Don’t tell me that LED’s don’t make EVERYTHING COOLER!!!

If you are going to do Maker Education / Maker Centered Learning Professional Development, you better have your learners making something. If the session is about pedagogy, I give them a bag/pile of craft stuff (pipe cleaners, straws, coffee stirrers, craft sticks, pom poms, buttons, googly eyes, index cards, colored pencils/crayons, tape, glue stick, hot… Read more »

My goal was to assemble 10 micro:bit based robotics kits for around $100 each. I also wanted to show some variations of components, like 2 different motors and 3 different servos. There are no building parts in these kits, just components. Use cardboard, recyclables, craft stuff, laser cut or 3D printed parts, or LEGO’s you… Read more »

I have been working on having something to make for the Grocery Getter Nation event at Wagler Motorsports Park the last weekend in July. Maybe a dragster shaped keychain, maybe personalized, maybe an ornament…but I also want to get their logo on it. Those ideas are too small for the logo to come out well,… Read more »

Last week we went to Crawford County for one night of their 4H Fair to have some #STEM stuff for people to see and do. We had a 3D printer printing out a small gnome and the laser cutter working on a variety of trinkets that we left for people. We also had some things… Read more »

where am I after a day of iterations… (everything starts with your motors….dimensions & power requirements) {it does work on linoleum and low plush carpet…It definitely has an ramp up of speed as it gets going.  https://youtu.be/2CIcVGoaL1M   https://youtu.be/UfN0g6KKDAA  } Chassis : I adjusted the holes around the motor so that I could use a… Read more »

before I get too far into iterations and troubleshooting… Because I am doing a Family Night at a racetrack for a local non-profit, I thought to make a couple of toy dragsters with interchangeable wheels for kids to experiment with {change wheel size, change weight…} I am thinking acrylic or wood for some parts and… Read more »

A colleague asked if you could laser a functional QR code onto anodized aluminum. I replied yes, even though I had not done that before. I remember seeing people talk about doing it. So i ordered some blanks, 10 business card size for $10 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08H752BRS ). I did a little research and found a variety… Read more »

On Saturday, we went to the Dimension Mill to participate in their Lemonade Day event. There were booths about the many facets of having a Lemonade Stand : health/sanitation, budgeting, marketing, business pitch, customer service, and registering your stand for the online map. Our stand was about making a popsicle stick model of a stand…as… Read more »

On May 25th & 26th, the Collaboration of Shoals, Orleans, and Mitchell Schools (COSMOS) got together and held a Maker Camp for 45 students in grades 3-5 (15 from each school), from 9 am to 12 pm. We plotted and planned for weeks. We had 3 sessions each day, for about 45 minutes each. We… Read more »