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"If you've been following Renovated Learning for awhile, you might remember the Catapult Challenge my Stewart Makers Club did last year with Colleen Graves' students at Lamar Middle School.  My students had SO MUCH FUN with that challenge, although I always felt like Catapult Challenge was a bit of a misnomer, since our students' creations included catapults, trebuchets, crossbow, slingshots and more. When I revisited the idea this year, I decided that rebranding it as the Rubber Band Launcher Challenge made more sense.  I offered this as a possibility and surveyed my students on what they wanted to focus on next, and this challenge won hands down. Here's my advice on how you can run a Rubber Band Launcher Challenge with your students. "

"On Saturday, a handmade craft rose 78,000 feet to capture the view from the edge of space. The craft, built by two Seattle youngsters, reached speeds of over 100 km/h on its journey over central Washington. Kimberly and Rebecca Yeung built their spacecraft out of wood and broken arrow shafts, but it flew twice as high as commercial aircraft usually travel. Attached to a weather balloon filled with helium was a flight computer tracking their craft, two GoPro cameras, and a picture of their cat next to a Lego R2-D2. Called the Loki Lego Launcher, the craft was named after that cat and the figurine."

"Want to quickly search the web or Wikipedia from the Home Screen of iOS? Just turn to Spotlight, the built-in search engine. Sure, Spotlight is often used as an application launcher or a way to quickly find old emails, notes, and contacts, but you can also type more generic queries into it the search box to immediately search either the web or Wikipedia. It's super easy to use and very fast:"

"Model rocket kits are a fun way for kids to exercise their maker skills by assembling cool, colorful rockets that really fly. I can remember building model rockets as a child, and they are still an exciting project for all ages. In addition to maker skills, model rockets are an educational tool that can teach the concepts of propulsion, flight, and aerodynamics. It's important to note that when purchasing model rocket kits, make sure that you have all of the supplies required to build and fly your rockets. Any building tools, glue, paint, batteries for the launcher controller, and rocket specific items like wadding and engine packs should be on your list. You're also going to need an outside area large enough to fly. Go outside and get flying!"

webinar on using Google Docs with students archive