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 »
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LittleThings
We have done a few little things lately. We partnered with the STEM to Them Bus at MCCSC to hold some Maker Mondays at Bloomington Graduation School. We took in the laser, a couple of Cricuts and a couple of 3D printers. We had a mini lesson for each one week, then had open lab… Read more »
FairyGarden
Do you think your kids (any age) would like making elements for a Fairy Garden around school? I have one near my Little Free Library at home. So I thought, how might this be another opportunity for creativity, and maybe some whimsy, in school. I don’t know where I am going to put this. My… Read more »
FiddlingWithDesigns
I was playing with a couple of designs for the laser. One is a trinket for an upcoming Maker Camp. The other is using periodic table blocks to spell out STEAM (you cant spell STEM….no element symbols for that combo). The trinket was the reminder that not all SVG’s are the same. A colleague sent… Read more »
TinkercadCookieCutters
Tinkercad ( tinkercad.com ) is an awesome browser based, free site, where you can design for #3Dprinting, code for design, and create circuit emulations, and most recently, some “physics simulations” with gravity and your designs. A few weeks ago i posted about importing custom fonts into it. There is also a “script” font – use… Read more »
Pollinators
Last week was some pollinator work with students. We were at Washington Community Schools Primary school for a few days working with 9 First grade teachers and 180 students. We discussed bugs and flowers and what they needed to survive. Many students knew lots of things, so usually we asked a question and someone shared… Read more »
MakingSpinningTop
Someone wanted to do some learning experiences with circular motion so my mind first went to making tops. Obviously we could make them from recycled materials & junk, or even some actual hardware (like bolts or eye screws). But Eric Steele had just shared “Grandchild Gift” on Cuttle to laser cut a Spinning Top. I… Read more »
ButterflyEarrings
We are doing an #EarthDay2023 event in a couple of weeks. I was cutting some butterflies & bees out of wood for kids to color/paint when i thought about a smaller version for earrings. I shrunk one of the butterflies down to 1″x1.5″. and Then I thought of “options”. The blue I had being… Read more »
McCormicksCreekSTEAM
We participated in McCormick’s Creek Elementary School STEAM night. We brought stomp rockets (here is our template). To save time, you can tape the top closed instead of cutting, rolling and taping a nosecone. A half-litre or 20 ounce bottle is enough air to reach almost to the gym ceiling It was a pretty busy… Read more »
SmallRoboticBuildingKits
There are two, micro:bit based robotic building kits that I have looked at recently. The micro:bit is a $20-$30 micro-controller, depending on where you buy it (adafruit). One is the Brown Dog Gadgets Bit Board Rover. The other is Elecfreaks 32in1 Wonder Building Kit. I bought my BDG on kickstarter and my Elecfreaks on amazon…. Read more »