Friday, November 4, 2022

KSULearningInnovationsMaker2022

Kent State held their latest Learning Innovations Conference Series on November 4th, 2022. The theme was Maker Education. John Spencer was the opening Keynote speaker.


John’s talks and books focus on Design Thinking , Project Based Learning (PBL through Design Thinking) … Creativity, Curiosity, Empowering students…Making.

He reminded us that “we are all “Under Construction” ” . One of his teachers when he was young, Mrs. Smoot, told him “when you hide your voice, you rob the world of your creativity”. I think this is very true. One of our roles as educators should be helping students find their voice to unleash their inner creativity. He likes to say “making is magic” and it is in the sense that it transforms things like learning and people. Technology does not transform learning, Technology becomes obsolete. The skills you learn and use (while making) don’t become obsolete.  These skills are “Timeless skills” essential skills that are not “soft” at all. They aren’t 2st century skills , they apply in all centuries.


He likes the term “Vintage Innovation” to talk about doing different AND better, overlap of the “tried and true” and the “never tried.”.  Mashing up lo fi and new tech, cutting edge tech with old skills. Students need to be curious and ask TONS of questions. I thin Curiosity is the first C in education that leads to all the rest (Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration). We need to develop the skill of “problem finder” not just “problem solver”. We also need to know the difference between “FAILure” and “FAILing” one is permanent, one is a stepping stone (temporary). Embrace failing…it happens all the time to everyone. What’s next mentality… Lots of “inventors” with great inventions have closets and rooms full of things that didnt work.


S3 technologies lead a session about Makerspace ideas. They shared the connection with Makerspace ideas and John Hattie research on affect. Some of the things that happen in a MakerSpace that have large affect numbers are:

Meta-cognition strategies (0.55)

Self-efficacy (0.65)

Creativity programs (0.70)

Feedback (0.72)

Reciprocal teaching (0.74)

Evaluation and reflection (0.75)

Planning and prediction (0.76)

Transfer strategies (0.86)

Cognitive task analysis (1.29)


They also shared the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) developed by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology. It helps educators intentionally and strategically use technology to enhance and propel student learning.


Vicki Turner shared about the “Nitty Gritty” of managing a Makerspace.

She reminded us that it will always be “you don’t quite know how to do it”. Admin needs to be involved as much as you can get them. I have spoken with Michael Triska at NORT2H along these lines. Many admin come to their building and he wants to have a Makerspace setup in the atrium so that admins see it and play with it. We need them to get their hands on. I think we need an admin Maker bootcamp in the summer. 


Makerspaces will always be a mess and will always have storage issues. You will have to repair and fix stuff, or call in the manufacturer to do so. They often need more electrical than the existing space has. Get mobile with stuff Husky too carts are good. Budge the kids and get student helpers. Display the student work EVERYWHERE, even central office. Train ALL your staff and admin on tools and skills. Accept ALL donations, even if you might not use it…you never know what idea or positive interactions it will generate. And get lots of books (I agree).


I presented about Maker Centered Learning across the curriculum. We talked about ideas in various classrooms. But the first thing we did was dump out a ziploc bag of stuff and built something. Maker needs to be experienced, not just seen and heard. Maker is good for our social and emotional health. Everyone said they felt good after making something. Here are my slides if you are interested (i have others also) https://bit.ly/mclksu2022 



Afterwards, I chatted with Erika Cousineau from the Girl Scouts, Colleen Cosgrove from the Boy Scouts and John Spencer. We had a nice chat, sometimes about maker ideas and questions, sometimes about personal stuff. Nice, casual learning and connections. We need more time like this. I shared my idea of an Oregon Maker Conference (John lives in Oregon). I want to do a 3 day conference. Maker tools and ideas in the morning. Lunch and afternoon visiting 2 wineries. Evening dinner together and a bonfire. Do that for 3 days. Lots of casual time where we can share and talk about things we learned/did in the morning and percolate ideas. John did bring up a great question/issue : how do we create access to Makerspaces OUTSIDE of school? for kids, for families... Why havent community/local Makerspaces thrived (there have been several national businesses that tried and failed)...


I think the next Learning Innovations needs to be hands on Maker.

Like PittFab & ChattFab and FabPlay.


(addendum)

At the same time that I was presenting, there was a session/panel on creating a NEO Maker network (some thing I have been talking to people about for a couple of years). I am hopeful that we can create one because it can only help people... "the smartest person in the room is the room" applies to networks...also "I may be smart, but my network is genius" works also (thanks Kevin Honeycutt). I think we should have quarterly events at various spaces where we come together and make something. Maybe an annual Edcamp and a MakerFaire. I don't know if newsletters do any good -- I am trying a blog (and need people to be guest Bloggers to share their stories). The network should run the annual Summit-Portage FabPlay workshop ...and maybe some others, maybe a bunch of summer camps. Maybe we could work on that issue John brought up - getting out of school access to Makerspaces. (I want a Mobile Makerspace that can go anywhere anytime...that is a whole other blog)




Thursday, November 3, 2022

#3DprintingToyAnimals

Want to put your 3D printer to good use. The Columbus based company IC3D has a crowdsourced project for people to print for the Toys for Tots collection https://www.ic3dprinters.com/2022-toys/ . They share files to you, you print them, then send them to a hub. Last year they did 69,000 toys. This year they hope for 75,000.

You don't HAVE to send them to Toys for Tots. You could find some files on Thingiverse to print, then give them to a local Christmas drive, like many of the food pantry's have.




Articulated animals are very fun to play with. Everybody loves a dinosaur or unicorn.

After you have done that, go ahead and print a bunch for your classroom. Have them in an accessible box. I think your kids will find many uses for them. Stop motion animation, props for pictures & videos.  Playful, creative scenes, things that open up the imagination and creativity.

Friday, August 12, 2022

CLEstemINtheCity

I participated in two days of CLE STEM in the City at two rec centers, Lonnie Burton & Michael J. Zone. This was a pilot project of “what could we do and how would it go over” between the City and NeoSTEM. We had 150 kids on day 1 and 100 on day two. 
We had learning experiences from : 
All American Soap Box Derby 
Center for Arts Inspired Learning 
Cleveland Water Department 
Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Centers Association 
Holden Forest & Gardens 
Nature Center at Shaker Lakes 
SYATT 

I didnt see what everyone had but I did see animal pelts and skulls, water meter to take apart, lily pad and pond aquatic ideas, mini soap box derby racer to experiment with weight distribution, STEM Olympics, scribble bots, build a cardboard chair, take apart station. I also heard some music creation and heard something about “radio on the lake” (radio theater). 

 I had 4 things for kids to do. One was building a geodesic dome from coffee stirrers and pipe cleaner pieces. Another was LED & battery, which I had hoped they would pair with the coloring station. The final one was binary bracelets, though they didnt seem interested in the binary part, so general bracelet making. 
 
Only one family did the geodesic dome station, and it was mostly the parents building the parts (10 triangles and 6 pentagons). Though the ~5 year old did make a few of the triangles, til she got bored. So I changed it to building 3D shapes for day 2. Still, only 2 kids built a shape. On both days, a decent number played with LED’s & battery, but only a few people combined the LED station with the coloring station. Bracelets were the most active station, it always had people at it. I talked about the binary idea with a few kids (and parents). 

 There are so many STEM Maker projects to choose from. It is hard to choose which #STEM activity to bring…what will they actually attempt, how much “learning” can you get in. The Michael J. Zone center has a great field that would be awesome for some pop bottle water rockets or trebuchets. I hope the City of Cleveland tries more of this, maybe even pushing to adult focused centers, maybe mixed aged with old & young together. 
(It would also be a great event to use a Mobile Makerspace, especially a laser cutter for some quick self designed trinkets…)






Sunday, July 24, 2022

SoapBoxDerbySTEMfair

AASBD STEM Fair The Soap Box Derby held a STEM Fair at their race day July 23rd. Participating companies included FirstEnergy, Rockwell International, University of Akron Sports/STEM and robotics, Ellet Library, American Winds, Akron Fossils and Science Center, Rubber Division of American Chemical Society (ACS), Soap Box Derby, Derby historian Ron Reed, Props & Pistons, STEMSports, Skyhawks Sports Academy, and NEOStem…and me.

I loaded up my 2 cases and brought many ideas to share, but really focused on two. The main one was “build a car with stuff”. The “stuff” included cardboard, wood, pop bottles, straws, coffee stirrers, toothpicks, pipe cleaners, buttons, cardboard circles, bottle tops, and beads. Luckily one company didnt need two tables, so they gaveit to me to put all those materials on. “My” table had some hot glue guns and my other challenge.

The second challenge was “battery & bulb”. Light up an LED with one CR2032 battery. Then we could issue challenges like how many lights can you do on one battery, how many colors can you get on one battery, what colors work together. On this table I also had a microbit running an LED strip that was rolling through rainbow colors. A couple of kids asked about it.

It was a fun day of watching and building. It was a little breezy most of the day then around 1 p.m. a storm started coming in and things really started blowing around, so we had to pack up a little early (supposed to go til 2 p.m.), but most everybody was heading for cover anyways.

Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Books

Reading is very important.
It greatly bothers me the number of students who say "I hate to read".
In addition to having a great library with a full time librarian in every school (and I know many that do not), I think books should be all around the school. Book shelves in every classroom. Teachers can have some more content specific items, as well as things that they like/have read. I was lucky to have a Principal that also bought 2 rolling magazine racks for me to put outside my classroom. There are many Science and Maker magazines to share. If it is important, we should also make time for it during the. school day.

Here is a list of #MakerSpace books to check out. Some are projects, some are story books, some are #Maker philosophy...

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Building a Little Free Library could be another good way to promote reading.