October's Guest Speakers

October provided a wealth of opportunities for students to learn more about making. In addition to the new Maker Playground activities, we hosted two guest speakers who shared their expertise with our community.

On October 9th, Chris Olsen spoke to students about his hobby bringing Halloween decorations to life using microcontrollers. Microcontrollers are powerful tools that combine electronics and simple programming to bring inanimate objects to life to both scare and entertain. Mr. Olsen discussed the uses of Microcontroller controlling lights, sound cards, servos, and pneumatic solenoid valves, as well as presenting examples of Basic stamp control routines for Halloween haunting applications.

 

Students enjoyed seeing the demonstrations and were excited to learn that Mr. Olsen’s house welcomes 200-300 trick or treaters every year. Clearly, he knows how to create a Halloween Haunt! We hope students are inspired to "make" using the microcontrollers available to them in the Maker Lab.

On October 19th, Peter White shared career advice for students interested in software engineering. To begin, he asked students to participate in a dot voting activity so he could identify what students were most interested in learning. A day-in-the-life of a software engineer was #1.

In addition to learning about day-to-day activities, students learned about the diverse employment opportunities available in the software engineering field and the pros and cons often affiliated with each. Most all students in attendance raised their hand when asked if they were planning to major in CS. In his slide deck, Mr. White provided a number of resources that are available (and mostly free!) to help students grow their programming skills. The Maker Lab has many opportunities to learn programming - check out the Maker Lab website or stop by to learn more!

Back-to-School Night

Because there is such a short amount of time between the end of the day and Back-to-School Night (about 3 hours), it has been a tradition at our school for dinner to be provided to teachers who stick around after school. Previously, these dinners have been held in the faculty lounge. This year we requested that dinner be provided in the Library and Learning Commons so teachers would have an opportunity to see our new Maker Playground (read more about the Playground in Ms. Simon's blog post) and get reacquainted with our space and library resources. 

We strategically placed the food and drinks in the back of the library and set-up tables in the center aisle so teachers would have to walk by the Maker Playground and through additional table stations. In addition to the Maker Playground stations, we also set-up tables in the center aisle to ensure teachers saw the equipment being used in the Maker Lab before eating. 

Although food was the priority, we did have teachers take notice of the stations in the center aisle, especially the “Light up Your Nametag” station and the “Makey Makey” station which used jello to play the Wack-A-Mole game and the “Learn to Crochet” station where Mrs. Stanton was demonstrating how to crochet a hat. 

 

We know Back-to-School Night is a busy day for teachers as they prepare to welcome parents to their classrooms so we were pleased with the fact that teachers were able to see some of the Maker Lab offerings on their way to dinner. We hope what they saw inspires them to return and encourage students to use the Maker Lab and Maker Playground, and hopefully make something on their own like what Mr. Shelley did the following day!

Introducing the new Maker Playground...

After spending months last year weeding our nonfiction collection and removing three shelves, we opened our brand new Maker Playground downstairs last week for the start of the school.

The idea was to create a space where students could just come to try out equipment, without having to go through additional steps, such as adding applications onto their computers or going through any instruction.  They could just come and use it.  We wanted to encourage those students, who weren't so comfortable trying the more complex equipment in our upstairs Maker Lab, to have a space in which to "play."  

The stations would rotate on a monthly basis.  For the first month, we showcased some of our new equipment.  The Leap Motion allows students to use gestures to control apps on a computer. 

  
Students were instantly engaged with the the sculpting app, other games, and even the basic Playground app provided.

Our next station is LittleBits, which allows students to create circuits by magnetically snapping power (blue), input (pink), and output (green) pieces together. 

This station was a lot of fun for adults too, as our new teachers and parent orientations showed.

We also offered an Origami station, where students were provided instructions to make simple animal faces, but could also make something more complex.

Our final station was a Take Apart Station, which was intended for students to take apart old and broken electronics for use in personal projects.  

And for some that was what they did.  Students took apart an old PC computer, intending to build their own, and others planned to use speakers as part of our Maker Lab Spirit Week Competition.

Unfortunately, others took "take apart" to mean destroy: they snapped circuit boards into pieces and eventually broke the glass on a scanner, which forced us to close our Take Apart Station, as it became a safety issue.  We learned a valuable lesson here, and we may bring the Take Apart Station back as a more guided activity the future.  For now we are replacing it with a Build with LEGOs station.

For now, we are happy to see the students using the space in their free time, and we hope they will be inspired to use our larger space upstairs as they get more comfortable working with our equipment.

Happy Making!

Maker Faire Bay Area 2015

It was our first year attending the Maker Faire, and we were all excited.  Unfortunately, we were not able to bring a group of students to the special Education day on Friday, but definitely next year.   The plan eventually is to have our own booth for our students to showcase their work.  

It was hard getting our bearings at first: so many things to do and see.  As overwhelming as it all was at first, it was still so much fun!  Our goal was  to not only see gadgets to buy and projects we could try out in our own space, but also to get exhibitors/companies to come talk about all the cool things they do with our students. 

Some of our favorites included the Carousel of Physics because students were explaining Physic concepts through their own projects,  the fire-shooting giant sculptures because it warmed the air, and the talking Dalek because one of us is Whovian :-).

Some photos from our time there:
Happy Making!

1st Annual MCHS Maker Faire

Nine months after the MCHS Maker Lab opened, we celebrated the first annual MCHS Maker Faire on Thursday, April 16th. It was a sight to see! 

Maker Faires inspire individuals from all kinds of different backgrounds, all interested in learning from inventive and creative projects. Some companies (e.g., tech companies especially) require their employees to attend Maker Faires as professional development. It is hard to leave a Maker Faire without getting one idea to use in your personal or professional life.

Four weeks prior to the MCHS Maker Faire, we invited all students, faculty, and staff to submit projects for the Faire. 

Over 20+ diverse submissions were accepted; some fully complete, some works in progress, and all very creative.

Pictures and a list of what was included are below:  

Decorate Your Own Book Ends

Needle Arts Table

Homemade Jewelry

Pillow light (using the LilyPad)

Swallowtail Butterfly Habitat

Portable Raspberry Pi

Braided Bracelet

Space Saver Mobile

Water Gardening

Henna

Anatomy in Clay

Stuffed Animal/ Crochet

How to Build Your Own Computer

Flash Videos

Biome Projects

Stair Climbing Robot

Polymer Clay Charms

Stained Glass Art

Make-Your-Own Parfaits

3D printing Model Presentation

String Paper Mache

Origami

 

Eager to check-out more Maker Faires before our second annual MCHS Maker Faire in 2016? San Mateo hosts the Bay Area’s largest Maker Faire May 16-17, 2015. Check out the website here. And start thinking about projects you can submit for next year's MCHS Maker Faire!

Making at SXSWedu

I was lucky enough to attend SXSWedu in Austin last week.  There was an array of topics on all aspects of education, but to support our Maker Lab program, I went to a lot of the DIY, Maker, & Hacker sessions. 

There were short sessions (Future15), where presenters had only 15 minutes to present.  Some of the sessions I went to included: 3D printing models to help demonstrate mathematical concepts and learning coding with drones.  We are considering purchasing a drone as part of next year's budget, and think that coding would help make it more than just a new gadget for the kids to see.

My favorite sessions were the workshops where we actually got to make something.  At the "Makerspace Mash-Up: New Literacy from AR to Z" (
Jacy Edelman,  Kreg Hanning, Sue Cusack, Lesley University) turned the room into a makerspace, where each table had some sort of equipment (both high tech and low tech), with a project idea on what you could do with the equipment.  I wanted to play with the LittleBits, and the project at that table was to make a DIY Satellite Dish that sensed light.  My table was quite focused  on this task and we were actually successful in making it work:

DIY Satellite Dish using LittleBits

In "Exploring Environments for Maker-Centered Learning" (Edward Clapp and Jessica Ross, Project Zero/Harvard Graduate School of Education), we had the opportunity to design our ideal makerspace and worked in groups to make chairs that could hold our own weight out of cardboard, box cutters, and ties. 

The finished "chairs"

We intend to incorporate this activity in our admission tours for next year (most likely substituting scissors for box cutters).

Several sessions focused on the purpose of and guide to creating maker labs in schools. In "What Are We Making...and Why Are We Making it?" (Basil Kolani, Dwight School) focused on having students make with a purpose (to solve a problem they see, etc).  I really enjoyed the collaborative spirit of "Makerspaces & STEAM Labs: Creation and Programming" (Colleen Graves, Leah Mann, Lewisville Independent School District), where everyone (not just the presenters) shared ideas about the whole process of starting a makerspace. "Schools' Vortex: Innovative Library Makerspaces'" (Britten Follett, Follett Learning; Darcy Coffta, Berwick Academy; Dottie Smay, Shorecrest Preparatory School, Patrice Bryan, Maplewood Richmond Heights High School) addressed makerspaces in libraries, which was of obvious interest to us, having a maker lab in our Library and Learning Commons. 

There were several STEAM-focused sessions, which were very informative for our work with the dance department.  In one of the Playground Hands-On sessions, we got to record haikus and make boxes that when opened would play them. In "Real World STEAM: SoCal Industry and Educators Unite" 

(David Delgado, Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Kim Richards, KDR PR/STEAM-Connect; Saura Naderi, Qualcomm), we got to see how STEM companies/organizations incorporate arts both internally and externally, as a means to reach out to students.   I particularly enjoyed the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's examples of artwork/designs used to explain their scientists and engineers concepts/projects in a visually engaging manner.  The session was also hands-on.  After using random supplies to make something that represented ourselves, we worked in groups to create something out of all our own creations incorporating LED lights:

My group's creation

I came back with a lot of ideas for ways to change/add to/improve our own space, and I look forward to trying them out.

Happy Making!

 

Friday Afternoon Yarn Session

Ever since Ms. Stanton crocheted the famous guinea pig (inspired by Ms. Simon's late guinea pig, Bumblebee) and students crocheted Christmas tree chains and ornaments, there has been  increased student interest in MAKING with yarn. Remember, making is not always about gadgets.

Expert knitters Ms. McGowan and Ms. Schroeder picked up on this interest and volunteered to host a Friday afternoon yarn session in the LLC during collaboration where students could learn/practice knitting and crochet. 

In preparation for the session, one of our IWEs created balls of yarn to make them more manageable for students to handle compared to the regular yarn bundles.
Students arrived at the Friday afternoon yarn session in the LLC to find a variety of patterns Ms. McGowan and Ms. Schroeder printed as well as knitting needles, crochet hooks, and lots of yarn! 

While Ms. McGowan and Ms. Schroeder focused on teaching students how to knit, Ms. Stanton taught students to crochet. A good way to begin is to crochet a chain like these two students are doing. Next you could make something like a washcloth. Ms. Stanton crocheted this beautiful red one.

Some students skilled at knitting helped others learn. It was an activity collaboration full of learning and fun. Several students have already inquired as to when we will hold the next “Friday afternoon yarn session”.

Remember yarn is available for check-out at the circ desk, as well as crochet hooks and knitting needles!

Designing in 3D with Tinkercad, 123D Sculpt, and PrintShop

We have been using Tinkercad for awhile now for student 3D design projects.  Despite the technical log-in problems the site was having for awhile, with  instruction, students were able to successfully create designs for various class projcts.

Anchor representing Holy Cross themes

On their own several students used AutoDesk's iPad apps 123D Sculpt and 123D Creature to make all sorts of creatures and objects. 

A dog in 123D Sculpt

A dice for a game in a Theology class

A student showing her dinosaur designed in 123D Creature

 

Recently we have been playing around with MakerBot's PrintShop app for the iPad, which provides templates for bracelets, rings, medals, vases, etc that you can customize.  For students/faculty new to 3D design, it allows you to create your own original designs without much instruction.

A customized vase

A bracelet

Both took minutes to create and you can even start the print job right from your iPad within the app(as long as your account is synced to the 3D printer).  A fun and simple introduction to 3D design.

Happy Making!