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!

MakerClub 2.0 Kickoff

The APS Makers are back at it! We held or first MakerClub 2.0 tonight. I am also happy to have APS Elementary Technology Teacher Mrs. Tracey DeMeritt and Technology Coordinator Mr. Greg Marten from Lenawee ISD helping out this year. 

The club consist of students Kindergarten through 5th grade and is held after school for 10 weeks. Each week the members will be exposed to materials that will bring their curiosity and imagination to life. This is an informal, playful, atmosphere for learning to unfold. A space with little directions, where making rather than consuming is the focus. A space where transdiciplinary learning, inquiry, risk-taking, thinking, crafting, tinkering, and wondering can blossom. 

For our first night we kept it basic and just created with cardboard and random recycled materials. It is so fun so see what the kids create, it tells me a lot about their personalities. 
Having cardboard, tape, and recycled materials is one of the easiest and inexpensive ways to "do" a MakerSpace. Check out this article on the Value of Creativity from the Imagination Foundation. 

"The world is moving at a tremendous rate. No one knows where. We must prepare our children not for the world of the past, not for our world, but for their 

world-the world of the future." -Maker Ed

APS Maker Extension

I had such a great time running MakerSpace at the Hope Community Center this summer. Such a fun, heart warming, learning experience for all. 

Summer MakerClub

This summer the APS Makers were able to get together a few times and Make. We focused our attention on Take Apart or Reverse Engineering as some of us may call it. The kids were asked to bring in an appliance, computer, or toy they wanted to take apart. I asked the parents to have their child also bring safety glasses and a few screen drivers. The first few nights we spent just taking apart our stuff. The kids were pretty fascinated to so the inside of the things they took apart. 

Students kept pieces they thought were cool and we trashed or recycled the rest. They were then asked to re-create those pieces into some type or artwork. It was really cool to see all the different ideas they had and the ones they finally decided on. 

Week 1: Kids taking apart their stuff. 

Week 2-3: Working on designs for art piece. 

Week 4: Final pieces. 

Grace's Reflection

Evan's Maker Refelection

Zeke's Refelection

Ethan's Refelction

Click HERE to listen to Ethan's reflection on MakerClub and the future of the 
Lincoln MakerSpace. 

MakerNight!!

In a nutshell...it was AWESOME! 

The MakerClub student did an amazing job preparing, manning, explaining, and inspiring others at their Maker station. As you walked from space to space you could see the enthusiasm, passion, and knowledge shine through each MakerClub students. 

What was just as great was to see all the adults and children creating together. Strong community and positive culture can be difficult to build in a school. This event brought the two together. I think the video below says it all...

Stay tuned for student reflections and ideas for our school MakerSpace! 

The Final Prep

"Tinkering is a powerful form of learning by doing...One of the most endearing things about the maker movement is how many children are celebrated as heroes, leaders, and innovators." ~Invent to Learn

I am SO proud of these kiddos. So many times we do not trust what our students are capable of. We are afraid that if we give them too much freedom they will not accomplish what we expect, or they will not "meet the standard". Over the past few week's I have watched these kids go from a bit lost and confused when told to "go make" to complete concentration, innovation, and playfulness. No one is telling them what is right and what is wrong. We just say, "try it". We trust that they will figure it out on their own. And 99% of the time their ideas were better than what the adult was thinking. 

MakerNight Prep

Over the past few week's students have been preparing their space for the MakerNight. 
Students have picked what they would like to showcase at MakerNight and are in charge of preparing the space. They need to decide what materials they need, where they will set up the space and what visitors will do in their space. It was great to see the students working so well together. It makes a huge difference when students have an authentic purpose and audience. 

Students playing and testing materials for their MakerSpace activity. 

The weather in late October has been amazing. Students were able to do planning in the outdoor classroom. 

#CardboardChallenge

"The hands are the instrument of a man's intelligence" ~ Maria Montessori

This past week the MakerClub had some fun with cardboard in honor of the Imagination Foundations Global Cardboard Challenge Day. We started out the afternoon watching a short film about Caine and his cardboard arcade that started a "worldwide movement celebrating creativity, play and the power of imagination."

After the student watched the film they were extremely inspired to get to work on their own cardboard project. We had students building a cardboard version of their own favorite arcade game, some making up their own game, and some building the Eiffel Tower out of cardboard. What was even cooler than their creations, was the way students naturally worked together to make their imaginations come to life. When you look at the pictures posted below you will notice that all the kids are working with someone, or parallel playing/building. Activities like these allow kids to learn so much more than just how to build or create. You see and hear collaboration, problem-solving, critical thinking, innovation, perseverance, self-direction, leadership, teamwork along with many others. 

In the top picture, you notice the younger kids in the club working
parallel to one another, which is common at this age. 

The older members are working together to build their,
games and other creations. 

Elliott's and Abe

Jeffery's Play with Sphero