Maple Makers Showcase Creativity at #MACUL17

Check out the article HERE!

MapleMakers Good News Report at the APS Board Meeting

The MapleMakers had a chance to tell the Adrian Public Board of Education all about MakerClub at the April 10th board meeting. Great job kids! 

Makers at MACUL

On March 17th the MapleMakers had the chance to participate in the Makerspace at the Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) conference in Detroit, MI. The Makers had a great day playing, creating, sharing, and modeling Makerspace ideas and tools to educators all over Michigan and beyond!

The students were a huge addition to the MACUL Makerspace this year. Sometimes when adults hear about Makerspaces (or in the past, visited the MACUL Makerspace) it is hard for them to imagine what it will look like, sound like, and feel like for their own students. The MapleMakers did an outstanding job showcasing their creativity, tinkering, and excitement by not only making, but talking with teachers visiting the space and helping them learn how to use maker tools they were interested in learning more about. 

 Edited Facebook Live video from the Makerspace

Google Photos Movie 

2nd Annual Family MakerNight

The 2nd Annual Lincoln Family MakerNight was a success. We had a great turn out with lots of great making, connecting, and playing! Check out the video below to see all the highlights. 

MakerClub Partners with Adrian District Library

This year the MakerClub had the opportunity to partner with the Adrian District Library to host Makers @ The Library. For the past two weeks MakerClub was held in the spacious basement of the library. The kids shared with children from around the county how fun and engaging a Makerspace can be. 

Cathy Chesher, the ADL Youth Services Librarian, was able to purchase and share many maker materials such as KEVA Planks, littlebits, Ozobots, and Strawbees along with supplying an abundance of cardboard fabrication materials, and the very popular button maker! 

Cathy's goal for partnering with us was to get a feeling of how children interact with the materials and each other in a Makerspace. I think we were able to accomplish that for her! The students loved having all the space to play and create and they showed a sense of pride while sharing knowledge and showing other children how the materials worked. 

What a great experience and opportunity for us all! I hope we can all continue to attend and invite people back to the ADL when the MakerSpace is open. It is an amazing opportunity for the children and adults in the City of Adrian. 

Tinkering with Tinkercad

Over the past few years 3D printing has become more popular and affordable to schools and the general public. Students all over the world are being exposed to programs like Tinkercad to create 3D objects and print them right in the classroom! 

"3D printing in education is unique compared to other technologies. The mindset of the student becomes one where it is okay to fail and encourages experimentation in their learning." - Dale Nicholla 

3D printing along with the Design Thinking Process (Emphasize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test) allows kids to create object to solve every day problems. Check out these second graders that designed a foot for a chicken they hatched in class! 

Our MakerClub kids were not quite making chicken feet today but they had a great time learning how to use Tinkercad with Mr. Marten. The few times I walked in to see what they were creating and I was surprised to see how quickly they picked it up! Tinkercad is a FREE program kids can use at home on any type of computer to design projects. I can't wait to see where they take it. 

However 3D printing is not for everyone, so in true MakerSpace fashion we had some other awesome creating going on today. We broke out the green screen for the kids to play and act in front of. The boys also got to test out the ramp they made last week with the Sphero (robotic ball that is controlled by the iPad). 

Reverse Engineering-Fancy For Take Stuff Apart

Reverse engineering is taking apart an object to see how it works in order to duplicate or enhance the object. The practice, taken from older industries, is now frequently used on computer hardware and software.
Margaret Rouse 

Tonight MakerClub had fun taking stuff apart. The kids worked with a partner or individually to take apart a old appliance or toy from home. Some of the students were able to begin creating something new out of the pieces they saved from their appliance/toy, some took their object home, and some are going to continue to work on it next week. It's so cool to see the perseverance in the kids as most of them worked the entire hour and a half pulling apart one object with screw drives and hammers (don't worry we all wear our safety glasses). 

Reverse engineering/take apart is a cheap and easy way to run a MakerSpace. The appliances came from the students home, the tools (Two 15 pack of screwdrivers), 20 googles, and tool box to store them, all for $50 at Harbor Freight Tools. If you scroll down this blog you will see some of the cool things our Summer MakerClub kids made from parts of appliances/toys. 

Kids use and learn so many skills from taking apart stuff. Perseverance as I mentioned above is one of them; along with communication and collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking, design thinking, basic engineering, and simply how to use common house hold tools. There was a lot of righty-tighty lefty-loosey today. 

And in true MakerSpace fashion we had some kids that just wanted to do their own thing and follow their own ideas. Oliva and our Adrian College helper Jessica made a great mural out of cardboard and markers. Some of the boys made a awesome ramp for a car that someone brought to take apart (of course that did not happen) The boys saved the ramp as we have more in store for it. 

Oh and did I mention, one of the kids found a worm in the Keurig he was taking apart!