makerspace

Makerspace Resources for School Librarians

/ gravescolleen / Leave a comment

Screenshot 2015-02-20 15.50.21(Updated post from my Podbean Site) Updated 3/14/15

Summer 2014 I was asked to present a webinar to Ohio School Librarians for InfOhio. The recording is available here.

I also created a resource list (adapted from a collaborative presentation with LISD librarian, Leah Mann) and year long programming ideas that I will continue to update on this page.

WEBINAR RECORDING:http://goo.gl/QTi36k

SITES TO VISIT FREQUENTLY:

GREAT BOOKS FOR YOUR PROFESSIONAL LIBRARY:

GREAT BOOKS FOR YOUR SCHOOL LIBRARY:

FREE WORKSHOP IDEAS:

  • Maker Journals: http://www.makered.org/tag/makerspace/ (How great would it be to have a maker journal all year? Or use Maker ed as authentic research? Kids could have to make something in small challenge groups and record all findings and modifications in a maker journal! Please teachers, let’s collaborate on this idea!)
  • Costumes (Even from paper!)
  • Card and board games
  • Inspire kids to invent and create with Rube Goldburg: http://www.rubegoldberg.com
  • Make Retro games: http://www.sploder.com/
  • Make your own Squishy Circuits
WRITE A GRANT*- GET COOL STUFF:

Good for Upper ES- HS

  • Makedo Kit (Make anything with cardboard) – Great for ES and Caine’s Arcade
  • littleBits Pro library  or One of Everything – Good for learning about sensors, synths, and basic electronics
  • Makey Makey (Order a class set and order extra alligator clips) – excellent resource for teaching the basics of circuits and electronics
  • Hummingbird Kits (Order 5) – a little more complicated and require coding
  • Arduino (Once your kids have mastered littleBits, Makey Makey, and still want to learn more….) 
  • Raspberry Pi (Look at Adafruit’s project page so you’ll have some ideas on what else you need to order besides this microcomputer. )
  • Sphero 2.0 ( I call Sphero my library cat, but go ahead and order a class set. These guys can help students visualize distance, rate, time, and percentages! Ollie is just for fun though!)
  • Snap Circuits (You can actually order a lot of these kits from Barnes and Noble) 
  • Sugru: Crazy cool stuff for toy hacking workshops, creating your own battery cases (You can also buy this from Adafruit)
  • Verve: Legos of the Future (This looks like a blend between littleBits and Makey Makey)
  • Circuit Scribe: Draw your own Circuits
  • Bare Conductive : Electric Paint
  • Sparkfun Inventor’s Kit — Great kit for learning Arduino.  You can use Ardublock on Sparkfun’s site to help kids with coding Arduino with a drag and drop platform.  (Also, learned about an extension created by Kreg Hanning where you can program your littleBits Arduino module in Scratch! Go get that at his github!)
  • Digital Sandbox– All the power of Arduino without having to plug in all the tiny pieces.  A good starter to teach 4th and up about programming and move them into Arduino later (Also works with Ardublocks which looks like Scratch!)
  • Wearable Electronics for soft circuits like Flora or Gemma (But again, have a specific project in mind and buy all accoutrements)
  • 3d Printer (I’d wait for these to come down in price become more efficient)

Good for Lower ES

  • Makedo Kit
  • Bee Bot : Codable robot for littles
  • Cubelets: Cool snap together cubelets that teach you about robotics! (Good for MS)
  • Kibo Robot : Snap blocks together, scan, and watch Kibo go! I love that this teaches coding skills in a kinesthetic way!
  • Dot and Dash: Good programmable robot that kids under 2nd grade can handle
  • Paper Circuits: Copper tape, 2032 coincell batteries, pre-printed instructions
  • Rocket projects- balloons duct taped to Hotwheels, DIY stomp rockets, lots of good stuff out there on Instructables! (Good for MS)
  • Tegu Building Blocks
  • K-nex and Legos (Also good for MS)
  • Blink Blink Kit– Fun paper circuit kits
  • Rigamajig – Build crazy cool stuff like catapults and pulleys- flat packs for storage
  • Mobile Mag Wall for libraries– LOOKS AMAZING!

*What if I can’t get it all? Decide how you want to run your space. Do you wanna have workshops or challenges? A challenge lasts a lot longer, so you could buy 10 sets of Makey Makeys and run a challenge for a few months.  Or get 10 Spheros and do a different Sphero challenge each month. Just keep stretching your ideas and see where your imagination can take you, but don’t get bogged down ordering a lot of stuff you do not know how to use.  Buy a set of something and see where it takes you!

ASK FOR DONATIONS:
  • Brushbot supplies: Scrub brushes and Electric Toothbrushes from the Dollar Tree
  • Old car toys (Rocket propelled w balloons), balloons, old car toys with gears or switches, electronic motors for scribble bots (can buy from Radio Shack or get them out of a dollar store toothbrush), wire cutters, wire from phone lines (like old internet cords, etc), alligator clips, old tennis balls, old computers, old electronics, empty/cleaned coffee bags, oatmeal containers, 2 liter bottles, Modge Podge
OTHER RESOURCES:
TWITTER:
  • Subscribe to some Maker lists like: Maker Ed by Diana Rendina, Makers by Clay Forsberg,  Maker Space by James Herzing,  Maker BFFS by Colleen Graves
  • Use Hashtags:  #makered, #makerspaces, #makeymakey, #kidscancode, etc
  • Join our PLC Maker chat the first Wed of the month from 10:30-11:30 #makerlibchat

MAKER WORKSHOPS/ LESSONS FOR THE WHOLE YEAR 

Month Low Tech High Tech Cur Connections
August Origami LED Origami

Scribblebots

Brushbots

 Math/Angles/Art
September Duct tape projects Little Bits-space kit-synth kit

Snap Circuits

 Science/Music/Science
October Makedo- make something with cardboard (Caine’s Arcade) Frankentoys- make it light up or move, etc with Hummingbird

Great resource here or buy Sugru to make interchangeable toys

Rolly bot– Like Sphero but made with a brushbot

 Art/Science
November Nanowrimo http://nanowrimo.org/ Interactive book w Makey Makey

Scratch coding  -Use resources from Pursuitery. (See below)

  1. Chasing Game Challenge
  2. Maze Game Challenge
 English- Story writing/Science- Electricity, conductive materials, circuits
December Upcycle old picture books into coasters w Modge Podge (Find words and make your own magnetic poetry style coasters, or make story coasters.) LED Throwies

Hour of Code

#catapultchallenge

 English/Programming/Physics
Jan Cardboard Mazes w Makedo Game Controller Workshop w Makey Makey (from MakerJawn) o#MakeyMakeychallenge –Challenge them to create their own game and invent their own game controller. 

Logic Puzzle w Makey Makey

Digital Storytelling with Scratch

 Math- X/Y Axis, Equations, Computational Thinking/ English- Interactive Story idea changed into a logic puzzle
Feb Unmake stuff Get kids to bring old stuff Paper Circuits- Interactive Greeting Cards( Circuit Scribe or Bare Conductive)  #MakeyMakeychallenge cont. Science- Electricity, conductive materials, circuits
March Make your own Ukelele Arduino Music ProjectsSphero Obstacle Course using Macrolab or Sphero Chariot Challenge Music/Art/STEM
April Rube Goldberg Challenge – Motion projectsWind Turbine Challenge: http://challenge.kidwind.org/ –Animated Poems with Mozilla Webmaker–Hummingbird robot poems Makey Makey Maze w Brush Bot

Sphero – Chariot Challenge and Obstacle Course Challenge

 Poetry/English/Science/Engineering
May Upcycle a Day for the Month of May! – Coffee bag idea Raspberry Pi Photo booth  

Inventions for math “market”

 Math- Market /Science- Recycling, properties of materials

Scratch Lessons (from Pursuitery )

Chasing Game Challenge:

Maze Game Challenge:               

How to Make a Makerspace – Summer Reflections

/ gravescolleen / Leave a comment

As I enter my third year of Makerspace programming, I find that I’m convinced more and more of the power of #makered.  I’m happy to see as an early adapter, that more and more schools, libraries, and cities have also adopted the idea of “tinkering.” So much so that, President Obama even hosted a Maker faire this week!

Somehow, with my time off this summer, I’ve signed myself up for two MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). One that is part of the National Writing Project (NWP) centered around Connected Learning- #CLMOOC, and the other a STEAM camp- #STEAMMOOC.  I’ve also signed myself up for a Maker Camp at my local PD where I will be incorporating Maker activities into content curriculum (And you thought Teacher Librarians took their summers off!)

The first make for #CLMOOC was a challenge to create a  “How to.”  With all the hype around Makerspaces, I decided to make a super simple “How to Make a Makerspace” in Canva (a tool I’ve been itching to tinker with!)

These 5 steps are simple:

However, these steps do need a little more explaining.  First off, my students are the epicenter of my Makerspace.  When I say let the students guide the learning, I mean let them decide what workshops to focus on. Also, let students lead those workshops!  The great thing about this is that you and I do not have to be experts in Minecraft or duct tape wallets, because chances are, we can find students who knows WAY more than we do on the subject.  I wrote extensively about this in my article in the spring issue of Knowledge Quest.  Which you can access here if you are a member of AASL.

However, you do have to push students to do more than just learn a new skill.  Which is why thesecond step I suggest is hosting a workshop to teach students how to do something new and then for the third step, create a challenge to see how far your kids can push their learning.  I learned this technique from my librarian friend Leah Mann, who also works in my district.  She sets the kids up with a month long challenge and usually rewards the top Make with an iTunes giftcard.  I hope to institute a monthly challenge next year and then end the year with a Maker faire! (Hopefully across our whole district!)

The fourth step is a gentle reminder, that while high tech is cool and exciting, low tech is still necessary!  Low-tech tools like making things with cardboard, making binary bracelets (Thanks again @DianaLRendina for hacking code.org’s lesson and sharing!)  or even having kids create their own ukuleles, will help you engage an even broader audience and get more kids tinkering.

As for high tech, this doesn’t always mean high price! We spent the entire month of May learning coding and programming for free with tools like code.org and MIT’s Scratch programming. (Which by the way, if you wanna learn Scratch, you should geek out with me by completing some challenges over at Pursuitery.com).  Also, if you missed my coding post, I vlogged about it two episodes ago here.

Lastly, for those wanting more, you can access more sites for free coding, workshop ideas, and resources here: http://goo.gl/ofcIl7 . These resources were created by Leah Mann and myself for the Summer Digital Learning Conference at Region 11 last month.

To end this post, I’d like some communication with my global community.  How do you see yourself incorporating makerspaces? Do you see a difference in STEAM and Makered or is it the same thing with a different name? What steps are missing on my Canva.  Do you have a similar “How to” Please comment below!

How to Make a Makerspace