Paper Circuits For Makerspaces FREE PDF Download – (5) Paper Circuit Project Templates A paper circuit is a low-voltage electronic circuit that is created on paper or cardboard using conductive copper tape, LEDs and a power source such as a coin-cell battery. Creating paper circuits is a good way to teach the basics of electricity and how circuits function. In addition to being educational, they can also be a fun makerspace project that helps to bring artwork and paper craft to life. By adding sensors, buzzers and motors to your circuit, you can also add another dimension of interactivity. A paper circuit smiley for Halloween! There are a lot of creative and imaginative ways to create a paper circuit. Creating paper circuits is a natural fit for the classroom or library. Making paper circuits to “illuminate” a concept in our course or classroom. More Friday morning fun with paper circuits! This video shows how Milan Dahal used paper circuits to create animation. Paper trimmerSoldering iron Introduction
MAKE STEAM: Giving Maker Education Some Context As an experiential educator who has fully embraced technology as a means for allowing and facilitating learner voice, creativity, innovation, inventiveness, the Maker Education movement fits into my vision about what a good education entails. I have been blogging and presenting about Maker Education – see But recent discussions with other educators and administrators made me realize that the idea of maker education is often vague and seems unrealistic in terms of regular classroom instruction. As such, in the future, I am going to associate and discuss Maker Education in the context S.T.E.A.M. – science, technology, engineering, arts (including language arts), math, hopefully, encouraging regular classroom teachers to integrate maker education projects into their classrooms. What follows are some resources and articles I compiled to provide educators as part of this discussion. Like this: Like Loading...
Joshua Glenn: Unbored: The Power of 'Making' in the Classroom The sixth graders at Marymount School -- an independent Catholic school for girls in Manhattan -- have a problem they need to solve. The American Dental Association recommends that kids brush their teeth for two minutes, twice a day. But the students know that most kids fall well short of that goal. The girls open their sketchbooks and doodle possible solutions. The project takes several weeks and involves more than a few trips to the school's Fab Lab, a state-of-the art digital prototyping and manufacturing facility that Marymount started in 2011 to more thoroughly engage its students in math and science. While there's a lot of laughing in the Fab Lab, the class also comes with its share of frustration as students try their hands at solutions that don't work. Dec isn't alone in his conviction that experiential hands-on learning makes for a richer academic experience than memorizing the date of the Louisiana Purchase.
Two Case Studies: How Connected Educators Can Transform Schools Figuring out which new teaching practices or pieces of technology might work in a classroom can feel like a full-time job. Lots of educators spend their free time researching new ideas and connecting with other educators, but there are plenty more that find the process confusing and overwhelming. How much easier would it be to have a dedicated staff person whose job is to bring new ideas into the district, support teachers and smooth the way with administrators? That’s what Kris Hupp does for Cornell School District, a tiny district in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Hupp’s official title is 21st Century Teaching and Learning Coach, a job that started out as part of a state grant and has been incorporated into the regular budget. “My district made the investment in my position because they were seeing instructional shifts and a lot of that is this mentality that we’re in it together,” Hupp said. Hupp also runs a Professional Learning Community (PLC) of both teachers and administrators.
Handbook | Making in Michigan Libraries Click here for a sneak peek of our maker handbook, which is almost ready for publication! Makerspace Activity ListA list of many of the possible genres, tools, and materials used in many makerspaces. See what fits for you! Flashlight TemplateWe make these with Scotch double-sided foam tape, 10mm LED bulbs ordered from Tayda Electronics, and CR 2032 3V batteries from The Battery Supplier. Maker Vision TemplateUse this document to help formulate your organization’s collective idea of why you are engaging in making, what needs you are meeting, and what success will look like. Design Game with Words (rev. 6/11/2016)Design Game with Pictures (rev. 6/11/2016)Design Thinking Game Instructions (updated 7/31/2019)These are design thinking tools that we have written to help introduce people of all ages to the process of design thinking. Patronicity Flyer Michigan-based crowdsourcing platform that includes features for offline donations, full- or partial-funding pathways, and extra support.
SCOE: Resources: Instruction: 21st Century Learning: Maker Education We are pleased to announce that Sonoma County schools and districts interested in the Maker Education movement will now find new support and expertise for their efforts at SCOE. Local Maker Education expert Casey Shea has been hired as a SCOE teacher-on-loan. He will be available two days per week to provide hands-on workshops, on-site trainings, guidance for creating Maker spaces, and suggestions for simple Maker projects to get students started. Shea currently teaches mathematics and Project Make at Analy High School in Sebastopol. The goal of Maker Education is to create opportunities for young people to develop confidence, creativity, and interest in science, technology, engineering, math, art, and learning as a whole through “making.” Project Guides & Ideas Community Science Network Project PageThis page has over 100 well-documented projects that use inexpensive and easy-to-source materials. Howtoons Look here for simple projects delivered in a comic-book style. Resources Contact
2013 National STEM Video Game Challenge Collaborative School Project Idea - Create a Book Review Site Amazon features book reviews from customers because we tend to look for recommendations from real people who have read the books that we're considering reading. You can recreate this same experience for students in your school. Step 1: Have students create book reviews. Book reviews don't have to be text-based. Your students could create short videos or podcasts in which they talk about their favorite parts of the books they have read. Step 2: Create a collaborative site. If I was the teacher-librarian in the school I would probably create the site with pages aligned to genres or themes.