I spent a few afternoons this summer at the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence County in Bedford. We rotated through 5 or 6 groups of 15-20 students in grades k-6. Each group had 20-30 minutes to work with materials/projects. I set out 4 stations for them to choose from : stomp rockets, PVC pipes,… Read more »

I had a MakerSpace / Maker Ed / Maker Centered Learning conversation with Amy Stevens, and educator at South Henry and a KINL Innovation Coach (Keep Indiana Learning). We plan to do more. Here is the link If you dont know KINL, you should check it out. They have workshops, resources, digital content, and a… Read more »

In May, I went to Arsenal Technical High School to work with the Computer Science Teacher and a few students. I took stomp rockets. We went to one of the gyms so we had some space. Being the end of the year, there was a lot going on and most of their students were around… Read more »

In the Spring, I did an after school PD at Van Buren Elementary School. We walked 2 educators through how to use a Cricut to make a sticker. WE also talked about why & how (workflow) to do this in the classroom. It was nice to finally get to the school. We had several visits… Read more »

A nice hammer and nail activity for kids is to make some string art. Pick some images related to your topic or theme or event. I cut 6″ wide cedar fence pickets and made a bunch of “squares” (roughly 5.5″x5.5″). Buy some nails & yarn. Print some images that fit on the board. Many kids… Read more »

Bloomington Parks & Rec held a “Flight Day” at Switchyard Park with kites & bubbles I brought “pop bottle rockets”. I have been saving 1 L bottles, pre-cut some cardboard fins, add hot glue guns & duct tape. I borrowed another launcher so we could have two. Parks & Rec supplied water jugs. It was… Read more »

We set up three tables so many participants could build and bling out a model of a lemonade stand. The Lemonade Day people had a bunch of craft materials, so I didnt need all of mine. They also provided 3 volunteers – which was massively helpful as we were constantly busy. About 50 kids and… Read more »

I was invited to do an activity for Washington Community 4th & 5th graders at their STEM Day. Others that were there had different robotics and the Woods on Wheels trailer that had demos about forests. I brought paper circuits (which, in hindsight, might not have been the smartest move…we were outside and it was… Read more »

One of the simple activities that many elementary age students like is building with PVC. We have a tote of pipes and a bucket of connectors. So we are training plumbers 😉 (I probably need to get more pipe) This was one of the activities we had recently at the Boys & Girls Club of… Read more »

East Crawford 4th graders were talking about senses in science class. So we thought a little “Dr. Frankenstein” would be good. We had a little random science Q&A to start, then worked it towards robotics and how they function (sense, think, act), then animals and how they survive. The challenge was to create a model… Read more »