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"I will be sharing about our Pinball Machine Mayhem that is happening in our Technology and Innovation class. We started with a brainstorming session on the process this week. We began with the Project Idea phase: This is where we explained that they would be making pinball machines. How they made them or what they used is completely up to them during this process. Next we moved into the Prototype Design students during this phase was given a blank piece of paper about the size of the actual pinball machines that they will make. The goal here was for them to start to apply the different pieces of their pinball machines to this document. What was incredible about this whole process was before we released the students to go work we asked them what subjects do they think will be covered throughout this process. Right away hands went up and students started sharing. Math - Area, Perimeter, Height, Length, Pythagorean Theorem to find the slope of their machine. ELA - Research, Creating a story for their pinball machine Social Studies - History of the pinball machine, Research on different pinball machines Science - Volume, Friction, Gravity, Art - Theme of their board, Creative look of their pinball machine. Tech Ed - Lights, sensors, buzzers Makerspace - Students talked about using little bits, robotic kits, makey makey board, along with legos and Knex's"

"Finding new and human ways to connect and empower the next generation to play is one of the ways that Ikea says it hopes to change the world, and bringing extra life to cardboard that would otherwise end up in the recycling bins is part of that push. It's an idea that came about quickly, and was revealed at a panel at Cannes today (20 June). Wunderman, Kantar Consulting and Mini Mad Things decided to put the pedal to the metal and workshop an idea in just five weeks. The catch? The idea had to be 'prototypeable' as the final would be presented on stage at Cannes Lions, alongside Ikea's chief marketing officer. Ultimately, the brief was to come up with an idea that shows how Ikea inspires and facilitates child's play, all while helping to improve home life for parents, whole families and even communities. After evaluating 17 years-worth of online conversation with parents and analyzing 15m rows of dialogue data, the team realized that behavior and development is the most talked about topic within childcare, second only to pregnancy. Pressing further in the research, the team learned that 50% of parents surveyed struggle to find ideas to encourage creative play amongst their children. Ikea, which has been one of the largest distributors of cardboard packaging, and team were able to flip their script so the brand could see the world through a child's eyes and create an interactive mobile app that brings cardboard waste to life. By following simple instructions any piece of cardboard can be transformed into something new. The Ikea Toybox app gives cardboard waste a new lease on life and, as play doesn't require a price tag, families will see big results with small means."

"Over the past decade, millions of kids around the world have used Scratch to code their own interactive games, stories, animations, and more. This outpouring of creativity inspires us to continue to extend and improve Scratch, so that kids everywhere have new opportunities to express themselves creatively with new technologies. Today, we're launching Scratch 3.0, a new generation of Scratch that expands how, what, and where kids can create with code. As we've tested prototypes of Scratch 3.0, we've been amazed by the projects that kids have made - like a hedgehog that speaks French, a hippopotamus that dances to hip-hop, and a soccer game you control with your shoe."

"We are in an exciting time in education, where innovative topics like Design Thinking, Rapid Prototyping, Entrepreneurism, Engineering Design, High Quality Project-Based Learning, and The Future of Work are at the center of discussion. How can we give our students the chance to master content knowledge while integrating these student-centered approaches to education in the classroom? For the last five years, 3D printing has been an important part of my classroom because it encourages an innovation mindset, exposes students to elements of design thinking, and fosters self-directed learning."

"You may be familiar with maker spaces. In one form or another, hands-on teaching has always involved kids in "making." Today's new focus on maker spaces is taking making to a whole new level. Visualize a space filled with an assortment of materials and tools where people explore ideas together, create, and invent. Now think of such a space existing in a school - a space where students can go to imagine, investigate, figure things out, and design prototypes. Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager explain this growing school phenomenon in their MiddleWeb article, Maker Schools: Classroom Tinkers & Inventors."

"dditive manufacturing has been hyped for years. But in 2017 much of its promise materialized: 3-D printing took a series of big steps out of the realm of niche prototyping and into the world of mass manufacturing. Here's a look at some of the most impressive things 3-D printers made this year, as well as what their creations portend for the future."

"Want to learn more about using industrial additive manufacturing? Here's a breakdown of the different technologies, applications, companies, and services. Year by year, the additive manufacturing industry continues to flourish in ways that were previously unimaginable. Currently, the market is divided into two primary factions: one for consumers and another for industrial purposes. In this "Additive Manufacturing Overview," we will focus in on the professional uses of 3D printing technology. Whether you're a manufacturing business owner, an industrial engineer looking to create a functional automotive prototype, or anyone else who could benefit from professional-grade additive manufacturing, we've strung together an incredibly comprehensive breakdown of the pros and cons of industrial additive manufacturing as well as an introduction to the different technologies, applications, companies, and services that are out there."

"Students at Snowflake Unified School District created a low cost detection system to alert drivers of animal crossing. Students were split into three teams; the software/hardware team, the design team, and the fabrication team. Community members assisted in tasks, such as cutting the metal and Plexiglas needed for the prototype. Students created a working alert system that uses motion detection and signals to light up roads with animal crossings."

"Dating from 1991, the Python programming language was considered a gap-filler, a way to write scripts that "automate the boring stuff" (as one popular book on learning Python put it) or to rapidly prototype applications that will be implemented in other languages. However, over the past few years, Python has emerged as a first-class citizen in modern software development, infrastructure management, and data analysis. It is no longer a back-room utility language, but a major force in web application creation and systems management, and a key driver of the explosion in big data analytics and machine intelligence."

"At first glance, it looks as though the group of young adults is building Lego. But these are actually students at the University of Cape Town's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design Thinking, and they're using the colourful blocks to design a prototype. It represents policy reform ideas around transitioning from informal to formal economies. It's a complex system represented with very basic materials. This is design thinking in action: human-centred, problem solving activities that ground design thinking in practice. It helps students to understand and innovatively solve challenges. Design thinking can be used very successfully as an academic programme that goes beyond traditional university practices. It allows universities to prepare a more resilient, adaptive student cohort. These graduates are more competent to enter economies that are constantly changing. This is particularly important when higher education institutions are training students for jobs that might not yet exist or that might have changed or become redundant by the time they graduate."

"I had some visitors in my library makerspace last week that were wanting to add an aspect of maker education into their own libraries. As they walked around our space, visited with my collaborating English teacher, and witnessed students prototyping for our invention literacy project, they said something surprising. "We noticed you have traditional wooden library chairs and tables, so it isn't about the furniture, is it? Maker Education? It's about the mindset?""

"n Texas, a 13-year-old boy built a robot that could rescue victims of natural disasters. In Georgia, a 15-year-old girl developed a device that alerts parents who have have left their child in the car. And in California, a 13-year-old boy created a Braille printer that would be almost six times cheaper than the currently available model. Young people aren't just the future. They're the present, innovating and creatively solving problems in a range of fields. Students across the country, from every background, have the ability to build new products that could change lives around the world. That's what educators at the forefront of the "Maker movement" believe. Leaders of this initiative are changing the American educational landscape by engaging kids in discovery-based learning from a young age, encouraging them to learn not just by watching, but by doing - to not only consume, but also create. Photos: National Maker Faire Takes Washington EXPAND GALLERY Maker spaces - studios and labs designed for students to pursue projects of their choosing - are popping up around the country in schools, universities and informal learning environments such as community centers and libraries. In these labs, students are challenged to develop solutions to real-world problems, from designing and prototyping to refining and marketing."

"I agree with Brene Brown about developing "shame resilience" and have found the usual tug of war between with teaching and mistake making diminishes when we introduce students to a mindset in which they appreciate the importance of recognizing our errors and strive for constant improvement. When I think about design thinking, I believe it could be a powerful way for students to experience their vulnerability and develop perspective taking, all the while creating real cool stuff-whether it is a piece of writing, a t-shirt, a rollercoaster, an app or, in my Early Year's classroom, a garden. They learn how to fail forward and create another prototype. This design sprint is not a destructive but constructive element because, although they spent a lot of time developing their idea, the focus shifts from the product itself to the user-who will reap the benefits of this redesign. It gets the kids to detach from what they are making to who they are making it for. This nuance has a relatively big impact on the process of improvement."

"You see it everywhere in K-12. Kindergarteners design toys for their friends to practice empathy, while learning to use a saw and glue-gun along the way. Second graders deepen their understanding of character traits while designing and sewing puppets to represent a character in a folk-tale. In high school physics, students make wind turbines in order to internalize an understanding of how magnetism can create electricity. The "it" I'm referring to is "Making," and simply put, Making is any activity where people create something, often with their hands. I often define Making by looking at what people bring to the Maker Faire, which does include more technical aspects like 3D printing, physical computing and programming. But Making also includes woodworking, growing food, making art and crafts."

"Blended Learning: Personalizing Education for Students"

"It's almost inevitable: I encounter Minecraft somewhere online-it's easy to do, because there's a lot of Minecraft out there-and I end up convinced I'm doing the wrong thing with my life."