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Paper Circuits for Mom- Chibitronics

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I had a great time last week hosting “Circuits for Mom” during lunches at Ryan Library.

Paper Circuits at RHS

I’ve been trying to incorporate paper circuit ideas with my high schoolers off and on all year. In the beginning of the year, I had some success showing students and/or logic with Circuit Scribe and littleBits.

We tinkered a bit with Chibi Paper Circuits too and found that regular LEDS stole all of the voltage from the Chibi lights. (These tutorials are included in this STEM starter kit, but also available for free from  Chibitronics.com/learn.

During a graffiti street art unit, I also had this group of students decide to light up our library window with a hand-drawn Pacman game and Chibitronics Circuit Stickers.

Circuits for Mom

But overall, I felt like my students really weren’t getting as excited as I thought they would about paper circuits. (Because paper circuits are crazy amazing to me!! Plus my middle schoolers loved them last year. See this post if you missed it.) With my new Chibitronics classroom kit, I knew I wanted to get as many RHS students coming to the library to make paper circuits as I could. So I chatted with my 5th period aide and we decided to have a “Circuits for Mom” workshop during lunches. She designed a flyer, I hung them up, and the next day, students showed up to make their mothers light up cards for Mother’s Day! We had an extensive week of testing and so no announcements were made. I was worried students wouldn’t show up, but we almost ran out of supplies during the first day! I had to reserve some supplies for participants the next day.

One of my favorite things about workshops like this is that I get a totally different crew of makers. In fact, I have some students that frequent the library ALL the time, but don’t really make things in our makerspace, but these were the kids who wanted to get in on this workshop and make adorable stuff.  (Different makers prefer different projects. It’s one of the reasons it is so important to ask your students what they want to do in your makerspace!)

Here is one of my favorite cards that came into existence on that first workshop day. I loved that I was able to capture the progression of the card. This student let the lights guide her art:

Kids loved making these cards. It turned out that to get my high schoolers interested in paper circuits, I just needed to give making a purpose. Instead of using a project from our upcoming book, I had these parallel circuit templates from Chibitronics already printed from a previous workshop. I kept the tutorials out and showed students how to make a parallel circuit with the template. Then I taught them how to hack the template to create a DIY switch with a piece of aluminum foil. We taped the circuitry inside the construction paper card once the students got the circuit to function. Best of all was that moment when the students were able to get creative and make art to accompany the Chibi lights! Some students made art and designed circuitry around it, while others let the circuitry guide their art. Many students got their circuits working first and then took the cards home to make the artwork. I’m going to have to replenish my supply of 2032 batteries because the students are still coming in this week and asking to make cards! I’m hoping next year to combine this activity with teacher appreciation week because high school teachers needs lots of appreciation! 😉

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I even made my own mom a card. 🙂

What are others doing?

Are you excited about incorporating paper circuits with your students and curious about what other makers are doing with Chibitronics? Check out some of these rad ideas:

Hands-On Experience

Bonus: If you are going to ISTE this summer, Jie Qi and the Chibitronics team is hosting a hands-on workshop!

 

Super Happy Maker Fun Hour, Global Maker Day, and More Makerspace FUN!

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Now that one book is behind me, I realized I have quite a few presentations coming up that you might be interested in, dear reader. I’ve got 3 upcoming webinars and 2 sessions at ISTE. Read on and save the dates if you find a session you want to attend.

Makerspace Workshops

Global Maker Day – May 17th

Are you signed up for #GlobalMakerDay yet? You can sign up on this Google Form to get more info and attend Google Hangout sessions.

The schedule is available on this buncee and there are lots of great presenters including Jackie Gerstein, Ginger Lewman, Travis Lape, and more!

I’m excited to present some ideas on incorporating Makey Makey in the classroom and discuss some recent tinkering with literacy and Makey Makey success! I’ll be talking at 8 am CST on May 17th. Since that is before school starts, I won’t have a class with me, but I’m sure some of my morning makers will be crashing the webinar!

  • SAVE THE DATE- Global Maker Day- Incorporating Makey Makey into the Classroom – May  17, 2015 8 am CST

Super Happy Maker Fun Hour- May 18th

This is looking like a seriously fun and super happy fun hour discussing one of my favorite things…. MAKING STUFF!! Ashley Kazyaka is going to interview me about some of my recent projects from the book I co-authored with Aaron Graves, The Big Book of Makerspace Projects, and we are going to talk about the importance of making in a school library setting. Plus, I’ll discusses successes and pitfalls in my own personal library programming from two different types of school settings! I’m pretty excited about sharing and I hope you’ll join us as I’m sure Ashley and I are going to have a great time!!! Plus, we can try to answer questions on air as well, so put the date in your calendar and join us.

Strategies for School Makerspace Success – May 27th

The Colorado State Library is going to have me back later in the month for a more “serious” chat with educators. The “Strategies for School Makerspace Success” Webinar  will be May 27, 2016 1:00 PM CST. I’ll be discussing the big differences between making in an affluent suburban school, and working with lower SES students in a more rural setting.

  • SAVE THE DATE- Colorado State Library -“Strategies for School Makerspace Success” Webinar – May 27, 2016 1:00 PM CST

ISTE!!!!!

And last but certainly not least…. I’ll be at ISTE! This post cannot contain the excitement! I’m going to tour Sparkfun, meet a ton of awesome educators face to face, and talk about getting different school populations involved in making.

Monday afternoon, Bev Ball, Diana Rendina, and I will be chatting about getting Girls in Stem and how an inclusive makerspace is more than just pink power tools. Diana and I are also working on a chapter in this for our ABC Clio book.

Then Wednesday am, I’m excited to fill in and be a part of the Knights of Make-A-Lot 2 with Diana, Nathan Stevens, and Dr. Lisa Abel-Palmieri. I’ll still be talking about inclusive makerspaces but also discussing how to reach underserved populations like minorities and students at lower socioeconomic schools.