littlebits

Ryan High School Library Makerspace – a Visual Progress Update

/ gravescolleen / 3 Comments

Cozy Seating (3)With the help of Student Council members, our AV librarian, library aide, and many awesome teachers, we got every book moved in the library.  Some students even helped me paint the columns the week before school started. So now, our fiction is up front for all to see. The students love the faceouts on top of the bookshelves because it’s easier to see the great quality of books the previous librarian ordered.

My amazing student aides helped design new signage for fiction with Canva and are proud to see their work on our end caps. Now we are working on more signs for our nonfiction section. Plus, signage for many other spots in the library are coming.

The new cozy reading spot by the window (I was able to create by removing extra shelves) is a big hit with RHS students.  Many times, I’ll think the library is empty, only to wander in the back and find a gaggle of students quietly reading in this cozy spot and other students studying in the classroom area where I have quiet music playing.

The amazing Mr. Mayes built us some new stands for our catalog search stations. They match perfectly and are at the perfect standing height and located in the fiction stacks so now kids can look up a book easily without having to trek back to the front desk.

I’m still working on our showcase, but for now, the students are finding it quite a handy place to find new books organized by genre.

Teachers also enjoy collaborating in this space since I’m allowing anyone to eat here.

We are all working as a staff to facilitate a love of reading and build up a reading culture at this school.  Thanks to another DISD librarian, Rhonda Thomas, and a new teacher at our school, Mrs. Kidder, our English teachers are all now proudly reading and rating their latest reads with this laminated chart outside their door. (Note: They were already reading, we just made them signs so they could share their opinions and book recs!)

Our makerspace is off the ground and running as well.  We played soccer with Sphero the first day of school in Mrs. Grizzle’s computer science class and I’m hoping to rope them in for more lessons soon.  Our BLAST students will be coming up in the next few weeks to build obstacle courses for Sphero, but for now, kids just come in at lunch or before school just to drive and learn more about this awesome robot.

I’m also working on a mobile charging station for my class set of Spheros housed in side two Harbor Freight toolboxes thanks to an idea from a Twitter friend @natfaure.

I’ve started a little coding club at lunch on Wednesdays and their first task to is program Sphero using the Tickle app. Kids just love Sphero!

Still working on our littleBits corner, but the kids love them without my fancy project spot. I’m also excited to host my first round of littleBits lunches next week.  Gonna teach kids to make their own synthesizers (and hopefully some parents during open house!)

Here’s a little Library Orientation so you can see how it is all coming together. (Made this super quick, so don’t judge my sound inequalities…)

Makerspace Resources for School Librarians

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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: