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Invention Literacy Research – Part Three- Sharing and Reflection

/ gravescolleen / 7 Comments

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This is the third post in a series describing the Invention Literacy Research Project that I worked on collaboratively with one of my English Teachers in the 2015-2016 school year- April Feranda. About 6 months ago, I watched this video by Jay Silver defining the term “Invention Literacy.” I immediately loved this concept because it perfectly describes what I’ve been attempting to do in my library makerspace since May of 2013.  After writing lessons for Makey Makey in 2015, I realized I went through the ultimate training on Invention Literacy and boosting creative confidence. I wanted to share that journey with you to help you become invention literate as an educator. April Feranda and I would love for you and your students to become more invention literate. Therefore, we are putting this out there for you to hack and personalize and make your own. Read post one and post two if you haven’t had a chance to read them yet.

After researching and learning from the tinkering experts at The Tinkering Studio, students spent two class periods (and plenty of time after school) finishing prototypes for our finale Maker Fest. One of the coolest things about this project was that students were picking up making skills as needed. The student in the video below needed to learn how to use our saw while creating marble runs, so I was able to teach some saw safety on the fly!

I was also pleasantly surprised when students stayed after school and we made up quicker ways to create soft circuits by utilizing conductive fabric tape from the Makey Makey Inventor Booster Kit and hardware store foil tape.

Sharing Maker Fest

On the due date, Mrs. Feranda and I decided to hold a Maker Fest and just like at a real Maker Faire, students presented their prototypes in a show and tell style fashion. If you hold your own Maker Fest, you need to make sure you:

  • Get others involved
    • Invite community
    • Invite inventors via Skype
    • Invite other Students or classrooms
  • Have students be prepared to speak about invention literacy, historical context, and the most challenging part of creating an invention
  • Make GIFs of prototypes ( with Spin turntable or another documentation) to keep a digital record of inventions.

Some of my favorite projects were made out of all recyclables (this helicopter and water turbine), while others combined favorite maker tools with recyclables to make miniature versions of everyday things! (Makey Makey piano and littleBits tank below)

Surprise Virtual Guest Jay Silver

During our Maker Fest, we had a surprise virtual guest, Jay Silver! I carried him around via my computer so he could chat with each group or individual about their #rhsmakes. He did an awesome job casually chatting with kids about what they made. Students really enjoyed sharing their creations with this awesome inventor and Jay was great about asking students about their invention process. One of my favorite things was how he asked each student questions pertinent to their own invention.

If you implement this project at your school, it is important that you and your co-teachers understand that the process and the meaning a student gets from making are one of the most important aspects to making and education. The final product can be faulty and that’s okay. One of our students during this project decided she was going to build magnetic gears. She never got a working prototype, and was a tad upset about the outcome. However, when we Skyped with Jay Silver during our Maker Fest, he was extra impressed with her idea and original concept. He spoke at length to her about her process, her thinking, and her many attempts that ended in failure. Through this conversation, she was able to see how much she learned throughout the project. During the project, Feranda and I worked on explaining this to all of our students, and explaining that persevering after failure is what leads to innovation.

This whole research project was the perfect blend of academic research and crowdsourced research.  For example, after researching how cars were made, the student below wanted to build a littleBits car. He found a crowdsourced Youtube video and tried to replicate the car from the video, only to find that there were missing steps, and parts he did not have access to. Instead, he ended up looking at gears and mechanisms, then found his own way to make and create a tank out of an old 3D filament box.

Reflection

After our Maker Fest, students went back to class to finish out the school year. Since reflection is an integral part of the process, we gave them a break and then had them create video reflections via Flipgrid. We are hoping to compile these videos and use them as a springboard for this year’s Invention Literacy project. Here are the reflection questions we used:

  • What did you like most about the Invention literacy project?
  • What was the most challenging part of the project?
  • What advice would you give to someone making their own invention?
  • What does someone need to know in order to be invention literate?
  • Any final thoughts or advice for Mrs. Feranda and Mrs. Graves?

(If you want to read more about reflection and makerspace stories, check out this great article from Edutopia by Ross Cooper and Laura Fleming and read my Edutopia article about using maker journals as a form of reflection during maker education professional development.)

Sampling of student responses:

As I sat in my office and watched these Flipgrid reflections, I was struck by the authentic research methods of my students AND how invested they were in research as an integral part to making! This maker-focused research was like an accelerated course in making. Some of these students had not utilized the makerspace until this project and the little nuggets of wisdom they gained from this project were all the things a maker teacher librarian wants to hear from students:

  • “You have to be okay with failing”

 

  • “You need to be flexible with mistakes even if you mess up.  Even if you have to start over and do it again. And you need to be creative to think about how you are going to build your project. Because not all projects come with instructions.”

 

  • “You have to tweak it (projects) and make it your own.”

 

  • “The most challenging thing was learning from your mistakes, but that helped you later in the project.”

 

  • “Research…that’s all you need…. and also planning… you might want to make blueprints, gather materials, and think about what you want to create. Not like what I did!” (In response to: What advice would you give to someone making an invention?)

 

  • “It’s okay to fail. Even if you have to start over and over.”

 

  • “My advice is to do really good research on your project and maybe draw out what you want to create, and be patient with yourself because you are going to mess up and it’s going to be a long process. ” (This is one of my favorite reflections. )

 

  • “If you don’t do enough research, you won’t have the ability to collect all of the materials. Because some dude out there may have ideas you didn’t think of that will work for your project.”

Extending Invention Literacy into Daily Practice

So….what are we doing this school year to support invention literacy?

Here at Ryan High School, we want to increase invention literacy by teaching all of our incoming freshmen (an estimated 500 students) the basics of programming, prototyping with littleBits and Makey Makey, creating and editing greenscreen videos, and utilizing design thinking to solve community problems. As we continue to work through this process each school year, we hope to teach all of our 2,000 students the “basic vocabulary and grammar of inventing” so that all of our students can help contribute and create our world!

With the help of teachers, all of our freshmen  in High School 101 classes have not experienced playing with Makey Makey, littleBits, and Greenscreens. I’m hoping to up their coding skills soon by teaching them to create programs in Scratch. I’m looking forward to planning with more teachers on collaborative research projects and working with the awesome Mrs. Feranda on Invention Literacy Research 2.0.

What will you do? How will you prepare your students and increase invention literacy on your campus?

 

Makerspace Storage

/ gravescolleen / 6 Comments

 

maker storage colleen gravesLast year during our Invention Literacy Research, I realized that I really did need to hyper-organize my maker supplies–especially when it comes to recyclables for prototyping! I’d begun organizing our electronics and other gadgets, but it was clear that everything needs to be clearly labeled to make materials more accessible for all students.

Enlisting Help

I may be a librarian, but I’m not the best at organizing, so I enlisted help from our Instructional Technology Specialist, Leslie Terronez. (Have you seen how awesomely she organized our Chromebooks?) I asked for her assistance in creating a labeling system and showed her the awesomely hyper-organized makerspace materials at Lighthouse Creativity Lab. We both loved the way they organized materials by type. (i.e. soft stuff, fasteners, etc.)

We began moving and inventorying our maker stuff and decided to sort our materials into these main categories: Electronics/ Crafts/ Supplies/ Prototyping/Tools

Since Leslie is an organizing Jedi Master, she decided to organize our labels by type font.

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Mrs. Smalley and I began the tasking work of sorting our recyclables and other prototyping items into clear plastic storage bins. (This was after extensive time spent measuring the shelves and going to Staples to see what storage box sizes would best maximize our shelf space.)

Maker Materials and Prototyping Tools

I’d say that 1/3 of my Maker supplies are recyclables. Prototyping materials can range from cardboard tubes to weird round wheel like stuff.  Collecting materials like these depend on the types of things your students like to make. Watch their making patterns and gather materials that make sense for their making habits.

You may have a local re-use center where you can find interesting items or just garner ideas for the type of clean upcycling recyclables that work for making. (I just adore shopping at SCRAP Denton. Plus, if my space gets too overrun with reuse materials, I can donate leftovers to this great non-profit!)

Sometimes you won’t know what students need until you start labeling and marking materials. At one point, I was going to recycle some magazines, but decided to bring them up to the library instead. Right after labeling the storage bin, a student had the magazines over at the tinkering tables and was busy utilizing them for a school project.

littleBits

However, organizing electronics is a whole different ballgame.

If you have littleBits and need some ideas, I have a whole Librarian’s Guide to littleBits with tips for organizing, storing, and introducing to new classes. It is available for free download here!

I love these huge cabinets for storing my Pro Library because I can keep Bits organized and locked up if needed.  (And as a bonus, if Bits fall, they are still inside this metal cabinet safely away from feet! Thanks for the tip, #superlibrarianhubs! )

Aaron (the one and only #superlibrarianhubs) also has this great sign inside his cabinet that lets students know that to start inventing they have to pick up a power Bit from the circulation desk.

Sphero

Since Sphero robots need to be charged and ready to go, see my previous posts about organizing, circulation, and using Sphero with classes. (and Sphero Obstacle Course Challenge and Participatory Learning)

In Progress Shelf

While it isn’t storage per se, a makerspace isn’t complete without a “Works in Progress” space.  At Lamar, I had this space designated for works in progress. It really doesn’t take long for this space to get out of control… so you do have to do some regular maintenance if you see “in progress” projects sitting for a long time. I’m still working on this space at Ryan, (kids are already utilizing it, but it isn’t picture ready…) but I will update this post when it’s ready to share!

Sharing Awesome Student Work

It is equally important to have a space dedicated to sharing awesome student work! I’ve spent the last few years showcasing student work digitally, but I’m now in the process of making a permanent maker display to share what students at Ryan are creating. I’m hoping it will inspire even more students to come to the library to be creative and learn through hands- on experiences. If you haven’t seen my Instagram, I post daily things my students create and other library related madness.

How about you?

What are your plans for makerspace storage? What works for your students? How do you share student work? Please share your ideas in the comments below! 🙂