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, rubber band cars, Sphero Blueprint Engineering kit, jewelry, paper airplanes, 3Dux cardboard connectors, circuit blocks, wood blocks (not the same combo each week). For the paper airplanes , I put together a small poster of visual  instructions.
   

The first day was a little rough, not treating materials properly, listening/following directions, behaviors. But each week they got better.

I adapted paper rockets a little. I have a nice template that has rocket & fins on 1 page with big steps for instructions…but most go wrong at step 1 (decorate on the other side of the line). Since most dont decorate, I changed to the rocket just being a full piece of paper and pre-cutting strips of paper for rectangular fins. They still have to work with scissors and tape and figure out how to tape fins on the rocket. It went much quicker & easier with this adaptation.

a few of the pics…

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 yearly educator conference (KINLCon)

Here is the video :

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 school getting things done to finish up the school year. But we had three students excited about making rockets. We also had a few staff members wander by, so we roped them into making/launching a rocket. They were all amazed how high the rockets can easily go. 

After that, the teacher took me to see their “MakerSpace”, which is not really in use. They have some 3D printers and a laser cutter (not hooked up) and a decent size room with big tables for projects work. I hope to come back in the Fall to help them get this space going.

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 thwarted by weather (flooding, electricity). Hopefully we will do more PD in 25-26.

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 will need nails with larger heads, especially if this is the first time with a hammer. I have two different ones so they can choose.

Now, you can put nails directly through the printed image, then wrap the yarn (tie off the first one, Wrap around each nail, tie off at the end). This can make the paper difficult to pull off the project. You have to pick and pull little pieces without pulling the string off…
So a second option would be to take one nail and use it to make indents/starter holes all around the image. Then remove the image and pound nails into all those indents/holes. Pound in all the way, but NOT THROUGH the wood.
A third option is to use the image as a model and draw it on the board with a pencil

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 a busy time going between helping build and making sure launches went correctly.
As usual, once a kid learned how to do something, they jumped to help the next person.
We had about 55 kids and 35 parents launch rockets.
Since we didnt add nose cone or weight, the rockets launched and immediately tumbled. But the kids were still excited with the launch. One father added cardboard to make a long nose cone, and that helped. 

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 20 parents came through our station.
 

This is the Lemonade Day stand for photo opportunities

WTIU has a cool photobooth…

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 a windy day and the copper tape trash kept blowing all over the tennis courts – but the kids were great at helping to pick up the trash)
I created a card with the map of Indiana and a star for Indianapolis and another for Washington Community.

We had 6 classes that rotated through 45 minute stations. There were about 175 students.
It was fast & furious and 45 minutes was not enough time for most kids to get finished.

I made an instruction page…

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 Lawrence County. The other was rubber band cars (& I didnt get pictures) . We had 30 students this afternoon.

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 of a robot/animal hybrid that had something “extra” for their senses to help them better survive. We had the cardboard tools and all the craft materials laid out. After a quick tool discussion (all tools can hurt you), they got to work creating. 

The students had to describe what/how they augmented at least one sense.

We were also at the school for the 5th graders. We did paper circuits with them. Obviously we started with “battery & bulb” for them to explore. The we talked about circuits and had them do the “simple-series-parallel” page

Much help was provided by the ladies of Crawford 4H. It is so much easier when there are helpers!