Crawford County 4H held a STEM night at the same time as a Board Meeting. I took some gear kits for kids to explore with. Also available were some Legos, robotic arms, 3D printers and laser cutter. I focused on helping a few kids get something laser cut.

I spent the day at South Henry Junior Senior High School and the evening at the Elementary School STEM night. I saw 4 classes during the day. Two of the classes experimented with the rubberband cars. We also had a 3D printing demonstration going on that they checked out. Several people in one class wanted… Read more »

Paoli JH/HS held a community STEM night in conjunction with a JV/V boys basketball game. We started right before the JV game and ended just before the V game started. They focus was Newton’s Laws of Motion. I took the rubberband cars for people to experiment with. Also there was an inertia table with “cup… Read more »

Most of our time today was spent with 2nd grade students starting to use their garden tower. Two weeks ago they planted seeds and drew what their plant would look like (from a picture on the seed packet). No they got to view the growth, draw it, measure it, and describe what they see. We… Read more »

SWE (Society of Women Engineers) hosts a “Wow! That’s Engineering” once a year. Mostly Girl Scouts attend, but it is open to any girl in grades K-5. I had a Maker session with cardboard and craft stuff, and some LED’s/batteries. Kids are so creative when you get out of their way. All kids tried to… Read more »

I was able to get to 2 conferences. Ohio Educational Technology Conference (OETC) was more for learning and a little networking. Attendance was down this year. IN the past it had been 4000, then 2000. I think it was less than 2000 this year. I hit up many of the AI sessions and some Makerspace… Read more »

Headed to Shoals JH/HS for some “architectural design” style drawing. We talked about orthographic/isometric drawings and drawing views of faces. We had a several example drawings, a couple were mechanical parts with 4 drawings (F,T,R,O) another a house, and of course some blocks. First they were to arrange 8-12 cubes in any shape that was… Read more »

Spent some time at Linton-Stockton working on prototype for a laser cut derby car (like pinewood derby smashed up with All American Soap Box Derby weight distribution experiment). This is a long, long project (just like things are the first time you try it). 4th graders will use Google Drawing to create the profile of… Read more »

I got to spend the day with 3 – 4th grade classes at Eastern Greene.  We had about an hour to chat a little about what they knew about electricity, then explore batteries & bulbs, then make a light up snow person card (paper circuits). Fun was had by all.

I have been doing a mix of things this January. Some classroom days got canceled because of weather. I have been able to get to a few 4th grade classrooms and do some electricity/paper circuits. Also doing some work with a schools FabLab on machines and planning projects. Then there is some networking : Purdue… Read more »