Group items tagged

"Today, I came across Maths Storytelling Day (25th September, celebrated annually). Although the day isn't for a while yet, it got me thinking. When pondering my own education, I remember maths being one of the subjects which incorporated stories fairly regularly. A favourite being that of making a robot move around and follow your instructions, which in today's education, could probably slide under computing. I always thought that it was perhaps my teacher's style, but upon reflection, and with a particular day dedicated to it, it has become apparent that the reason we do maths through storytelling is because it works! "

"With the National Week of Making behind us, you might be ready to start a makerspace in your school -- but not know where to start. Will purchasing a costly 3D printer and the latest robotics kit ensure learning and maker success? What are some steps to starting a successful makerspace from scratch?"

"Don't try to put making in a box. Don't make it a kit, standardize it, and water it down.  Don't develop a canned-for-sale-program out of it.   Don't make it a packet to sell on website. Don't reduce it to a moment in a day, a day in a week, or a kit from the shelves. Don't make it into a program that a school has to pay billions to be a part of. Don't reduce making to that "thing" that happens in a certain room or a certain space or once a month.  Please just don't reserve making for gadgety electronics or robotics.  Don't just call it STEAM. Making is connecting, interpreting, and building a relationship with the world. Let's make school more about making. The mathematics and patterns in sewing, the joy in colorful art, the visual beauty in cooking, painting, the science of mixing colors, the music of sculpture in the wind, the flow in writing from the imagination, the collaboration in developing something together, the spark in sharing cardboard creations via Skype, the motivation in sharing with the world, the engagement in raw discovery, the fun in tinkering with a pile of junk, the passion in an idea grown from a seed, and the excitement in untouched exploration."

"Makers have long been known as hobbyists or tinkers. However, with increased access to professional-grade tools, the maker movement is transforming business as usual. Through collaboration and connectivity, makers are inspiring innovation on a daily basis with the creation of smart gadgets, machines, robots and wearables. This new way of doing business is a shift from the historic model where innovation was monopolized by multi-million-dollar companies. Makers and their peers have the opportunity to build cutting-edge products, test them in collaborative workspaces and share their inventions online in order to bring "the next big thing" to market for mass consumption. It is through this connectivity that makers are able to contribute to the Internet of Things - a world of interconnected devices that use sensors to interact with the people, the environment and other devices around them. This smarter, connected way of life is the future of technology worldwide."

A makerspace is not solely a science lab, woodshop, computer lab or art room, but it may contain elements found in all of these familiar spaces. Therefore, it must be designed to accommodate a wide range of activities, tools and materials. Diversity and cross-pollination of activities are critical to the design, making and exploration process, and they are what set makerspaces and STEAM labs apart from single-use spaces. A possible range of activities might include: Cardboard construction Prototyping Woodworking Electronics Robotics Digital fabrication Building bicycles and kinetic machines Textiles and sewing

"Creating innovative inquiry-based learning spaces for our students today and tomorrow. Explore spaces that work with MakerEd, STEM, and coding and robotic programs for kids K-12. Share in this hands-on session's new tools enhancing spaces for teaching and learning!"

"The 3D printing industry is expected to exceed $21 billion by 2020. Classrooms are joining in. Kelly Hines' fifth-grade classroom is redesigning a prosthetic hand. Can't buy a drone? Soon, you may be able to print one. You can print robots, math manipulatives, and even parts for a 3D printer. (In fact, Bryan Byer's science classroom in Michigan built their own 3D printer.) What will happen when we can 3D print things from door stoppers to wind turbines to (wait for it) wedding dresses? This past year, my students and I began our journey after I saw the FabLab at Kentucky Country Day School last summer."

"As I look back, it has been a crazy and wonderful learning experience in CEP 811 over the last few weeks. With a focus on the Maker Movement and maker education, I have read articles, blog posts, sections from books, and even watched videos to learn more about the Maker Movement. I even had a chance to try my hand at making by creating a Lego robot using the NXT program and then turning my project into a great lesson about slope I can use with my math students. In addition, I considered what inspires a maker and how I might be able to turn my own classroom into an inspirational and supportive makerspace. This week, I organized all of the ideas I have gathered about the maker movement and maker education into a helpful infographic using easel.ly that addresses two important questions: What is the Make Movement? Why should math teachers start incorporating it into their classrooms? "

"IPads, maker spaces, 3-D printers, and coding skills top the tech wish lists for 1,259 school librarians across the country, according to School Library Journal's (SLJ) 2015 Technology Survey. Educators are hungry to bring their students even more-whether that's robotics classes or Arduino kits."

The entire concept is really quite simple.  The Mobile MakerSpace carts that line the hallway leading into our Media Center are capable of transporting new opportunities and tools to virtually any space in our school.  Whether it's high-tech 3D printing and modular robotics or low-tech knitting and plastic construction blocks…the carts contain tools that elicit collaboration and unleash student creativity."

"The entire concept is really quite simple.  The Mobile MakerSpace carts that line the hallway leading into our Media Center are capable of transporting new opportunities and tools to virtually any space in our school.  Whether it's high-tech 3D printing and modular robotics or low-tech knitting and plastic construction blocks…the carts contain tools that elicit collaboration and unleash student creativity."

"From the creators of Simple Machines and The Robot Factory, comes a fun way for your kids to build awesome stuff in The Everything Machine by Tinybop. If your children are interested in machines, mechanics, programming, or even circuitry at an early age, then encourage them with this fun new tool."

"The Maker Movement, a technological and creative learning revolution underway around the globe, has exciting and vast implications for the world of education. New tools and technology, such as 3D printing, robotics, microprocessors, wearable computing, e-textiles, "smart" materials, and programming languages are being invented at an unprecedented pace. The Maker Movement creates affordable or even free versions of these inventions, while sharing tools and ideas online to create a vibrant, collaborative community of global problem-solvers."

"If you build it, will they come? That is the question many schools have about finding room on campus for a "makerspace." The just-released 6th annual New Media Consortium Horizon Report K-12 Edition listed makerspaces as an emerging technology in the year-or-less adoption timeframe. "Makerspaces are increasingly being looked to as a method for engaging learners in creative, higher-order problem-solving through hands-on design, construction, and iteration," the report noted. That sounds great, but what is the definition of a makerspace, and how do you launch one? As Dale Dougherty, one of the founders of the maker movement, has said, a makerspace might share aspects of shop class, an art studio, science labs and home economics. It could focus on electronics, robotics, woodworking, sewing, laser cutting, programming or any combination of those."

"Special projects require special highlights, and those can only come from special creativity tools. Use these with your students to add unique creative flair to projects of all kids! It's always a treat when a student can express themselves creatively in a way they're never tried before, with a tool they may not have used. Discovering how to use such a resource-and what you can create with it-is very rewarding. The creativity tools we have listed here are great little online resources that will develop creativity in all sorts of ways. Using these creativity tools, students can add artistic personal touches to their work in so many ways. They can build fonts; make themselves into a robot or a Picasso painting; draw with fire; and turn pictures into words and textures, to name a few things. These are fun tools to explore and engage your students with, so everyone can have fun!"

"The fact that millions of Americans are building airplanes in their garage, meeting at makerspaces to work with strangers on customized robots, and collaboratively solving society's problems at hackathons, is a beautiful thing. To its advocates and participants, the Maker Movement resonates with all of those characteristics that we believe makes America great: independence and ingenuity, creativity and resourcefulness. But as impressive as today's tools are, they're not accessible to many Americans simply because of their costs and high technological barrier to entry. Though the price of 3-D printers has come down considerably and continues to drop, the tool still costs several hundred to thousands of dollars to buy. And mastering even the simplest computer-aided modeling tools requires a bit of dedicated study and technical savvy. This begs the question: How can we continue to bring this nascent revolution to everyone who is interested?"

"As part of my research for updating my Makerspace for The Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, I went straight to a source that I knew had done a large amount of the work for me already: The Robot Test Kitchen. At RTK, a group of librarians have evaluated a wide variety of technology tools that are typically incorporated into library Makerspaces as part of an iLead project. I highly recommend looking through the side and reading each individual post. However, for my purposes I wanted to create a quick comparison chart to help guide conversation and my own decision making. I used in the information from RTK and put it into a quick reference spreadsheet."

"I've been a #MakerMom since my daughter learned to walk. I didn't label it that way, though, until she was in first grade and received a copy of Fashioning Technology from one of the editors of O'Reilly media. This book changed the course of her life in many ways, and how she thought of herself. For the first time she had a way of thinking about what she did so naturally - make things - and a community of support, encouragement and learning where she could develop her passion fearlessly. The Maker Movement is more than electronics, robots, 3-d printing and drones. It is a way of thinking and a stance towards learning and community that is collaborative, participative, critical without being judgmental, and inclusive. One way that Making supports education is the natural evolution from any of the myriad entry points towards facility with electronics, design, coding, engineering, and iterative approaches."