if we built it?
Fifth grade thought it was a great idea and their buildings are well underway. They will be using Bloxels as their platform, or program, to make it happen.

"You don't need to understand fancy code and own super expensive computer programs to make video games anymore. All it takes is your Bloxels Gameboard, some blocks and a mobile device and, of course,  your imagination to take the guesswork out of building your own video games!" http://home.bloxelsbuilder.com

The students have been working hard learning the Bloxels program, learning about the layers of the earth and planning out the game.

Bloxels is also a free download for your personal device. Apple iOS   Amazon   Google Play

When the character in the game bursts the white box,
 a secret message will appear.

After creating their game on the plan sheet, the teams will
need to use the blocks to begin making their game. 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Kindergarten  has been learning about apples and trees that it only seemed  appropriate to continue the conversation. The young engineers first viewed the video below.

The students were given some wooden blocks, letters and a pipe cleaner. Their task was to build a tree that balanced the letters on it. Many attempts were made and creative approaches were taken. View some of their creations below. 

Different Pipes

Pipe cleaner are supposed to be used for removing moisture and residue from smoking pipes. However, ask any teacher and they will tell you 1,000 ways to use it in the classroom. They are a versatile tool that can be twisted and turned to create anything a child can dream up. Add in the colors, texture and they can easily be cut and 1,000 ways just quadrupled!

In our Makerspace, we have found a few great ways to be creative. Students were given a handful of them and a purple card with a direction. They might vary from a container to hold pencils or pulley system to lift a bag off the floor.

Working in small groups, they needed to discuss ways to create the item described on their card. Collaboration and critical thinking are major parts of this project. Students need to share thoughts, compromise and listen to other's idea.

Their creations proved that learning through play is so important.

 

MAKEing some Music

Piano lessons are finally paying off! Fifth grade students have been creating symphonies out of...Makey Makey and Playdoh. Students were given a computer, wires and that amazing toy that seemed to get stuck in every possible crevice in your play room. Today it is being used to make beautiful music.

 Each group was given one arduino board, a set of wires and a lap top. They were tasked to study the items and connect them to a machine that would produce a sound. In this case, it was piano music. Through trial and error classmates solved challenged and connected it all. To say our room was loud would be an understatement.


Once it was connected then they had to make the music. Part of the process is a bit of trial and error. Once student was able to play a song she had been working on in her piano lessons. She assessed which keys where which notes, adjusted cords and moved the 'Playdoh keys' around to accommodate her song. The result is in the video below.