As my classes pursue inventions during our genius hour each week, I keep coming back to the makezine website for fantastic ideas. Here is something inexpensive that beginners can do using coffee cans and the Aurdino - it does require some soldering so you might want to reserve that part for an adult unless you have older kids capable of it.
Dead drops.com has a list of dead drops around the world. Some of my students brought this in as a maker project that they want to do in Friday's #geniushour . Honestly, I'd never heard of this and I'm not sure what I think about this. It could easily be used for great things - sharing photos or making a time capsule of sorts, but it could also be use to pirate files. It is interesting what happens when students bring in ideas.
Laura Fleming is using Makerspace in her classroom. She's at New Milford HIgh School -- a place led by one of the best principals in the business, Eric Sheninger (his new book is awesome - out in January). Laura is using Mozilla's Web Literacy Standard and her Makerspace which includes robotics, stop motion animation and "Molecular gastronomy" and more. Wow. I'm fascinated. Take a look.
"Setting up a Makerspace has been a priority of mine from the moment I started here at New Milford High School, and it's already well on its way to being achieved. Having a school principal who provides the perfect mix of encouragement and autonomy has, of course, been a great help, but it has also been very much a team effort: the school's tech team and custodians have been very supportive and cooperative, along with a diverse variety of students interested in 'making' experiences.
At the heart of the vision for my Makerspace is to develop the space and to provide resources and opportunities that will aid in promoting web literacy. These components encompass Mozilla's Web Literacy Standard. The standard is make up of three key elements: exploring, building and connecting and focuses on reading, writing and participating on the web. "