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We worked with 3 – 5th grade classes that were exploring concepts of waves. We utilized the micro:bit as sound level detector.  This was their first time using a micro:bit. First we had them display the temperature. Then we replaced that with sound level. Next we had them use the “plot bar graph” piece of… Read more »

Spent 3 afternoons with an elementary class working with electricity and circuits. As always, we started with 5 mm LED and CR2032 battery to see if they could figure out how to light it up. Then they got to try multiple colors and multiple bulbs. The teacher had some electricity kits, so we worked with… Read more »

Canary knives are one of the important tools when working with cardboard. Diego from Lectrify { https://www.lectrify.it/ } shared a #3Dprinting file on Thingiverse { https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4923987 } so you can print handles to go with replacement blades. This might bring the cost down a little, or let kids personalize their tools. I picked up a… Read more »

I started off the New Year with a Nature walk with a 5th grade class at Lakeview Elementary (21 students). They have a nice wooded trail at their school. This is actually a “writing/story telling” exercise in that we want them to take pictures (they have iPads) along the trail. Then they should pick one… Read more »

Today was 2 4th grade classes at McCormick’s Creel Elementary. I read the story of how the elves prototyped a new sleigh for Santa. Then introduced them to the tools & materials they would be using. New tools are exciting for everyone. And yes, we talked about safety. They got to work. One class had… Read more »

12 Sleighs is a good  #Maker book because it is about the elves making 12 prototypes of a new sleigh for Santa. This is great for some new tool skills, design process, collaboration (always a learning process). The more stuff they get to make, they better they are at making.          … Read more »

I took a trip down to Elizabeth IN the other day to work with a group of JH kids and a set of HS kids. The 20 JH kids were not a “class”, but an RTI enrichment group. They meet and do a variety of learning activities. We did some electricity. They had LED’s and… Read more »

Community & School Partnerships (CSP) is a department at IU that does many things to extend IU’s reach into the world and to give the world more access to IU. One of which is tours for schools. A group of students gets an activity, sees a dorm and class building, and has lunch in a… Read more »

I helped out at 2 after school STEM programs this week. The first was Linton Stockton Elementary. We had 25 kids from grades 3-5 for just under an hour. They got to work with the Root robot and SpheroSPRK+. They used their own Chromebooks to code root , because it is browser based. They had… Read more »

We headed to Linton-Stockton Elementary for STEM day. We worked with students from grades k-5 with a variety of things One group built with Lego’s for the LEGO coding competition Another group coded the Root robot from iRobot. A third group of students built a maze (okay , some didnt understand what a maze is,… Read more »