Thursday, January 12, 2017

A Long, Overdue Media Center Update

New Year, New Resolution to blog more.

There has been so much happening in and around the library, I'll start with our MakerSpace. :) I'll save another soon-to-be-written post about the other things we've been doing.

A few weeks ago, I opened our MakerSpace after weeks and months of collecting items. We started out with building materials. The goal of this MakerFriday activity was to expose students to different kinds of materials by which they could create and build.  Below, you see Brackitz and Magnatiles.



Next up, we used Ozobots! Our library has some but we borrowed more from our STEAM bus coordinator, Craig Adams. The kids loved getting to program these tiny robots! They used problem-solving skills to determine why things didn't work and how they could fix them. It was great to see their minds at work! Their solutions were great!



Before the holiday break, I introduced the engineering design process. This is the model I used with our students:
We discussed how the "Create" and "Improve" sections really repeat themselves as they build and test over and over.

Classes had to engineer snowmen, gumdrop towers, and "snowball" catapults.


After the new year, we got a little crafty, working with duct tape to make a bookmark. January is National Hobby Month, so I wanted to expose our students to a potential new hobby.


Our MakerFridays will continue throughout the school year, along with the MakerSpace and its materials being used by classes any day of the week. I look forward to all that the rest of the school year will bring!

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