Middle School Nook - Tinker Space

Thanks to the efforts of one of our middle school teachers, our middle school nook has become a place for students to tinker and explore during their free time. Currently there are math problems of the week, design challenges with supplies, tinker construction sets, chess, a labyrith puzzle, and mancala. The activities change on a regular basis to keep the students interested and engaged.

I was recently asked me to help create a space within the nook where the students could watch pre-selected videos, play interactive math games, and further explore different math and science concepts. Her goal was to expand what they students were already doing in this space with the use of technology. 

After spending some time brainstorming about the types of activities that she wanted to provide and how she envisioned the students would interact with the activities and move around in the space, it was clear that a wall mounted iPad was the perfect solution. It does not take up much space, does not require any input devices (keyboard/mouse), and most importantly is an easy to use, familiar tool. Most importantly it would be about the content and interaction and not about the technology. 

Unsure of how popular the new activity would be (part of the beauty of the current tinkering options is the simplicity and tactile nature), we decided to start small with only one wall mounted iPad - we can always add more. We purchased an iPad security mount from Maclocks.com case and started by providing three selected TEDed lessons (Mathemagic, The Math of Online Dating, and Athlete uses Physics to Shatter World Records). Using the Guided Access feature of the iPad, we restricted students to only being able to use Safari. Guided Access allows you to restrict an iPad to any single app and lets you control which features are available within the app (volume, home button, etc). Restrictions were enabled on the iPad to limit students from navigating to any websites outside of TEDed. The students can navigate between the three bookmarked lessons, but can also search for other lessons within TEDed. 

We plan to add signage to the wall to help pull the students in - but for now with the end of the school year so close, we were excited to get the iPad on the wall and how much use it gets!  If you build it they, will come - right? 

US students checking out TEDed Mathmagic

Friday FAVORITES

During this year's AIMS Tech Retreat, Jonathan Fichter (St. Patrick's Episcopal Day School) and Emily Letras (The Bryn Mawr School) set up a Makerspace for exploration and tinkering during the conference.
QR codes were placed around the space with more information about a specific station as well as resources for building your own Makerspace.  Jonathan and Emily did a great job setting up the space! I had tons of fun exploring and experimenting and left excited to share with the students the following list of products our tinker space definitely needs!

1. MAKEY MAKEY -  An invention kit for everyone that allows you to turn everyday objects into touch-pad controllers. Students could be challenged to create anything from game controllers to musical instruments! Check out the USA Today article featuring Makey Makey: Inventors smarten up toys for a new generation

www.makeymakey.com

2. SPHERO - A spherical robotic toy that you can control or program using a mobile device. The students could be challenged to design and construct a ramp or even a cart for Sphero. Sphero for Education provides step by step lessons to teach the basic concepts of programming, robotics and math!

www.gosphero.com

3. ARDUINO - "An open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. Its intended for artists, designers, hobbyists and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments." Arduino is a great way to start exploring all levels of programming and robotics, check out the project gallery for ideas!

www.arduino.cc

4. LITTLEBITS - "Everything you know and love about Arduino without the breadboarding, soldering or wiring. littleBits takes care of the electronics, while you focus on the code." (blog.arduino.cc) NOTE: littleBits were not part of the AIMS Makerspace but look super interesting!

www.littlebits.cc

5. SOFT CIRCUITS - Using conductive thread to add circuits, participants were able to sew an LED and battery holder to a piece of fabric. The possibilities for this technology are endless. Students could be challenged to design something as simple as a piece of light up, battery-powered clothing like some of these or could take it to the next level by designing and creating a toy that uses Arduino to program the lights like this one.

my first stab at soft circuits

My goal is to quickly turn our space into more than just a space for the 3D printer!

What are your favorite things for a Makerspace? 

AIMS TECH RETREAT 2014

Each May AIMS (Association of Independent Maryland Schools) hosts their annual Technology Retreat. "Designed to rejuvenate and inspire, the retreat provides a rich learning environment with opportunities to collaborate, network, and even experience a handful of hands-on technology activities." (aimsmmdc.org)

This year, Joy Foust Colburn and I had the honor of presenting. Our session, Blended Learning: Creating Classrooms On and Off Campus, was geared towards helping teachers, librarians and technology coordinators design effective blended learning lessons.

Blended Learning: Creating Classrooms On and Off Campus

Presenters: Mary Dobroth, Holton-Arms School; Joy Foust Colburn, Bullis School

Learn how you can use blended learning at your school or confer with colleagues to make existing program more effective. Discuss how blended learning can be implemented at different educational levels and for professional development. Explore the spectrum between fully online and offline classroom instruction.
Build a resource for your classes to use outside of the school day. Draw on student knowledge and build an online community. Make it possible for students to learn asynchronously wherever and whenever.
Audience: General Interest, Library, Technology 
Division: Lower School, Middle School, Upper School

We knew right away we did not want to be the type of presenters that stand in front of the room and talk at our participants for an hour. I am always amazed at the number of presentations I have gone to where I am lectured on not lecturing students. We wanted to model blended learning as much as we could to exchange information and provide an opportunity for hands-on learning.

Because our schools use two different learning management systems, Joy and I decided to use Google Sites to house the information we planned to share as well as provide a space for participants to begin crafting their own lessons. This method of presentation proved to be very successful. The participants in our session did not have to worry about taking notes because they knew they had immediate access to everything we were sharing, and because we had shared the information we didn't feel like we had to spend time covering every single thing. This allowed us to focus more on the hands on application of the material. Our goal was for participants to have time to look at examples and start applying some of the ideas to their own classes. Click here to check it out: Blended Learning: Creating Classrooms On and Off Campus

As I prepare for my next conference presentation this summer, this experience has made me start to think...
What do most participants hope to gain from conference sessions?
What are the most useful methods of presenting a large amount of information?
Would having access to an entire site of information and resources be helpful or overwhelming to me if I was the participant?
What makes for a memorable and meaningful session?

What do you think?

Friday FAVORITES: The Maker Movement

"Makerspaces are collaborative workshops where young people gain practical hands-on experience with new technologies and innovative processes to design and build projects. They provide a flexible environment where learning is made physical by applying science, technology, math, and creativity to solve problems and build things." www.makerspace.com

1. The Makerspace Play Book: School Edition might be just the thing you need to get your Makerspace up and running in your school. In addition to the playbook, be sure to check out the companion document, High School Makerspace Tools & Materials, which details the uses and costs of a fully stocked inventory for an in-school Makerspace. (makerspace.com)

2. Catlin Tucker's most recent blog post, Maker Movement - Let Them Build It & They'll Learn, shows how she brought the Maker philosophy into her English classroom by having students create models of The Globe Theater during her Othello unit. She even had students create stop motion videos throughout the project to document their work! (catlintucker.com)

3. Dive into the Maker Movement explores the Makerspace at Marymount school in New York City and explains why the Maker Movement is all the buzz in education these days. (edutopia.com)

In our own Tinker Space, we are currently exploring projects using Raspberry Pi. Do you have a Raspberry Pi but aren't sure what to do with it, or how to get started? 

4. Here are 26 Raspberry Pi Project Ideas to inspire your own project, complete with step by step guides. (instructables.com)

5. Make: also provides a listing of Raspberry Pi Project Ideas organized by ability level. (makezine.com)

While the Maker movement is exciting, for sure, it really is nothing new. The Maker movement is experiential learning at its finest. 

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results “ — John Dewey