Given ever-constricting budgets and the growing need for hands-on STEM experiences, getting the most out of makerspace investments is critical. So what better way to get more hands on a tool than having it available to more than one school?

Enter Maker Spaces Go Mobile.

“When we housed individual machines in schools, they operated in very much of a silo mentality due to the size of our district,” says Susie Simmons, Instructional Technology Coach at Bonny Eagle Schools in Maine. “Our vision with the mobile makerspace was to cut back on isolating components and increase our collaboration across the district. It empowered us to bring a larger number of pieces of equipment into a building at any given time when they need it, which helps make any projects move faster than if they were trying to accomplish it on one stationary machine.”

With the help of collaborator/partner and fellow instructional technology coach Stephen Avery, the program was thoroughly considered before launching.

“We really wanted to have kids interact with the technology and use it, rather than putting in the gatekeeper of an adult who is really the one using the tech and undermining the educational experience,” says Avery. “We worked it into not just CTE-style STEM courses, but for all students.”

Simmons was recently recognized with an Innovative Leader Award for Most Innovative Learning Spaces Award at the Tech & Learning New England Regional Leadership Summit.

Simmons and Avery discuss their impressive Maker Spaces Go Mobile project, offering six tips for districts wanting to connect such spaces with curriculum on a deeper level.

The Making of a Mobile Makerspace

As mentioned, the main focus of the project was to provide students with hands-on, creative opportunities.

“3D printing was still a big piece of the goal,” says Avery. “It was known technology and something we’d been doing for a while. Three years ago, we were also fortunate to add a set of GlowForges, one in each of our middle and high school buildings. GlowForge, a laser cutter and engraver, is very quick technology by comparison to 3D printing. It has great applications for design thinking, prototyping, and problem solving.”

Being able to spread need across the use of multiple machines also has clear benefits.

“Back in the day, a project could take several weeks and a few overnight hours of 3D printing,” says Simmons. “With our new system, the same project can be done within the course of a school day. It’s been really gratifying to work with teachers used to the old methods and now we just show up with a mass supply of pieces of equipment to get things done.”

The “mobile” element of a mobile maker lab space proved interesting.

“We actually moved a laser around a couple of times,” says Avery. “That particular machine was quite heavy and very prone to damage. In search of a more mobile solution, we selected two different types of lasers from a company called xTool. One is a bed-style diode laser called the S1.”

The team also purchased a small, portable engraving unit called the F1, ideal for speedy, small projects with students.

“While we were shooting for the moon, we added a Cricut Venture system,” says Avery. “This large-scale, industrial-sized and output-ready Cricut machine is capable of doing vinyl and other thin substrate work, to be able to cut and design for staff and student use.”

The bonus was should one elementary school need a project completed, without a hands-on piece of tech physically in the room, they could send files and jobs to be printed and delivered as a type of a processing center.

Cutting Class is Encouraged

One makerspace project featured students making physical currency in a social studies class to understand setting up their own little countries and the economy that goes with it. Other efforts have been more practical.

“One of my favorite projects was helping a student in special education with a physical limitation in art class,” says Avery. “The tech made a carving project to make linoleum stamps accessible, despite the student’s lack of physical control needed to manipulate the tools. We created digital designs and used the laser for the physical carving so that the student was able to fully participate. We continue to look for ways that we can support through meaningful opportunities to remove obstacles.”

The program has “earned its keep” further, making gifts for celebrations and staff presents, stencils for the facilities department, even manipulatives for a math class. It helps when it comes time for budget decision to justify expenses.

“We’ve been doing laser work during reading challenges or family engagement nights,” says Simmons. “Students design their own keychain or bookmark. Because of the speed at which we're able to produce those items, the kids walk away with their creation in their hand, which is awesome.”

Simmons notes that there’s even a plan for a major waste issue districts struggle with—recycling 3D printer scraps.

“We ended up buying a wood chipper off Amazon of all things,” says Avery. “We used it to break down our failed models, our scrap, and then melt it into sheets that we can actually cut with the laser to make new products.”

Money Matters

Like many districts, Bonny Eagle benefited from regional partnerships and grants.

“After receiving a grant from the Perloff Family Foundation in Maine, Bonny Eagle Schools expanded the existing 3D printing system across the district,” says Simmons, “The technology in those buildings was beginning to show its age. It no longer worked at the quality or speed we needed to support our programs.”

Located in Maine, the DoE Learning Through Technology Team at the state level offered a Teach with Tech grant. The duo decided to apply with the goal of supporting makerspace youth across K-12.

“We hoped to replace the aging 3D printing technology across the district and provide other methods of creation,” says Simmons. “Our larger vision was for the two of us currently on paper supporting grade 6 to 12 to support K to 12 instead.”

“We were very fortunate in our district to be able to have professionals support embedded professional development,” says Avery. “It's essentially a peer who can support-teach with the teachers. We created a train-the-trainer model and are actively brainstorming projects to avoid introducing technology as a toy. We want to identify it fits as part of the teaching strategy and instructional style to help further and deepen student learning. Those abilities are great for kids moving on into an engineering program, design thinking . . . but the creative problem-solving is really just a great overall life skill.”

6 Steps to Mobile Makerspace Success

Simmons and Avery share their tips for creating mobile makerspaces.

1. Make sure that you have people on staff invested in making it work. Find people on staff who can take the vision and make it happen, and support them doing so. It’s crucial.
2. Be the learner in the process. Without somebody to bounce ideas off and partner with, it’s a heavier lift and becomes really challenging.
3. FInd opportunities just to play, even if you don't have the technology yet. A lot of tools have free software with which you can experiment. The tech is often in libraries and community maker spaces. Be a student again and get some hands-on time to stretch your imagination.
4. Consider the infrastructure involved from a physical standpoint. If you are planning to do something such as this in a mobile setting, how are you going to transport it between schools? Bonny Eagle Schools has a district van and all of the equipment is on carts. Lean on your facilities department to move it safely.
5. Know that it's going to take some time. The duo is still working on building capacity within this district, so this program hasn’t been an overnight success. So be willing to be patient and don't expect it to show the fruits of your labor in year one. Trust the vision and support your staff in making it happen.
6. Don’t undersell the importance of collaboration. The coaches were begging for an opportunity to talk with colleagues and put their heads together in a room. Time is precious, but even an hour of time together to sit down and talk through ideas can be really invigorating and productive.

The Tools They Use

• Heavy duty utility carts for moving the equipment
• Bambu Lab A1 and A1 Mini 3D Printers
• 4-Color AMS Lite
• Cricut Venture Makerspace Educators School Bundle
• xTool F1 Portable Diode/Infrared Laser
• xTool S1 Enclosed Diode Laser Cutter
• TinkerCAD, AutoCAD
• Physical materials such as air handling, storage totes, replacement parts, and consumable materials such as filament, vinyl, and wood.

• Innovative Leader Award

Minecraft: Education Edition has made more people than ever aware that esports and video games can be used as a learning tool. At the Indian Creek Library in Olathe, Kansas, we have created a hands-on learning environment where teens can take their love of video games and translate that into real world skills such as design, coding, and interpersonal skills. This connected play and learning is particularly valuable for youth, as shown in research shared by NASEF, the non-profit North America Scholastic Esports Federation. 

STEAM jobs are some of the most in demand jobs on the market currently, and by combining video games (not just Minecraft!) and STEAM activities we can give our teens the knowledge to succeed in these competitive and growing fields.  

STEM Activities and Minecraft 

No matter what your budget or skill level is, there are STEAM and Maker activities that can be implemented in a classroom, at home, or in an after-school program to complement what the teens are learning or doing in games.  In the summer of 2021, the Indian Creek library held a weeklong Minecraft camp for teens (6th – 12th graders). One of the maker activities we did was to have the teens get into groups and build a house for a Villager out of pipe cleaners in 5 minutes. The tallest house that could stay up on its own was the winner. 

Throughout the activity random events would happen, such as a Creeper invading and hurting one of them meaning they could only build with one hand or one of them turning into a villager who could only speak in the mumbling “wahs” of the villagers. Overall the teens had a lot of fun figuring out what kind of structures would be stable while still being in an environment that was engaging and related back to a subject that they were interested in. Our second project of the day required students to build strong and secure structures that would stand up to certain challenges, in our case it was which structure would hold the most books. This activity, more than anything else this week, helped the teens figure out who they worked well with and how to divvy up roles for success. The following day we talked about artistic design and showed students how to use the editor to make their own skins and translate Minecraft pixel designs into real life objects using Perler beads.

Coding 

One of the more natural go-tos of a technology-based club is coding. Every day I had the students complete at least 1 hour of coding from the Minecraft section of Code.org using Minecraft: Education Edition. If you have the Minecraft Java Edition you’ll need to take an extra step to make things work and that takes the form of MCreator, a free open source software package. Our teens moved from creating their own character skins to designing their own tools or weapons in MCreator. We had a contest to see who could create the coolest item, and the teens voted on whose item would be downloaded into our personal game. MCreator also has the ability to integrate a Raspberry Pi or Arduino which would be a fun way to incorporate robotics and technology into your lesson. They have worksheets and lesson plans you can find here: https://mcreator.net/education. Our makerspace does not have either of those technologies so instead we used Lego MINDSTORMS EV3s and SPIKE to give the teens a real-life example on how the code they are writing translates to movement for robots and for characters in the game. Both activities have the teens learning the back end of game design, coding, and the relation between what one types and how that affects digital objects.   

Design Challenge 

Once the teens completed their design challenge they were able to bring their object to the real world through the magic of 3D printing! I had them translate some small Minecraft objects into Tinkercad that would print in about an hour. Minecraft objects are great for 3D printing because the basic block design translates easily.

Easy Makerspace Projects  

One of the quickest ways to incorporate makerspaces into a program is through 3D printing. Hundreds of 3D printer designs can be found online for free at www.thingiverse.com, or club members can design their own. One of the makerspace staff at our library, Brian Nomura, found, printed, and put together Rocket League ranked pins for staff that played the game and members of the esports team. We also made buttons with the team logo for club members and volunteers to denote positions using https://button-designer.com/. A makerspace can really help those club members who are wanting to go into graphic design, game design, or marketing flourish. 

The one project everyone can get excited about is making team shirts. This can be done by hand tracing and cutting iron-on materials from the craft store, using a Brother Scan and Cut or Cricut, or using something more sophisticated like a wide format printer or embroidery machine. Even without a huge budget for Corel Draw or Adobe Photoshop you can provide students with design tools. Inkscape, Canva, and Krita are all free design tools that can be used to create flyers, logos, .STL files, .MP4s and more!  I paired our Wacom tablet with Krita (a design and animation software) to let our teens try their hand at drawing mascots. Makerspace projects take esports to the next level, teaching teens about promotion and design. 

Want to learn more about how Minecraft and Makerspaces can benefit students? Visit eduesportsexpo.com for more information and to register. 

Makerspace Resources

 A full list of resources we’ve taken advantage of can be found below.  

Laurenjoy Graves is a teen programming librarian at the Indian Creek Library in Olathe, Kansas. She has a Master's Degree in Library Science from Emporia State University, and a Bachelor's Degree in Anthropology and Creative Writing from Wichita State University. Before she became a teen librarian, she worked in a Makerspace, as a writer for Dystopia Rising (A Live Action Role Play Company), and as a magician's assistant. 

James I. O’Neill High School: Creating Real-World 3D Printing Products

Students at James I. O’Neill High School in Highland Falls Fort Montgomery School District in New York, under the leadership of school media specialist Sheri McNair, have moved beyond printing simple key chains and phone cases to creating working prototypes of real world products. 

One project students in McNair’s Discovery CS & Coding course complete is to create an original arcade game combining coding, 3D printing, and fabrication. Student first design and code a video game on Code.org that utilizes the 4 arrow keys and spacebar for play. They then have to design and build a desktop-computer sized arcade cabinet to enclose and hide all but the screen on a Chromebook. Finally, using BlocksCAD, a cloud-based 3D modeling tool that utilizes block based programming, students create controllers for their games, which are printed using Dremel’s 3D40 and Protopasta’s conductive filament . The controllers are then attached to a Makey Makey , which in turn is connected to the Chromebook. This allows the conductive controllers to be “activated” and work as part of the cabinets build. 

A second project students complete in McNair’s course is a building a working drone. Students again utilize BlocksCAD to code the design of a drone body, and print it on the Dremel 3D40. During this project students are working on design and coding skills, as well as learning about aerodynamics as they design a drone that needs to fly. 

Rather than allowing students to print pre-made models, McNair requires students to design their own, accounting for things like weight of the finished product and its relationship with flight. According to McNair “Students learned quickly that they need to hollow out their designs, as many of the first attempts don’t make it more than a few feet off the ground. This type of hands-on problem solving allows students to break design problems down into their component parts, and learn from their failures.”

University at Albany: Taking 3D Printing to the Next Level 

Under the guidance of Michael Leczinsky, a full time lecturer and director of the University’s makerspace, undergraduate students in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany have taken 3D printing to the next level, exploring customization and personalization to solve problems big and small. 

Leczinsky credits the dramatic drop in costs associated with 3D printing with revolutionizing how we solve problems, stating “the sub $500 3D printers is a huge win for schools, libraries, makerspaces, hobbyists, and industry as it allows us to solve problems in entirely new ways. When we have a problem, technology exists to solve it. The rise in open source hardware and software is democratizing access to tools and innovation.”

The CEHC UAlbany Makerspace is equipped with Prusa i3 3D printers  and AutoDesk Fusion 360. The Prusa i3 is based on the open source concept, and offers pre-built as well as build your own printers. Leczinsky describes Prusa printers as rugged and easily fixable - noting that with the amount of use the 3D printers in the makerspace get, the ability to print new parts when repairs are needed makes them ideal.

Students in Leczinsky’s courses, as well as students using the makerspace as hobbyists, are engaged in a number of projects as they learn to prototype products for real world problems. As students advance in their skills, the focus turns to solving problems big and small. From designing storage solutions, to creating vent covers for the makerspace’s laser cutter, Leczinsky explains “we may be creating low impact unexciting things, but the idea of customizing to solve your own problems is the focus.” Not all projects being created in the space are low impact, however.

Matthew Tyler, a recent graduate of the Emergency Preparedness and Homeland Security program, is working with local first responders to prototype and develop parts and modifications for first responder’s drones. The intent of the project is to develop modifications for existing drones to allow for additional sensors, actuators, and parts. According to Leczinsky “In one case, the part designed allows responders to attach lights to the drone so they can illuminate an area and provide better situational awareness and safety for the response team.” Leczinsky went on to describe additional projects such as equipping drones with speakers so that first responders can engage in two way communicate when responding in emergencies, or developing actuators that would allow first responders to use drones to drop life saving medical supplies, or even life rafts. Once the prototypes are approved, Leczinsky estimates they will be deployed across New York State to equip more than 200 drones with additional functionality, and will be used in daily emergency response activity. 

Leczinsky explains “with reasonable computing power, and cost effective tools, anyone can learn to solve simple and complex problems. The underpinnings of our space are to help users learn to do just that.”

Choosing a 3D Printer 

3D printing applications at the PreK-12 and college level offer opportunities for students to engage in real world problem solving, building, design, coding, and critical thinking skills that can be applied to 21st century problems. Choosing the right 3D printer for your students can lead to a world of possibility. Tech&Learning's 3D Printer Guide offers a detailed comparison of the best 3D printers for the education environment today. Not sure that a 3D printer is your best choice? Check out Tech&Learning's look at 3D printing pens for education. 

How It’s Done: Using Tech-PBL to Reach Struggling Students

Using tech tools to enhance project-based learning helped one teacher personalize lessons and reach all her students, regardless of knowledge gaps and multi-level abilities. 

Who: Lacrecia Terrance, M.Ed—theEduProject, Lead Consultant/CEO PBLWorks, National Faculty Member, 4th/5th Grade Teacher 

Where: EBR Readiness Elementary School, EBRPSS Baton Rouge, LA 

What: Using PBL and Tech to Motivate Struggling Students 

I teach fourth and fifth-grade students at an alternative center for students who are at risk and have behavioral issues. With this group of students, it is important to have engaging activities that keep them motivated. Teaching struggling students with learning gaps led me to research different strategies and tools to interest students and hook them into wanting to learn. To address multiple-ability levels and differentiate instruction, I implemented Project Based Learning. My PBL projects are strategically planned to connect to students’ personal experiences using tech such as; Flipgrid, Youtube, Quizizz, Anmito, Flipgrid, Spark, etc. This has allowed students to be more creative and provides them with more opportunities to take ownership of their knowledge and understanding. 

After getting to know my students’ interests, strengths, and challenges, I start with a video from Youtube and SchoolTube to give exemplars for the learning objectives for the day. This sparks student interest and inspires them to try things they have not done, leading to deeper discussions and extending their thinking. I then use Quizizz activities to assess understanding of the information and content. The first time the students saw me pull up Youtube on the Promethean board, they said, “Oooh, you’re gonna get in trouble.” Their previous experiences prevented them from viewing computers as a learning tool. The very first video I showed was a music video of their choice and had students critique it. This is where it all began and students were hooked.

Positive Results

Agency and Excitement! When I walked into my classroom, I saw great anticipation and a desire to learn. Reflecting back on my first impression, these students cared less about school and felt that everyone had forgotten about them. Just observing the growth, agency, and confidence of each student helped confirmed using PBL and high-quality dynamic tech tools to be an effective approach to reaching ALL students, especially struggling students.

The Biggest Challenge

My biggest challenge was keeping them from watching inappropriate music videos and not focusing on the lesson objective. I needed to teach them how to be responsible digital citizens and what that means. Students were only accustomed to being left alone on the computer or earning time on it as a reward for good behavior. To overcome this obstacle, my involvement became key to provide them a purpose for each online tool. I used Minecraft to connect them to a team-building activity. Students had the opportunity to play their favorite game while I modeled how tech could also accomplish learning objectives for the day.

Finding Funding

Many of the programs are free and some can be found on ISTE teacher resources. Others, such as FlipGrid, Google Classroom, and Clever, are funded by the school or district.

Pro Tips

Get to know your students and provide opportunities to include their voice. Many students feel like passive participants in their learning and the key is to give them relevant authentic experiences. ISTE has five competencies of digital citizenship that I use to guide my understanding to give students a greater opportunity at success: inclusive, engaged, balanced, alert, and informed.

Tech Tools

• PBLWorks.org
• ISTE.org
• Google Classroom
• Flipgrid
• Youtube
• Quizizz
• Anmito
• Spark
• Gallup
• Clever, an instructional portal to store all of my online digital resources for my students.

Vernier Software & Technology has partnered with SAM Labs to teach middle school students coding and computational thinking skills through data-collection STEAM activities. Students can use a variety of Go Direct sensors with SAM Labs STEAM Kits and the Google Workbench programming canvas to collect real-time experiment data and bring their SAM Labs projects to life. 

SAM Labs STEAM Kits are available in three versions based on class size and provide all the materials teachers need, including teacher-created lesson plans, step-by-step activities, and comprehensive technical support. Once students build their projects using the kits’ programmable SAM Blocks, they can connect the Go Direct sensors using Bluetooth® wireless technology in Google Workbench and build Blockly programs that make the hardware interact. 

Teachers will be able to access a new series of free Blockly coding activities in Google Workbench that interact with Vernier sensors. These activities are designed to engage students in science, develop coding skills, and practice peer collaboration. In an introductory activity, students integrate Vernier sensors with Google Sheets and SAM Labs blocks to design an experiment to explore the factors that affect electromagnetic strength. Each of these activities comes with complete teacher resources and materials to help them get started teaching these important skills. 

Vernier Go Direct sensors that are compatible with the SAM Labs STEAM kits include the Motion Detector, Force and Acceleration Sensor, Sound Sensor, 3-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor, and Temperature Probe.

To learn more about the Vernier and SAM Labs partnership, visit www.vernier.com/sam-labs.

Who: Kyle Crawford, Technology Education Teacher 

Where: Coxsackie-Athens Central School District, NY

What: Using maker tools to design and build a classroom cell charging station

Most of our high school teachers have implemented a “cell phone parking lot” that allows students to store their cell phone in a single location in the classroom. One of the Coxsackie-Athens’ English teachers suggested the charging station concept as an extra incentive for students to store their phones. This project offered a great design challenge for the Design Process unit I typically do with my Drawing and Design for Production (DDP) students. I provided a design brief outlining the problem at hand and the constraints that they would need to follow. The class split into five small groups to brainstorm as many solutions to the problem as they could. 

The walls of my classroom are whiteboard from floor to ceiling. Each group was assigned an area and created dozens of thumbnail sketches of their ideas. Students then chose the optimal design within their groups and created several scale models of their design solution. The class as a whole voted on the final solution, and I helped them create a CAD model from which to build the first prototype. Students then headed into our wood lab to utilize woodworking tools to build the prototype cell phone charging station.

Positive Results

This project only scratches the surface of the maker tools that our students have available to them, so doing something of such high natural interest offered a gateway to further involvement for not only the 68 students in the class, but others. Students enrolled in the Advanced Manufacturing pathway have access to two 3D printers, a laser cutter, electronics test equipment, four Haas CNC machines, four manual machine tools, three welders, a foundry, a CAD/CAM computer lab, and a fully equipped wood lab. This variety of maker tools has significantly increased the rigor of our courses, and has ultimately raised the bar of student achievement. 

Challenges and Solutions

The major challenge with this project was allowing each student to have a role during the prototype build, in a way that they all learned the skills involved. The solution to this issue would be to allow several groups to build different iterations of the prototype. 

Finding Funding

This project was funded by the Coxsackie-Athens High School Technology Education Department budget. 

Pro Tip

I would suggest allowing the student groups to develop more than one prototype to allow for more hands-on skill development if the time can be dedicated to it. I would also suggest allowing this to become a CAD drawing project if the time is available.

Tools Used

Autodesk Fusion 360 CAD Software

Lenovo P310 Thinkstation

Haas CNC machines

CAD/CAM computer lab

3D Printer - Tiertime Upbox

Laser Engraver - Full Spectrum H-Series 20x12

Electronics Equipment - Mastech M9803R Multimeter, Mastech HY1802D Power Supply Manual Lathe - Acer 1440G Engine Lathe

Manual Mill - Acer E-Mill

Horizontal Bandsaw - Cosen MH-1016

TIG Welder - Eastwood TIG 200 (220V)

MIG Welder - Lincoln Handymig (110V)

Arc Welder - Lincoln AC/DC Arc Welder (220V)

Foundry - Johnson Gas Model 900 Crucible Furnace

Miter Saw - DeWalt 10" sliding compound miter saw

Table Saw - Sawstop Cabinet Saw

Bandsaw - Jet 16" Bandsaw

Bandsaw - Jet 14" Bandsaw

Belt Sander - Jet J-4300 Belt sander

Planer - DeWalt 12.5" Planer

Cordless Drill - DeWalt 20V Brushless Drill Driver/ImpactFor

Charging Station:Cardboard/Hot Glue for model building, 1X - 24” x 48” x ½” Plywood, 1X - 12” x 24” x 18 Gauge Sheet Metal, Scrap wood of uniform dimension for phone kickstands, #8 x 1” Wood screws

One of the first things the Chief Opportunity Orchestrator (COO) needs to decide before integrating entrepreneurship into the classroom is the structure of their Education Corporation (EdCorp); the type of model the COO will use to run their business. The main variables to consider when picking a model is the number of students you see and the frequency with which you see them. For example, as a sophomore English teacher, I saw kids every other day for 90 minutes. Because I saw kids so frequently and for an extended period of time, I let them start and run their own businesses. When I started the Fair Haven Innovates program at Fair Haven, I saw every kid in the school – more than 600 students – once every six days. Because I saw kids so infrequently, it was best if we all ran an EdCorp together. Having taught with so many different schedules and class sizes, I’ve found that there are three structures that work best for integrating entrepreneurship into your classroom:

FH Gizmos: The Amazon-Style EdCorps

In FH Gizmos, students set out to find and solve problems and then sell the solutions. All students are part of a product team and when they have a product ready to sell, it goes up on our line store. When a customer visits the website, they see all of the solutions FH Gizmos product teams have created. Like Amazon, FH Gizmos is a marketplace.

I am in charge of FH Gizmos. Students create the products while I handle most of the day-to-day operations of the EdCorps such as marketing. When it is time to sell a product, it is marketed as part of the FH Gizmos family of products. The FH Gizmos model is focused primarily on the design of new products and the experience of collaborating in teams. 

If the entrepreneurial process is new to you as an educator, this EdCorp structure can be a great way to get started as it eases the class into a more student-driven environment while allowing the teacher to retain most of the control. 

FH Grows: The Whole-Grade EdCorps

In FH Grows, students sell herbs and produce to restaurants and community members in our town. Every student is responsible for maintaining our gardens. When we have downtime in the garden, my seventh graders are responsible for growing our business. Teams take on a “department” role in areas they are interested in. I choose to let students stay in these departments as long as they like because growing student passion and developing expertise is important for middle schoolers. You can, however, rotate students through departments if you want them to try out each department. 

The Design department is responsible for creating products for FH Grows to sell. The design department surveys the community to get a feel for what they might want to buy. Students have come up with products such as upcycled planters and garden ornaments, holiday flowers, spring vegetable starters, catnip bags, worm farms, and organic seed packets. The Design team is responsible for using our design process to create new and exciting products to sell alongside the produce we harvest from our garden. 

People can’t support your business if they don’t know it exists. Our Marketing department is responsible for developing creative, engaging ways to tell the community the FH Grows story which lets them know that we’re open for business. It is a two-step process. First, students find the customers that make up our target market using market research, customer segmentation, and community outreach. Once we know who and where our customers are, students advertise our story with a call to action to encourage customers to buy our products. 

Once people know our EdCorp exists, the Sales department is responsible for closing deals and generating revenue by helping customers see the value in our products. Whether potential customers visit our website, contact us via email or social media, or even send in a handwritten letter or note with their child: it is the job of the sales team to reach out and make contact with customers. They then move customers through our sales cycle. After a purchase, the sales team is responsible for gathering customer feedback, encouraging future purchases, and generating new leads to explore. 

The Design, Marketing, and Sales departments can’t be successful without the Finance department. The finance department is responsible for tracking sales and making sure our financials are in order. They manage our ledger, inventory, and work with stakeholders in our district to make sure we have the money we need when we need it. Often, the finance team is tasked with using their creativity to minimize expenses and maximize revenue in FH Grows, which takes critical thinking and creative problem-solving. For example, one of our best selling products in FH Grows is our worm farms. Students start the worm farm for customers and then give it to customers along with a guide on how to maintain the worm farm and harvest the worm castings for fertilizer. We sell the worm farm for $150. In the beginning, we were only making 33% profit off the worm farms. Not satisfied with the low margin, the finance team found a new worm supplier, explained to them that we are a student-run business, and were able to secure a discount, which brought our profit margin over 50%. 

An EdCorp that includes a large group of students or an entire grade and is structured like FH Grows sees the COO move to a support role. The level of control you want to have in this environment is totally up to you, but you can’t have total control (nor should you want it). In FH Grows, student teams work together to come up with ideas to grow our business. Then, they pitch them to me and the rest of the students. We hold all-hands meetings where we look at our Business Model Canvas, as a simplified, one-page version of our business plan and decide on next steps. My vote, so long as students aren’t proposing something completely egregious, counts just as much as their vote. While I give my thoughts about a proposal, I’m often outvoted. I’m ok with that since half of the time the ideas I’m outvoted on end up doing well – which is awesome. Students feel empowered and make sure to let me know that their idea worked despite my protests. The other half of the time, the idea fails miserably, and that’s fine, too. Failure is a fantastic teacher, and I try to capitalize on these teachable moments as we break down why an idea failed and if there is anything worth saving about the idea. 

FH Leads: The Incubator EdCorp

In FH Gizmos, my sixth-graders answer to me (and their customers, of course). They follow the vision I’ve laid out for FH Gizmos and focus on creating products rather than running the business. In FH Grows, my seventh graders take on more responsibility as they make grade-wide pitches they think will help our business grow. In this whole-class, whole-grade EdCorp, students take on more ownership of the business since we run it together. In FH Leads, our incubator-style EdCorp, students take full ownership of their learning because we do not run a business together; they start and run their own business. 

A business incubator is an organization designed to accelerate the growth of other businesses. In FH Leads, my goal as the COO is to help students start successful businesses that they can take with them when they graduate from middle school. 

Students start by picking their teammates or co-founders. Next, students find a problem and develop a product or service to solve that problem. When students have a prototype of their product, they do user testing. A user is someone who will benefit from a student’s solution. If you develop a better dog leash, you wouldn’t test it with someone who doesn’t own a dog. User testing consists of putting our prototypes in the hands of users to get feedback. They watch users with their prototype and take notes on how the user reacts to the prototype. They ask users what they like about their prototype, what they would change, and how their prototype compares to the product they are currently using. After a lot of user testing, it is time for students to bring their product or service to market. Student teams create a Business Model Canvas to outline the next steps for their business. When they have a sound business model, they can apply for a business grant to help get their business off the ground. If I approve the grant, I will give them between $50-100, real money, to get their startup going. Students are then responsible for the continued design, marketing, sales, and financing of their business. If I have total control in FH Gizmos, I give up total control in FH Leads. Students are solely responsible for their business and its success. 

To this end, as the COO of FH Leads, it is important that I provide advice and feedback, but also opportunities to hear from others’ advice and feedback as well. I open up FH Leads to business owners in my community and experts I find worldwide. I have a pool of talented business professionals locally and abroad that can mentor students. Between my support, these mentors, and the experience they’ve gained in FH Gizmos and FH Grows, most of my eighth-grade startups are able to turn a profit before they graduate. 

In my experience, starting a business isn’t in every student’s wheelhouse. Even though I make it well known that FH Innovates classes are about disrupting the status quo, I still have students who aren’t comfortable with being their own boss. Some kids are afraid of failure, others are afraid of success, and some can’t find the creative confidence to build a business around solving a problem they care about. That is why if some students in FH Leads don’t want to start their own business, they can help a local, small business owner grow their business. If students choose, they can team up with a small business owner – almost like an intern – and help solve the challenges their business owner faces. If students don’t want to work for themselves, they have the option to work for someone else. Either way, students are put in a leadership position as they finish out the FH Innovates program in the FH Leads EdCorp, where they are pushed to find the agency needed to be responsible for their own success. 

Picking the model that is right for you comes down to how comfortable you are giving up control, class size, how often you see your kids, and experience level of students. The Amazon style EdCorp sees a teacher remain in control of the EdCorp. The decentralized style EdCorp puts the teacher on equal footing with students as they make decisions together. Finally, the EdCorp as a business incubator sees the teacher give up control so students take complete ownership of their businesses and learning. Choose the one that is right for where you are in your EdCorps journey, even if it changes as you get more experience being the COO.

Until Next Time,

GLHF

On this blog I’ve shared thousands of web tools, apps, and resources that are free or offer a freemium option for teachers. However, I’ve been asked by several educators what recommendations I have for STEM labs, makerspaces, and technology classes. Below are six products that engage students, promote hands-on learning, and spark creativity. Also, students of all ages love learning science, math, engineering, and programming with these products. Most are reasonably priced for a kit that can be used by an entire class for several projects and lessons. The products are easy to manage, store, and work for K to 12 learners. These products also come with a great support team, support materials, lesson plans, and activities. Even if you are just a beginner these products are easy to learn and implement. These companies did not pay me or ask me to write about them. I just have tinkered with them and truly enjoyed these products.

• Best 3D Classroom Printers
• How It's Done: Remote STEM Learning
• Remote STEAM Learning with LEGO Education Bingo Boards

Recommended STEM Products

• littleBits– These kits come with electronic building blocks that are easy for students to put together and come up with so many different innovations and creations. Students start by coding simple circuits then are inspired to invent with open challenges. Teachers have access to a standards-aligned curriculum. Although the kits are recommended for grades 3 to 5, I’ve used them with 2nd graders and known teachers who use them with middle school students.
• Makey Makey-Makey Makey is an invention kit that inspires K to 12 students to transform everyday objects, like bananas and play dough, into awesome inventions. Students learn about coding, engineering, circuits, and more!
• Sam Labs– K to 5th grade students program the small bluetooth blocks (wheels, sensors, lights, switches, fans, etc.) from the STEM kit to invent and build so many different projects. I love the curriculum materials and resources that are standards-aligned and come with easy to edit and engaging warm-ups, assessments, and slides. The curriculum walks students and teachers through the entire process of programming and building and helps them learn the science, math, and concepts behind each project.
• Raspberry Pi– This is a low-cost, high-performance computer that students use to learn programming, solve problems, invent and innovate.
• LEGO Education– For decades LEGO has created products that inspire PreK to 12 students to build, imagine, and invent. Now students can program and animate what they build. LEGO has several competitions throughout the year to inspire learners of all ages to solve real-world problems with their inventions.
• Lulzbot Mini 3D printer- 3D printers can be very expensive. Some charge for their software or are expensive to fix. This 3D printer comes with free software and provides students and teachers with simple instructions on how to 3D print parts that break.
• Hello Ruby– Many makerspaces are in libraries. Hello Ruby is a series of books that helps students understand coding and programming. The books are translated in 24 languages. The website provides teachers and learners with engaging projects and activities.

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is a Technology and Computer teacher, education consultant, and author of books including Hacking Digital Learning Strategies: 10 Ways to Launch EdTech Missions in Your Classroom. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

1 A Template to Help Students Tap into Their Genius Potential
Set aside class time each week for students to work independently on a project related to their interests or passions.

2 21 Things Every 21st-Century Educator Should Try This Year (2019 Version)
This update of a 2014 list will help us grow as learners and educators. Try one or two of these fresh ideas in your classroom this year.

3 Makerspaces A to Z: Impactful
Resources to create meaningful makerspaces that are powerful learning environments.

4 Google Slides for “Lab Reports” (Update)
Streamlining the slide template with instructions, video, and rubrics.

5 AV Goes Accessible
The innovative use of AV features to benefit all students is making learning more inclusive.

6 Is Your Chromebook Care Policy Complete? Here’s How to Amp It Up
Tips for thinking beyond the legal aspects of device care.

7 The Best Chromebooks of 2019
The best Chromebooks now are not just more powerful than ever, but they’re also more flexible and boast longer battery lives.

8 Back to School with Sphero Robots
Cool programmable robots transform the way kids learn and create through coding, science, music, and the arts.

9 20 Sites/Apps Every Teacher Should Try for Back to School
Games, assessments, puzzles, keyboarding, math practice, digital canvas, and more!

10 5 Things You Need to Know About Kahoot’s Summer Update
New features for this highly engaging way to connect students with content in the classroom.

Anyone who is familiar with my work knows that my focus is not on products or materials or supplies for a makerspace and that I have written extensively instead about the research, pedagogy, and best-practices surrounding maker education.  Stocking our makerspaces is a reality though, so for the past several years, I have released my Top Ten Makerspace lists. In this post, I have chosen to focus on an item that we have had in our makerspace since the very beginning- Spheros.  For those who are not familiar with Sphero robots, they are a company that makes undeniably cool programmable robots and educational tools that aim to transform the way kids learn and create through coding, science, music, and the arts.

Seven years ago, when we got our very first Sphero robot, we were enamored by the fact that we could even just control the robots with our phones, and admittedly, it at first, often did not go deeper than that.  Both my students and I quickly discovered, however, that Sphero robots offer limitless opportunities, and can oftentimes lead to deep investigation and discovery, through inquiry.  Along the way, I also read two blog posts written by Ross Cooper, The Problem With Prepackaged STEM Products‘ and ‘How to Transform Step-By-Step Directions Into Inquiry‘, that transformed my thinking about how we can use products like Sphero robots in a makerspace.

One of our favorite Sphero robot activities were when we created Sphero robot art as a part of a photography unit in which students were experimenting with various photography techniques.

As we head into another school year, I have chosen to highlight some other stories about how educators are using Sphero robots in unique and interesting ways.

The students of high school science teacher, Mike Mohammad, designed Sphero Robot Chariots.

Details of this engaging, meaningful, student-centered activity are here.  Another perspective from that project, comes from Andelee Espinosa,  a special education teacher who co-teaches with Mr. Mohammad.  In her blog post, she focuses on the inclusion aspects.

Educator Sean Russell created Project SASsafras, which helps students apply computer coding skills to real-world, hands-on activities, using a Sphero robot, an iPad, and CodeSnaps from Curriculum Pathways.

Educator Jen Kaelin challenged her students by creating various geometric shapes on the floor using tape, and her students created code for the Sphero robot to trace the shape, without losing touch with the tape, in one try.

Fellow New Jersey educator @LionsHistorian has a club called Students Teaching About Technology (STAT), where they embarked on a poaching coding project that a student expert created the criteria for, based on goals she presented.

Educator and #SpheroHero Julie Willcott combines the digital with the analog, and believes that the hands-on with the minds-on deepens the learning. In Physics, her students have used Sphero robots – with differently coverings – to evaluate the impact of friction on motion. They have also dropped the Sphero robot in coverings designed to provide collision protection; the live sensors provide measurements of motion for the falling robot.

English teacher Mr. Richard Perry uses various Sphero robots in his 9th and 11th grade English classes to foster text analysis. The Sphero robots are tied to the analysis of literature such as The Grapes of Wrath, The Martian, and also makerspace research projects.  He began by using Sphero robots as a tool to teach empathy and created a model of the Sierra Nevada mountains and assigned a robot to a group of four students. This group was their family, and they needed to get the robot across the country to California, just like the migrants had to travel to California in the Grapes of Wrath. The vast majority of the groups failed. So they learned that, yes, it was possible to have that much bad luck. The big stand out in the class was that a visually impaired in the class, had the most success!  He examined the model with his hands and was able to determine how to correct program the robot to overcome the challenge. The lesson the empathy that year was magnified because the students were able to empathize with the characters, but also see the value of a member of society that they might have otherwise written off as a liability.

Educator Leah LaCrosse has been using Sphero robots with her students since 2005, tells us on her blog that Sphero robots are not about the coding, and offers a extensive list of resources and activities, including her top ten Sphero robot moments, that are worth taking a look at!

Maker extraordinaire and educator Nathan Stevens has students make wooden mazes for Sphero robots, with 2 successful paths and a few dead ends.  The lengths of pieces of wood are in multiple of 3s and students have to code their way through the maze, but they have to make 3″, 6″, 9″ and 12″ pieces work.  The main part of the experience is the math to make the maze work. He points out that this is a great activity to involve parents.  Students draw out maze on paper and then scale up on the wood.; parents do the cutting.

Computer Science educator Greg Murray and his students used Sphero robots to calculate angles, manipulate mazes, and explore planetary rotations. For an end of the year activity, they built battle bots. Sphero robots were placed under red cups that were designed to knock over an opponent’s bot. Those bots were then placed in an arena. After each round, students could learn from what was observed and adjust their bots as needed. Throughout the lesson, he witnessed students discussing strategy and enjoying themselves immensely.

Every Sphero robot product is a blank canvas for kids to build and create. They are innovative and functional, yet simple and intuitive in design, which is why we have had them in our makerspace since the beginning.

If you purchase the Sphero robot BOLT 15 Pack now, you’ll get access to Sphero Robot Fundamentals, a self-guided 90-day course on all things Sphero!

If you purchase the BOLT Power Pack, you’ll receive their Code Mat and 20 activity cards.

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

SAM Labs

Kids use block code and wireless blocks to program, design, and create

Pros: Students will love the hands-on creation process and interactive features that bring their designs to life.

Cons: The site is slow to load, and costs for the various blocks and kits can add up quickly.

Bottom Line: With some perseverance, it's a great fit for PBL and STEAM, helping students learn programming skills and engineering concepts through invention.

Read more.

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed byCommon Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

Thanks for checking out my #MakerspacesAtoZ blog series.  In case you missed it, you can catch my previous posts here:

A:  Aspirational

B:  Boring

C:  Combinatory

D:  Disobedient

E:  Enterprising

F:  Fundamental

G:  G.O.A.T.

H:  Human Algorithm Design

Nearly eight years ago, I embarked on my makerspace journey.  Although I established our first makerspace around then, it has taken me all these years to continue to develop my body of work, to help to ensure that our makerspace and others, continued to evolve and flourish.  In 2018 , I published my second makerspace book, The Kickstart Guide to Making GREAT Makerspaces, driven by the philosophy of not just creating makerspaces, but creating GREAT makerspaces, ones that are are unique, meaningful, relevant to their school communities, as well as sustainable into the future.  In that book, I outlined what I determined to be the 7 attributes of a GREAT makerspace: Inspiring, Intentional, Personalized, Deep, Differentiated, Empowering and Equitable.  When we integrate these attributes, we create exponentially powerful learning environments.  I still stand by those attributes, however, for this post in my #MakerspacesAtoZ blog series, I have chosen an honorary 8th attribute of a GREAT makerspace, Impactful.  As I continue to find ways to level up my own makerspace work, I have realized just how important impactful, in terms of our makerspaces, is.

Makerspaces that are impactful are not a new idea, in fact, I have written before about this Maker Care program, created by Islip, NY Library Media Specialist, Gina Seymour.  Over the past year, I also have discovered the work of Steve Sostak and Aaron Moniz, of Inspire Citizens who through their Empathy to Impact approach, help infuse the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, global competence frameworks, and media literacy into project-based inquiry, design thinking, curricular standards, language objectives, and 21st-century learning. With their work in mind, I launched a makerspace initiative in Nigeria, Making the SDGs, in partnership with my friend and colleague, Jacob Sule, which aims to empower and support students/youths in rural Nigeria to help to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, through a network of makerspaces.

In addition to creating makerspaces that are impactful, we can help others be impactful, as well.  For example, here at Worlds of Making, with the help of donations through a fundraising campaign, we were able to MAKE a difference by raising funds for libraries in Texas affected by Hurricane Harvey.   We also contributed to maker educators’ DonorsChoose.org campaigns.

Need help making an impact through makerspaces? Check out this #EveryClassroomCounts campaign from Advancement Courses, in partnership with DonorsChoose.org, which aims to help students and teachers in need. Between Aug. 14 and Sept. 27, Advancement Courses will donate 10% of all sales to DonorsChoose.orgprojects. All educators, not just maker educators, are encouraged to submit their DonorsChoose projects for funding consideration from Advancement Courses. Last year they donated nearly $50,000! This campaign runs from Aug. 14-Sept. 27, so don’t miss out!

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

Last month, I was part of the Teach with Tech conference. I was asked to give a twenty minute overview on what makerspaces are and how teachers can get started with making. I wanted to share my video here for anyone who may be interested. In this video, I cover the basics of what a makerspace is, show off my makerspace, and give you some tips for starting your own makerspace. If you use this video along with the Edtech List, you’ll have a good idea of what’s in my makerspace, how I use it, and how you can get started with making in your classroom, too.

Enjoy!

cross-posted at Teched Up Teacher

Chris Aviles presents on education topics including gamification, technology integration, BYOD, blended learning, and the flipped classroom. Read more at Teched Up Teacher.

Slapping the term STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and maths) on a toy, even one with questionable educational value, has become a popular way for companies to convince parents a product is worth buying their kids. That’s rarely the case, but amongst all the noise there are a few companies producing toys that can genuinely help foster a child’s mind and make learning enjoyable, including Kano, whose DIY computer kits have been upgraded to full-fledged PCs running Windows.

Back in 2014, Kano’s first DIY computer kit, a Kickstarter-launched £150 Raspberry Pi-powered system running Linux and a custom front end, helped introduce kids to the basics of how a computer was assembled, and what one could do with it through a collection of easy access programming apps and games. It could also run Minecraft, an easy way to drum up interest in computers among the younger set, but not much else.

A few years later, Kano introduced a £280 Computer Kit Touch, an all-in-one touchscreen system that introduced additional hardware concepts like how the touch sensing screens on smartphones and tablets worked. It was also powered by a custom Raspberry Pi unit, but introduced a rechargeable battery so it was portable like a laptop. As with the original version, assembly didn’t require soldering irons, or having to learn the artful skill of applying thermal paste to a processor. It instead provided a basic knowledge of the various components inside a computer, and how they all work together.

Kano’s latest DIY creation is called the Kano PC, and it’s effectively exactly that. Instead of a Raspberry Pi, it’s powered by a 1.44 GHz Intel Atom x5-Z8350 quad-core processor with 4GB of DDR3L RAM and 64GB of storage which can be further expanded with a microSD card. It’s got dual band wifi, Bluetooth, a pair of USB ports, and a headphone jack (yay!).

Its 11.6-inch touchscreen can be supplemented with an external monitor using the Kano PC’s HDMI port, and its detachable keyboard almost makes this seem like the most affordable Surface touchscreen laptop on the market, because Kano has officially partnered for Microsoft with this one. So instead of running Linux with a custom front-end, it actually runs Windows 10 S, which is the lite version of the OS designed for systems like this that don’t have a lot of processing horsepower to spare.

The kit still includes Kano’s STEAM-focused apps which help introduce kids to advanced concepts like coding using accessible games and fun activities, but it also comes with a 3D painting app that can produce 3D models compatible with a 3D, and Microsoft Teams, because it’s never too early to introduce your kids to the joys of corporate life. Microsoft is even including a copy of Minecraft: Education Edition, but the Kano PC will also have access to the Windows app store. Which means, yes, it can run Office as well. Who knows, maybe your kid will fall in love with PowerPoint?

The Kano PC will be available in October, and despite the hefty upgrades over the previous £280 touchscreen kit, this version will cost just £20 more at £300 ($375). It’s not quite a super cheap alternative to a Surface laptop or tablet, however. The easy to assemble DIY components mean the Kano PC ends up a little bulky given its specs, but it’s a great first computer for kids that will potentially still be useful for homework once they hit school.

Featured image: Kano

cross posted at Gizmodo.co.uk

Workbench

Find and assign STEAM tasks with dynamic project-based learning hub

Pros: Lessons that are ready to use and easy to assign provide opportunities for teachers to differentiate and for students to think critically.

Cons: Many lessons require investment in a variety of partner technologies, and feedback capability is limited.

Bottom Line: Dynamic resource for finding, creating, and rating lessons that support STEAM and PBL.

Read more.

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed byCommon Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

DFRobot, robotics and open source hardware provider, brings its STEM education resources to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference and Expo from 24 – 26 June in Philadelphia.

DFRobot will showcase its hands-on learning resources including the full suite of Boson Kits, micro:Maqueen, Max:bot, LattePanda, Mind+, Gravity and Internet of Things Kits.

DFRobot and its team, including CEO, Ricky Ye, can be found at Stand 956.

From our friends at Gizmodo/UK

Whether you're teaching future engineers, mathematicians, or scientists, these are the educational toys that'll get your students' cogs turning. 

Kano Harry Potter coding kit, $124.99

Tech is basically magic, and this kit really brings that to life. You build your own wand, and use it to learn to code in simple steps with over 70 different tasks. The wand reacts to your movements, and once you've mastered the coding steps for different spells, you can start creating your own. [Accio / buy it here] 

Why this matters:

Learning stalls if teachers can't engage kids' attention fully.  From coding to robotics to music-making, these top edtech toys not only grab kids' attention, but also guide them in creating the tools they need to master tricky concepts in the classroom. Use these toys in a makerspace environment or as part of any STEM-focused lesson. To learn more about the top education tech toys and where to buy them, read the full article on Gizmodo/UK.

Gizmos & Gadgets

Top-notch tool empowers kids to invent, build, and control wirelessly 

Pros: Kids have incredible flexibility and independence as they invent with littleBits.

Cons: Attaching pieces to the mounting board can be tricky, and costs increase as kids need different Bits for new creations.

Bottom Line: Easy-to-use, versatile electronic invention set that works wirelessly with your hand-held device. 

Read more here. 

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

I recently was fortunate enough to co-present, along with Dr. Robert Zywicki and Dr. Rebecca W. Kreider, at the Rutgers Center for Effective School Practices, Tri-state Project Based Learning Summit.  Our presentation was titled, Makerspaces & PBL…Perfect Together.  What prompted this presentation topic is this question I am asked frequently by educators: 

Makerspaces, PBL, Genius Hour, etc…not enough time, feel like one needs to be chosen to do, but which one? 

Although many educators are interested in progressive ideas such as Makerspaces, STEM Labs, Project-Based Learning, Inquiry-Based Learning, and Genius Hour, many are left feeling unsure of how to integrate all of those things into their practice, and oftentimes feel they have to pick between these things, mostly due to time constraints. 

In a previous blog post, I wrote about a concept named ‘Combinatory Play‘. Essentially Combinatory Play is what Einstein called putting unrelated thoughts, topics, images, and ways of thinking together to generate new concepts.  It allows you to find connections between randomly selected objects, words, pictures, ideas, etc in turn creating new, fun, innovative concepts and ideas. 

 Combinatory has become an essential feature in makerspaces.  With this in mind, along with the question above, you don’t necessary have to choose between Makerspaces, STEM Labs, Project-Based Learning, Inquiry-Based Learning, Genius Hour, and similar initiatives, but instead can create a learning environment that leverages all of those things and leads to deeper learning.  If we think of makerspaces in terms of a learning environment, they can be a physical laboratory in which all of those progressive ideas can exist. There will be times in which you will pull in elements of STEM Labs, Project-Based Learning, Inquiry-based Learning, and Genius Hour, into your makerspaces, combining and recombining characteristics and principles of all of these things, morphing our spaces into something new and unique, when we do so. 

Projects

In researching the origins of Project Based Learning, I discovered that n 1918, W.H. Kilpatrick, wrote an article summarizing the features of a ‘recently developed education method’ known as a ‘project‘.  This was defined as an activity based on pupils’ interests and undertaken by them with a firm purpose of broadening their experience and learning something seen by them to be worth the pursuit. The earliest form of project based learning I could find was based on this idea of a project and was outlined in something something called, ‘The Project Method‘, which looked like this:

• Children choose something to do (guided by teacher)
• Make/do something to bring about the results they desired
• The curriculum at any given moment is constructed out of the purposes and needs of the students

PBL Defined

The Buck Institute of Education defines standards-focused  PBL as, “A systematic teaching method that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks”.

Makerspaces Defined

I define a makerspace as a unique learning environment that encourages tinkering, play, and open-ended exploration for all.  When planning and creating a makerspace, it is critical to remember that what we are really creating are unique learning environments. 

What pedagogy, curricula, activities, and experiences foster 21st century learning?

PBL is the Pedagogy.

Makerspaces are the Learning Environment.

What we need to unpack as educators, are ways makerspaces (the learning environment), can support PBL (the pedagogy).

The first step in looking at the relationship between the two, is to translate pedagogy into the learning environment.

So what does this look like in terms of PBL and makerspaces? 

Makerspaces are hands-on project work environments. 

Makerspace —> PBL Space

Proctor Elementary School in Vermont uses their makerspace to teach students to use new tools for their PBL work. 

We ‘do’ PBL.

Many schools “do” PBL, though the practice should be different from school to school.  I always say that no two school makerspaces should be exactly alike, because no two school communities are exactly alike, and the same should be true with PBL.  Offering unique PBL experiences that lead to creation of a unique physical or digital product is a powerful way to bring maker learning to your students.

Use PBL to start making.

Use making to start PBL.

Making experiences can lead to inquiry-based, authentic PBL-related learning experiences for students, giving them the opportunity to dive deeper into complex challenges. 

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School.

6 years after creating our first makerspace, it only makes sense to publish a post that focuses on 6 steps for creating a makerspace. 

Step 1:  Create a personal philosophy for what making means.

6 years later, I have learned that what makerspaces are should be deeply personal to those who create them.  With many still too hung up on what to buy for their spaces, even more paramount to that is taking the time to uncover exactly what making means to you is a key first step in creating a makerspace.  Doing so, will help guide all of your makerspace decisions, including what to buy, if anything at all. 

Step 2:  Plan and create a library makerspace that is grounded in research and evidence-based practices. 

Something I am most proud of, is that my first book, Worlds of Making, is focused solely on the research and best-practices for planning and creating makerspaces.  This does not discount the expertise of individual educators, but rather means integrating individual expertise with the best available evidence from systematic research.  The conscientious use of evidence in making decisions about the learning environments we are trying to create a key to creating spaces that will have the greatest impact on our students, not only for now, but also into the future.  The evidence and research by themselves, do not make all of our makerspace decisions, but they help lay a strong foundation and support us through the process of planning and creating a makerspace. 

Step 3:  Design a library makerspace (both physical and digital) that supports making principles and engenders constructivist learning theories.

My second book, The Kickstart Guide to Making GREAT Makerspaces, identifies key making principles, including the 7 attributes of a ‘GREAT’ makerspace. As anyone who has read my books knows, I define a makerspace as a unique learning environment that encourages tinkering, play, andopen-ended exploration for all. With this in mind, it is important to remember that what we are really trying to create is a unique learning environment.  Unique learning environments require unique pedagogical approaches, and in the case of makerspaces, they engender constructivist learning theories, as outlined in my first book.  It is critical to identify ways a makerspace can support constructivist learning theories and how constructivist learning theories can drive our makerspace designs. 

Step 4:  Propose a range of strategies for assessment of skills in a makerspace, including digital badging.

Makerspaces, as unique learning environments, afford us to the opportunity to seek out unique assessment methods.  In a maker environment, it is important to find ways to acknowledge the granular skills students gain as well as ‘soft skills’- things such as teamwork and communication skills.  We have an opportunity to not only assess in the traditional sense, but to give students credit for skills they gain, allowing them to stack skills and grow and refine them over time. 

Step 5:  Propose ways to unleash student creativity with innovative tools and maker project ideas. 

I firmly believe that one of the most significant roles we have as maker educators is to provide the conditions to inspire our students to want to make and create, as opposed to always forcing them to make. I always say that I feel like the wizard behind the curatin in the Wizard of Oz, working hard to unleash creativity and to keep our space fresh, meaningful, relevant and inspiring to our school community. 

Step 6:  Evaluate various models for making and creating, including the design thinking process.

Providing models to guide our students through the process of making and creating has distinct benefits, and there certainly are many of them out there, including the design thinking process.  Some students may identify with one over the other.  Our ultimate goal should be to support our students to ultimately take ownership of their making, and uncover their own process for making and creating.

With these 6 steps in mind, I am happy to announce a new course that I have created  called “Makerspaces in the School Library“.  This course takes a deeper dive into these 6 steps and more!

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

Four years ago, when I started a makerspace at my current school district, I knew I wanted to introduce my middle schoolers to coding. I had taught coding to a small group of high schoolers in an informal, club-like format before, but I’d never taught coding in a formal classroom setting. I was excited to teach my first coding lesson. I prepared slides and some sample Scratch projects to help students through the lesson. Then, not knowing any better, I introduced coding to students as a whole class lesson.

It wasn’t long into the lesson when I knew I was in over my head. Some students had used Scratch before and were far beyond the introductory lesson I was giving. Other students didn’t even know how to turn on the computer and navigate to the Scratch website. The rest of my students fell somewhere on that novice/expert spectrum. I couldn’t keep up with all the kids asking for help. I had to go and tend to each student individually. Other, more proficient students, raced forward or grew frustrated having to wait for the lesson to continue because I was helping students catch up. My first coding lesson was a disaster. 

As teachers, what do we do when students bring such different levels of experience to a lesson like coding? Before teaching in a makerspace, I was an English teacher. One of the first lessons I taught students back then was how to write a good thesis. I taught the thesis first because it was something students would need to use all year. But every time I assigned an essay, I had students who couldn’t remember what a thesis was. Instead of reteaching the lesson over and over again, I made a video that retaught them about the thesis. Students could use the video when they needed, as many times as they needed, and since I didn’t have to reteach the thesis lesson I was free to help students with deeper learning. If creating videos worked for my English students I wagered it would work to help my students learn to code. 

I apologized to students in our next class. I said I wanted to reteach them the coding lesson, but this time I was going to do it through video. Students logged on, watched the videos I had made for them and uploaded to YouTube, and moved at their own pace through the assignment. They would pause or rewind the video as needed. Because I wasn’t doing whole class instruction, I was free to move around the room and help students as needed. 

The lesson went so much better than my first. I had found the secret to teaching coding to everyone: self-pacing. By allowing students to move through lessons at their own speed, whether through video or online dashboard like Google’s CS First or Codecademy, removes a lot of the frustration for kids because they can take their time. At the same time, by offering a reference video that allowed students to advance at their own pace, I could provide the personalized support each student needed for the lesson. 

By integrating video and online resources into your coding lessons you can meet students where they are and keep them moving at their own pace. This way we can give them the kind of personalized instruction that supports the student-centered learning we value for any lesson.

Chris Aviles is a teacher at Knollwood middle school in the Fair Haven school district in Fair Haven, New Jersey. There he runs the Fair Haven Innovates program he created in 2015. Read more with Chris’s work on his blog TechedUpTeacher.com. 

Today at the FIRST® Championship,  LEGO® Education and FIRST unveiled two new, exclusive LEGO sets created specifically for the  2019-2020 FIRST®  LEGO® League Jr. and FIRST® LEGO® League season. LEGO Education also announced today that its newly released LEGO Education SPIKE™ Prime with the new SPIKE™ Prime Competition Expansion Set can be used along with LEGO®MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 in FIRST LEGO League. LEGO Education SPIKE Prime and the SPIKE Prime Expansion Set can be pre-ordered todayin the U.S. and will be available around the world in August 2019.

The new sets for the 2019-2020 FIRST LEGO League season are based on the theme of architecture and are titled BOOMTOWN BUILD℠” and CITY SHAPER℠. The 2019-2020 FIRST LEGO League Jr. BOOMTOWN BUILD Inspire set will reach more than 130,000 children, ages 6 to 10* from 41 countries and the 2019-2020 FIRST LEGO League CITY SHAPER Challenge set, which includes a new competition mat, will reach more than 320,000 children, ages 9 to 16*, from nearly 90 countries. Students are tasked with completing a challenge designed in partnership with architects and engineers and use a variety of LEGO Education products, including LEGO Education WeDo 2.0, LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 and the newly announced LEGO Education SPIKE Prime and SPIKE Prime Expansion set.

As a teacher, it is very hard to not answer student questions. Yet, if we want students to own the inquiry, it is important to practice “answer restraint” in order to promote not just student answers… but more great student questions. As we all know, children are born with a natural inquiry  and those first five years are a gold mine of inquiry, questions, and wonderment! As children enter school they soon learn to stop asking questions, and instead look to the teacher for answers!

In a world filled with so much instant information, it is important  to teach students to ask even more questions as they seek possible answers. So many times we talk about “lifelong learning” and its importance to personal adaptability in a rapidly changing society and workplace. It is developing student skills to ask good questions while seeking out more questions, and eventual answers, that are at the foundation of “life-long learning”! It is only when students own the inquiry that they also begin to own, direct, and self-regulate their own learning. At this point, learning becomes both passionate and authentic. The question remains, how do we as educators make it happen? Please take a moment to reflect on some of the major ideas and resources I have listed below. I am sure as you find answers, you will also begin to have even more questions. Embrace this idea, as it will lead to even more answers and even deeper understanding.  Enjoy the journey!

1. Discover QFT at The Right Question Institute -QFT, known as Question Formation Protocol is a simple way of promoting inquiring through collaborative groups of students. It incorporates the simple steps below and will allow your students to own the inquiry process while reflecting on their questions.

• Brainstorm Questions
• Identify questions (open and closed)
• Advantages of open and closed questions
• Rewrite an open to closed and a closed to open
• Prioritize
• Investigate

Visit the Right Question Institute to learn more and discover some wonderful educational material.

2. Explore Habits of the Mind – It is really is time to promote metacognition at get your students to think about thinking. It is only when this takes place that real learning happens. At the Habits of the Mind Institute, you can take a moment to become familiar with these important “Habits of the Mind” that will encourage the important thinking and metacognition to support “genuine learning”.

3. Read Driving and Investigative Questions -A unit of learning should start with a question that promotes more questions while also uncovering the standards. You can learn more about constructing Driving and Investigative Questions at this prior 21centuryedtech Post. Just remember that these are constructed for your students to answer.

4. Establish a Classroom Wonderwall – How about constructing a class Wonderwall where students can post their wonders? These can be tied to the curriculum or provide the foundation for student owned inquiry research. Take a look at this Edutopia article providing ways to incorporate the idea in the classroom.  It really can help build a culture of wonder.

5. Practice the 5 E’s – This is a model that allows for some teacher explanation, only after some student exploration and inquiry. After-all some concepts do need an engaging teacher lecture to encourage understanding. You will find the 5 E’s below in this included link from NASA along with further explanation.

6. Include a Genius Hour – Teachers across the country are finding ways to put that Google 20% in their classroom, while still supporting standards and 21st-century skills. This Genius Hour site might just help you get started in providing students the opportunity to learn how to learn, while practicing self-regulation. Best of all, it supports that important voice and choice along with spiraling inquiry!  It really encourages that important Maker’s Culture.

7. Establish a Maker Culture – The idea behind the Maker Culture includes allowing students to question, imagine, envision, create, innovate, play, learn in a formative manner, experiment, collaborate, share, and most of all dream of possibilities. I have numerous posts in regards to the Maker Culture and suggest this four-part Maker Series at 21centuryedtech with background and a goldmine of resource links.

8. Examine Inquiry Based Learning -Learning through inquiry can be powerful when done correctly under proper constraints. The standards must be kept in mind, and when needed, a proper explanation must be provided.  (5 E approach above). Edutopia provides some wonderful ideas and possibilities.

9. Incorporate PBL – Project Based Learning is a wonderful approach providing students with ownership in their inquiry and learning. Not only that, their final answer after many questions provides authenticity and can make a real world difference. To learn more about Project Based Learning a visit to the PBLWorks (BIE) is must journey. As a member of the BIE National Faculty, I am sure you will find a wealth of resources, research, and ideas!

10. Facilitate inquiry with Internet Resources –  You will find some amazing opportunities such as the ones below. Can you add to the list?

• Smithsonian Learning Lab
• Wonderville
• Nova Labs
• Wonderopolis
• Answer Garden  

cross-posted at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com

Michael Gorman oversees one-to-one laptop programs and digital professional development for Southwest Allen County Schools near Fort Wayne, Indiana.   He is a consultant for Discovery Education, ISTE, My Big Campus, and November Learning and is on the National Faculty for The Buck Institute for Education. His awards include district Teacher of the Year, Indiana STEM Educator   of the Year and Microsoft’s 365 Global Education Hero. Read more at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com.

In an interview last week, I was asked what my education superpower was. As I sent off my answer, I realized I’ve never formally written about my education superpower. This is surprising because my education superpower forms the basis of what I believe about education. I wield my education superpower like Thor’s mighty hammer when I teach. My education superpower can be felt in most of my writing, but only shows up by name in five posts on this site. Within those five posts where I speak its name, I’ve never defined my education superpower or talked about how and why I use it. I think it is time to right this injustice and share my education superpower: my education superpower is tangential learning.

Tangential learning is when you watch the movie 300 and are so into it that you later go research the real battle of Thermopylae and the Spartans role in it. Tangential learning is when you start off by playing Rock Band and later become inspired to learn to play a real instrument. Tangential learning is when you teach The Starving Time at Jamestown to students through the Hunters episodes of the Walking Dead. Tangential learning is learning about volume and exponential growth while building a worm farm. Tangential learning is teaching fractions and ratios through cooking or making bath bombs. Tangential learning is teaching writing, math, and getting kids active in gym using Fortnite. Tangential learning is the process by which people self-educate around a topic if it is exposed to them through something they already enjoy. In other words, people will be motivated to learn faster and deeper about a topic if they already care about how you’re delivering it to them. Tangential learning is the point of high interest or excitement people gravitate towards. This video on tangential learning by Extra Credits was key in helping me grow my tangential learning superpower especially and inspired a lot of the theory around my gamification guide.

Tangential learning is not only my education superpower, but it is also forms one of my core beliefs about education: we should be teaching students through what they love. Both when I taught high school and now that I run Fair Haven Innovates, I make an effort to teach students the lessons they need to know and the skills they’ll need to be successful by using the things that they already love. In FH Innovates, students run real businesses that turn a real profit. The whole idea of teaching through entrepreneurship was inspired by students I had four years ago. Four years ago, I started a makerspace at Fair Haven. Students soon noticed that we had all these products lying around in the makerspace, so they suggested we started to sell them. A couple years later, my entire program has grown into an innovative program that still centers on entrepreneurship. Through entrepreneurship students learn design thinking, computer science, engineering, finance, marketing, financial literacy, sales, and a host of skills like team work and communication. Students who would be reluctant coders, for instance, are much more willing to code if they need to build a website to sell their art or make an app to solve a problem they care about. Math is a lot more fun for students when they’re counting their hard-earned money.

Further, Tangential learning is a great way to build relationships with students. To know what your kids love, you have to get to know them. We know, as Rita Pearson said, kids won’t learn from teachers they don’t like. The only way to get to know what students care about is to get to know them! To let them know you love what they love! Just the fact that you are taking time to get to know students and then using what they love to try and teach them things is enough to get students to engage deeper with their learning because they know you care.

Tangential learning is also the best tool for helping students become lifelong learners. Showing students that a lesson or skill we expect them to learn can already be found in the things they love will help students see learning everywhere they look. Making learning real and relevant through tangential learning can change how students view their world and themselves. For example, a few years ago I started a school store with two 3rd graders. The store was open Tuesdays and Thursdays during lunch. After a couple weeks, the store was so popular we needed to hire more workers. Instead of asking for the best math students in 3rd grade, I went to the principal and asked for the four students who hated math the most. My theory was that these students may not like math out of a textbook or worksheet, but I bet they would love to do the math needed to run a business. It turns out, I was right. My third graders were adding up revenue, subtracting costs, keeping track of credits and debits on a spreadsheet, figuring out profit, and (with a little help) learning percentages as we figured out profit margins. The fun and pride that came with running the store along with wanting the store to be successful had my reluctant learners eager to do math.

Tangential learning is a great way to bring project-based learning into your classroom. Often students don’t know what they are passionate about or it is hard for you to turn a lesson into a learning experience that features something everyone in your class likes. Why not ask them? Using project-based learning you can empower students to construct their own tangential learning experience. You can also build up to PBL by asking students to show you what they’ve learned in a way that they care about. Ask students to use the skills you’ve taught them in a way that means something to them. Can they teach fractions using Minecraft? Can they blog instead of write an essay? Can they create a video, comic strip, song, or board game instead of take a test?

Even if tangential learning isn’t your superpower, I’m sure we can agree that it deserves a place in your teacher toolbox. Dive in. Find out what your kids care about and teach them the stuff they have to learn to in ways they want learn. How many more students can you get to fall deeper in love or back in love with learning just by using what students love to teach them what they need to know?

Until Next Time,

GLHF

cross-posted at Teched Up Teacher

Chris Aviles presents on education topics including gamification, technology integration, BYOD, blended learning, and the flipped classroom. Read more at Teched Up Teacher.

I just read a fantastic book called Algorithms to Live By:  The Computer Science of Human Decisions, written by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths. Many educators associate the word algorithm with computer coding and rarely talk about algorithms in any other context.  Because an algorithm is just a sequence of steps used to solve a problem, they actually have applications far beyond the world of computer science.  The authors of Algorithms to Live By, point out that the word "algorithm" comes from the name of a Persian mathematician al-Khwarizmi, author of a ninth-century book of techniques for doing mathematics by hand.  They go on to explain that algorithms are not confined to mathematics alone, and offer several examples, such as following a recipe or knitting.  

A common methodology to solving problems that is used in maker education is the Design Thinking Process, which we have seen many iterations of.  In addition to these processes, I wrote a post about a physics framework, called 'First Principles'.  I would like to throw another problem solving process into the makerspace mix.  In Algorithms to Live By, the authors explore an interdisciplinary way of thinking called human algorithm design, which essentially means searching for better solutions to the challenges people encounter every day.  It gives us a new way of approaching and solving problems around us, and as the authors state, it gives us something even more profound:  a new vocabulary for the world around us, and a chance to learn something truly new about ourselves. 

I am looking forward to putting this into practice as a piece of our 'Making the SDGs' project, which is focused on empowering and supporting students/youths in rural Nigeria to help to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  As a part of this project, we will be putting our Hands-On Coding blocks into the hands of students there to help guide them through the human algorithm design process. It is our hope that applying the lens of computer science will help the youth of Nigeria tackle problems in their local communities and have impact on a large scale.

How will you provide opportunities in your makerspace for your students to think algorithmically about the world?  Share your thoughts at #makerspacesAtoZ.

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

Pennies made after 1982 are ~ 95% zinc with a plated copper exterior. Thus, a penny contains two metals and can, if manipulated properly, be converted into a battery. See video below:  

 This video is LEGIT, and upon seeing it, my gut was to provide students with this video, the materials, and let them go at it as an introduction to our unit on energy in Biology class. (Mitochondria metaphor, etc.). 

Then I remembered the research on curiosity! The goal is to intentionally withhold the IDEAL amount of information.

Pique interest, but create suspense. Provide enough information as to not demotivate, but leave enough out as to keep the learner guessing.

The below "inverted U" graph of Curiosity vs. Knowledge (knowledge confidence), provides a great visual.

Inspect it carefully.

Have all the info. Not curious. Have no info. Not curious. Withhold the ideal amount. Curious.  

 So, back to the initial activity. I fear that if I give students the above video, as awesome as it is, the activity will transition from science to "arts and crafts".

I fear that by providing the video, I will provide too much information, push students to the far right of the "inverted U" and minimize curiosity.

DESPITE how engaging the activity is! 

The engagement lies not in the video quality, or the task, but the anticipation of what will happen. 
The frustration in not knowing exactly what will happen, or how to do it. 
The tension that is built when the instructor perfectly provides and withholds.
The cognitive reward the learner receives when that tension is revealed.
We all love solving riddles. 

This is the true "Call to Adventure". 

So here is what I'm going to do instead. 

Step 1: Tell students that electrons can flow spontaneously through a material when two different metals are connected through a conductive solution. 

Step 2: Tell students that pennies after 1982 are plated with copper. 

Step 3: Provide students with the exact materials shown in the screenshot from the video above. Include the video title "How to Make a Penny Battery from Start to Finish" in the below image as a strategy for pushing students directly under the "inverted U" shown above.  

Step 4: Challenge students to light the LED using only the materials provided in the above image. Remove internet privileges to ensure that information is strategically withheld and students do not look up the above video. 

Step 5: Play the above video. 

Step 6: Treat this as the first  two"Es" (Engage and Explore) in the 5E Learning cycle. Continue on with lesson. Etc., etc.

cross posted at www.cyclesoflearning.com

Ramsey Musallam teaches science and robotics at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, with the aim of fostering inquiry-based learning environments   fueled by student curiosity. He presents widely on sparking student curiosity and teaching with technology. Musallam is a Google Certified Teacher, a YouTube Star Teacher, and a Leading Edge Certified Teacher. Watch his   TED talk here and read his blog at www.cyclesoflearning.com.

I recently listened to a Freakonomics podcast called “The Future of Meat”, yes, meat. Although seemingly unrelated to makerspaces, there were parallels to my makerspace journey.  For example, in the podcast, it was suggested that the only way to truly disrupt the meat industry is to build a better meat from the ground up. ``This is the exact mindset I had when I wrote my second book, The Kickstart Guide to Making GREAT Makerspaces.  The goal of this book was, and still is, to help K-12 educators (and beyond) plan, build and create not just makerspaces, but GREAT ones, from the ground up.

With that in mind, a thought crossed my mind this week that we’ve all spent a lot of time throwing around the term “G.O.A.T.” these days (Greatest. Of. All. Time.), particularly in relation to the history of sports.

According to Google, these are some of the G.O.A.T.s in the history of sports.  

Tiger Woods. Sport: Golf

Tom Brady. Sport: Football

Michael Phelps. Sport: Swimming.

Serena Williams. Sport: Tennis.

Pele. Sport: Soccer.

Muhammad Ali. Sport: Boxing.

Wayne Gretzky. Sport: Hockey.

Michael Jordan. Sport: Basketball.

Babe Ruth. Sport: Baseball.

G.O.A.T. is an acronym now used in relation to more than just athletes, but humanity, video games, restaurants, etc., so how can we push our thinking and our work ever further than my book suggests, and not just plan, build and create GREAT makerspaces, but the G.O.A.T.?

While I definitely would like to think Claude Lemieux and Lenny Dykstra should be on the above list ;), determining the G.O.A.T. in terms of athletes is not a subjective as it may seem.  For example, ESPN uses unique metrics that factor in attributes of athletes, such as speed, power, reaction time and more.

So what are our metrics as educators, in terms of makerspaces?  Would they focus more results and not facilities and resources? What about the equality of results, and not in terms of how much money a school spends on a makerspace, but by how much those makerspaces have taught and meant to the students, and the equality of opportunity?  What mechanisms can we put into place that could assure equality of results, disregarding the fanfare for ‘the stuff’, and instead focusing on the actual impact? What strategies could be carried out to reduce the differences in educational opportunities that makerspaces provide, rather than perpetuate them?  Can makerspaces do more? Can they make educational outcomes less dependent on money than they are now?

What factors should we as educators consider when planning, building and creating a makerspace, with the goal of trying to create the G.O.A.T.?  Share your thoughts at #makerspacesAtoZ.

Thanks for checking out my #MakerspacesAtoZ blog series.  In case you missed it, you can catch my previous posts here:

A:  Aspirational

B:  Boring

C:  Combinatory

D:  Disobedient 

E:  Enterprising

F:  Fundamental

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

In October, Tech & Learning Magazine shared the first article about DIY (Do-It-Yourself) professional learning opportunities that are available for educators interested in earning certificates or becoming a product ambassador while exploring digital tools and resources. In this second article, you'll find three DIY learning opportunities for best practice in edtech and coding: 

EDTECH TOOLS & RESOURCES

Epic E-Books Certified Educator  [FREE]

https://www.getepic.com/educators

Epic has over 25,000 e-books, learning videos, and quizzes for K-5 students. As an educator, these amazing e-books are free to use! Teachers have the ability to create collections and assign those collections to students to read. Teachers also have the ability to import their class rosters into Epic from Google Classroom. Students and classes can earn badges along the way. Becoming an Epic Certified Educator requires a series of easy-to-complete activities such as reading your first book, logging-in students, assigning reading and creating quizzes. Teachers receive a digital badge to showcase their accomplishment. 

CREATING & CODING

Vidcode Creative Coding Certified Educator  [FREE]

https://about.vidcode.com/professional-development-course

Vidcode is a web-based platform that teaches JavaScript coding through media creation for students in grades 3-12. Become a Certified Educator by completing 4 hours of videos and activities related to creative coding, and sharing their experience at a conference or in-school workshop. Teachers get a digital badge, a certificate that they can use to apply for PD credit at their school, and access to a community of certified Vidcode educators. 

PEDAGOGY & BEST PRACTICE

Nearpod Certified Educator  [FREE]

https://nearpod.com/certified-educator 

Nearpod is an interactive lesson delivery  platform for active student engagement. To become a Nearpod Certified Educator, complete a 3-stop process that includes attending a training (live webinar, self-paced-webinar, or in-person), create a lesson, and launch it to at least 15 students. The benefits include access to a closed Facebook group for collaboration. In addition, educators receive upgraded access and support; and the opportunity to become a Nearpod Leader. 

 Andrea Tejedor is the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction & Technology, at Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District in New York. She is an educator, researcher and consultant who presents regionally and nationally on leadership in the educational technology arena.

Sheri McNair is the Library Media Specialist at the James I. O'Neill High School and the Head of Library Services for her district. In addition to teaching information literacy and technology integration at the high school, she is a Google Certified Educator Level 2 and serves on the district’s technology team and the inquiry facilitation team.

Math STEM Resources

MathSite – You will enjoy this amazing interactive journey in math. The exhibits found at MathSite are intended for people of all ages who are interested in or are curious about mathematics. No specialized mathematical knowledge or special expertise is assumed. You will find it a place to see, hear, and do mathematics.

Emergent Math – Looking for ideas that just might spark a PBL math idea? Emergent Math is dedicated to brainstorming interesting and dynamic math problems and projects. The facilitator of the blog is employed by the New Technology Network of Schools. The posts really do allow for real mathspiration (inspirational combined with math). As stated in the blog, “interesting math problem/project can come in the form of a picture, a video, a tweet, something your child says, etc”. This blog really does attempt to use all of the preceding ideas, plus more! The posts generate ideas on how these concepts just might fit in the classroom and/or provide some driving/guiding questions. The best place to begin your exploration is at the first page of the blog and read the index! You will enjoy your immersion in Math!

Three Act Math Tasks – This is a wonderful collection of Math Tasks made to help students really understand Math by Dan Meyer and others.

Desmos – Their mission is to help every student learn math and love learning math. We accomplish that goal by building products and partnerships.
Check out a best-in-class HTML5 Desmos graphing calculator, which millions of students around the world use for free, including students who are blind or visually-impaired.  Discover hundreds of digital activities.

Exploring Space Through Math – This amazing NASA site promotes inquiry through real world applications. Students assume the role of NASA scientists, engineers and researchers who work in teams to accomplish tasks. These projects promote cooperative learning, problem-solving and the use of technology. The problems in this project follow the 5-E’s Instructional Model with a segment for each phase of instruction – Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend and Evaluate. The projects cover the scope of Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, and Precalculus.

Geogebra – Get this free online math tools for graphing, geometry, 3D, and more!
Estimation 180 – A site created to build number sense one day at a time. You will find all kinds of ideas and lessons.

Annenberg Learner Math Lessons – Annenberg Learner uses media and telecommunications to advance excellent teaching in American schools. This mandate is carried out chiefly by the funding and broad distribution of educational video programs with coordinated Web and print materials for the professional development of K-12 teachers. The math lessons could be a footprint to a PBL unit or scaffolding for an entire PBL. While at the site… take a look at the interactives.
Figure This – This wonderful site is the work of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in cooperation with the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Widmeyer Communications, and the Learning First Alliance.  Its mission is to challenge middle school mathematics and emphasizes the importance of high-quality math education for all students. While it was created to allow for family interaction, it is also figures into the Math PBL classroom. The site allows students to have the opportunity to face some every day real life math challenges.

• Top 50 Math Sites and Apps
• Using Digital Math Tools To Increase Student Achievement

Rich Math Tasks – This site from the UK has some amazing math tasks that will be sure to engage your students and promote math understanding.

NZ Math – These rich learning Math ideas come from New Zealand. They represent both the procedural and conceptual approach.

Mathematical Moments – Authenticity is important in Math PBL. It seems that Math educators are always looking for ways they can show how math is used in the world around us. Discover a site that will help you achieve this goal of real world application. The site is cleverly titled Mathematical Moments and it is well worth the time! It contains free printable posters that are 8.5″ x 11″ PDF documents. These informational posters are available on many different topics in science, nature, technology, and human culture. As you take a closer look many of these posters note that many have a  link to some short feature podcast interviews with experts in the field. These posters and podcast could spark the idea for a PBL math unit that brings authenticity into your math teaching.

MIT Blossoms – All of the lessons in the MIT Blossoms library have been contributed by BLOSSOMS partners from around the world. There is a watch the Teacher’s Guide Video Segment included with each lesson to learn more about it. The final segment of each BLOSSOMS video lesson is a one-on-one conversation between the teacher and the “virtual teacher.” Best of all, these lessons can be part of a PBL unit. The provided link brings you to the Math (English Language) Section.

Get The Math – Get the Math is about algebra in the real world. See how professionals use math in music, fashion, video games, restaurants, basketball, and special effects. Then take on interactive challenges related to those careers.

Mathalicious – While this is a paid site you will find several free projects on the homepage. Perhaps you will find that the paid lessons are really well worth it!  This site does demonstrate that math is about more than just numbers and equations. Students find that math is a tool to explore the world around us. Mathalicious provides teachers with lessons that help them teach math in a way that engages their students–in a way that helps students understand how the world works. Lessons are aligned to Common Core Standards and explore real life questions.

TedEd – The makers of TED… these really are some wonderful flipped lessons with formative tools built in. These are definite lessons worth sharing! You can even make your own.

CK12 – Not only are the free flexbooks amazing  you will also find simulations, PLIX, and Adaptive Practice This is an organization raising the bar with interactive learning activities and practice that adapts to individual student performance.
How to Smile –  Discover this group of science museums dedicated to bringing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) out of the academic cloister and into the wider world. Find new ways to teach kids about math and science.  Discover activities that meet you where you live, whether your “classroom” is an active volcano, the shark tank at the local aquarium, or your own kitchen table. SMILE is collecting the best educational materials on the web and creating learning activities, tools, and services.

Khan Academy – Help every student succeed with personalized practice. 100% free.
Find standards-aligned content and assign practice exercises, videos and articles
Track student progress and best of all join millions of teachers and students

NRICH – The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.

Illuminations – Illuminations works to serve you by increasing access to quality standards-based resources for teaching and learning mathematics, including interactive tools for students and instructional support for teachers.

PHET – This simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder creates free interactive math and science simulations. PhET sims are based on extensive education research and engage students through an intuitive, game-like environment where students learn through exploration and discovery

CanFigureIt – Created by teachers, this highly interactive tool provides an easy-to-use work space where students can practice proofs while exercising their deductive reasoning muscles.

Hub Page – This page contains some great PBL ideas in the area of math. Once you visit be prepared to stay awhile.

Less Helpful Math – Great blog filled with engaging and real world resources. The author Dan Meyer provides out of the textbook ideas that will make math authentic.

Share My Lessons – Welcome to a place where educators come together to create and share their very best teaching resources. It was created by teachers for teachers. It is a free platform giving access to high-quality teaching resources.  It provides an online community where teachers can collaborate with, encourage and inspire each other.

PBL Pathways – This is a website dedicated to Math and PBL. In the supplied link you are directed to the PBL Projects. Here you will discover some project ideas covering many areas of advanced math. Each is a complete project that you may wish to include. Please be sure to read their Terms of Copyright Statement when using the materials.

Curriki Algebra – This is an Open Education Resource (OER) Algebra course that consists of five units aligned to the Common Core. Each of the units culminates in a project that utilizes mastery of conceptual understanding taught in the individual lessons. These units include:Unit 1: Relationships between Quantities and Reasoning with Equations
Unit 2: Linear and Exponential Relationships
Unit 3: Descriptive Statistics
Unit 4: Expressions and Equations
Unit 5: Quadratic Functions and Modeling

Math and Sports – What an amazing website from Cambridge University! These free online mathematical resources explore math and science through sports. These resources include activities designed to develop problem-solving and mathematical reasoning skills for students aged 5 to 18. You will also find  articles aimed at older students. Also, be sure to visit  video maths challenges which is produced with input from Cambridge by BBC Two Learning Zone. Another must visit site includes activities on Maths and Football (European style). It is possible to discover articles and activities that are arranged by Key Stage. The site also allows the user to access  tabs at the top of the page, or view content by sport or topic.

Plus Magazine – That is right… it is a magazine. Another plus… it is free. Most important it is all about the world of Math. This is a wonderful resource that will bring the authentic world of math to your students. Stories and activities can be a scaffold in a PBL Unit or possibly the catalyst for an entire project. This is one that I could have spent an entire post on.

Mathematics, Learning, and Web 2.0 –  “Mathematics, Learning, and Web 2.0” is written by Colleen Young. Her posts provide thoughts and ideas in a very math practical manner. It is a wonderful blog that will allow any math teacher to dream up a new PBL, or scaffold an activity inside an existing project!. Not only that… it is just wonderful reading… so enjoy!

SAS Curriculum Pathways Math – While SAS contain free curriculum for many areas be sure to check out some great math possibilities all for free.

Real World Math – Welcome to a collection of free math activities for Google Earth designed for students and educators. Mathematics is much more than a set of problems in a textbook. In the virtual world of Google Earth, concepts and challenges can be presented in a meaningful way that portray the usefulness of the ideas

PBS Learning – You will find thousands of multimedia possibilities in the math portion of the PBS site. Get ready to search!

NCTM Real World Math – Visit this collection of previously published articles from Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School and Mathematics Teacher that make strong connections between mathematics and other disciplines. The articles contain activities, experiments, investigations, or problems that are appropriate for use with middle school or high school students. Many of the articles can be adapted for use with students at different grade levels or in different kinds of courses.

Education World – Check out this article filled with  online collections of real-world math activities, math activities with a specific real-life focus.

Graphing Stories – Check out these 15 second videos and then get your students graphing!

OER Commons Math – This is a large collection of online resources that are part of the open education resource field.

Math Snacks – Smart educational animations, games, and interactive tools that help mid-school learners better understand math concepts.

WolframAlpha – This is an amazing search engine based on data and mathematics. If you think the search engine is amazing then check out their educational site. There are some amazing resources.

Gap Minder – Explore this amazing world of data. Do you want to use Gapminder tools in your classroom? Check out our resources on this page and the downloads page to get started. You are free to use them today in your classroom!

Math Lessons – this site has some great lessons by Robert Kaplinsky. Make your own PrBL with these ideas.

CT4Me – This site has some awesome resources to take a look at for teachers of math. You will find all kinds of ideas including thoughts on PBL and Math.

Math Hooks – The goal is to introduce challenging, inquiry-based activities to every middle school math classroom in order to foster student participation, enthusiasm and improvement through rigorous discussion.

YouCubed – This site from Stanford University has a main goal to is to inspire, educate and empower teachers of mathematics, transforming the latest research on math learning into accessible and practical forms.

Week for Inspirational Math – These WIM lessons have been used millions of times, in every state across the US, as well as many other countries in the world. Teachers and students love the activities and mindset videos. In previous years of WIM, 98% of teachers said their students were engaged when working on the lessons and 96% of the students surveyed said they now believe they should keep going even when work is hard and they make mistakes. And that is a wonderful thing!

MAISA – Check out this data base from the state of Michigan that provides resources and lesson ideas aligned to standards. You will find rich math possibilities for students.

MARS – Classroom Challenges are lessons that support teachers in formative assessment. There are 100 lessons in total, 20 at each grade from 6 to 8 and 40 for ‘Career and College Readiness’ at High School Grades 9 and above. Some lessons are focused on developing math concepts, others on solving non-routine problems.  

cross-posted at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com

Michael Gorman oversees one-to-one laptop programs and digital professional development for Southwest Allen County Schools near Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is a consultant for Discovery Education, ISTE, My Big Campus, and November Learning and is on the National Faculty for The Buck Institute for Education. His awards include district Teacher of the Year, Indiana STEM Educator of the Year and Microsoft’s 365 Global Education Hero. Read more at21centuryedtech.wordpress.com.

In a newly expanded of edition of their book, Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, educators Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager capture the excitement of the maker movement and share the educational case for bringing making, tinkering and engineering to every classroom. 

"The bible of the maker movement in schools" includes new coverage of the BBC micro:bit, lasercutters, Scratch 3.0, littleBits, Hummingbird robotics, equity issues, and lessons from schools around the world. 

In this practical guide from Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, Martinez and Stager provide K-12 educators with the how, why, and cool stuff that supports making in the classroom, library, makerspace, or wherever learners learn. 

As schools embrace exiting new tools like 3D printing, microcontrollers, Arduino, wearable tech, robotics, and coding, Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom explores powerful new technologies, places them in a historical context, and advises educators on how to create rich learning adventures in their classroom. 

As I reflect upon my own makerspace journey, I can't help but recognize the exponential growth of makerspace products over the years.  When we first launched our space over 6 years ago, I could almost count the number of makerspace products on the market on one hand.  Since then, there has been a tsunami of products that have entered this space, and while that has been exciting to witness, it also has been daunting.  Educators are often left wondering what products they should purchase and which ones are right for their makerspaces, or even worse yet, they end up purchasing products other people do, just because they are trendy. In my Letter F post of my #MakerspacesAtoZ blog series, I touched upon the importance of 'Fundamental, not ornamental'.  It is critical to select products that work best to support your makerspace.  Be sure to check out my newest book for guidance on that.   It has become a tradition, here at Worlds of Making, to announce our top ten makerspace products each year, hoping to help expand the thinking of educators as they select products for their spaces.  We aim to select products that are unique and offer a different experience than other products in the makerspace market.  Be sure to check out our previous top ten lists.  

 I am proud to introduce to you, the Worlds of Making Top Ten Makerspace Favorites of 2018! 

1) Brickstuff

Brickstuff is the perfect way to light up Lego builds.  This starter kit includes everything you need to get started. No electronics or soldering knowledge is necessary to set up these lights and start using them right away. Each flexible 2-LED Light Strip has a self-adhesive backing, which allows easy mounting to almost any surface. The strips are flexible, allowing you to mount them even on curved surfaces. This kit also includes a battery pack, so you can be up and running right away.  This kit is ready to use with any microcontroller or robotics project too. Here is one of our creations: 

2) Unruly Splats

Movement, and the value and impact it has on learning, is a research-based practice.  This is also true in relation to STEM. This is why we love Unruly Splats so much.  Unruly Splats describes themselves as seriously fun, recess-style play that teaches kids how to code, and they are not wrong.  Their programmable floor tiles are made to be stepped on!  They pair with a tablet are preloaded with tons of recess-style play games. Kids first play the preloaded games then they change the code, ultimately learning how to code on their own through active, recess-style play.  We had fun playing running bases in our hallway at school, and completing the challenges in their app.  We even created our own fireworks show: 

3) Everblock Systems

EverBlock is a life-sized modular building block that allows you to build nearly anything.  EverBlock is the perfect compliment to any STEM and STEAM program and stores compactly in the classroom for use. Blocks allow children to explore principles of design, engineering, and mathematics in a fun and exciting way.   These blocks are so well built and what jumps out the most is their structural integrity.  This makes them ideal for collaborative building and engineering projects. Blocks are light enough for elementary students to work with easily, yet sturdy enough to build full scale, reliable, weight-bearing structures for advanced STEM classrooms.  Be sure to check out their STEM education page here.  Be sure also to check out their cardboard version here. 

4) IDEO Method Cards

With so much focus in makerspaces being on the design process, the IDEO Method Cards are the perfect companion.  These cards are low-tech and offer 51 ways to inspire design, while keeping human at the center of the process, the whole time. Each card describes one method and includes a brief story about how and when to use it. These cards are not a "how to" guide. They are a design tool meant to help you explore new approaches and develop your own. The deck can be used to take a new view, to inspire creativity, to communicate with a team, or to turn a corner.  Read more about them here. 

5) Dowling Magnets Junior Architect Wonderboard®Magnet Set

In a previous post, I outlined ways in which educators can move beyond just creating Lego walls in their makerspace, and create other kinds of interactive learning walls (and tables!).  This magnet set fits into that space perfectly.  Thus set allows children to design and construct their own imaginative building, while exploring art, spatial geometry, and engineering principles.  The set Includes 150 magnets (architectural elements), instruction sheet with designs and background information; as well as a double-sided, magnetic dry-erase board!  They also have printable magnet sheets here. 

6) AlphaBriks and MathBriks 

For those of you who read my first book, you will know that my point of entry into the maker movement was through literacy.  I am always on a quest to further integrate literacty into makerspaces.  In terms of STEM and makerspaces, I feel that Mathematics is often overlooked, as compared to the other letters in STEM.  This is why I love these AlphaBriks and MathBriks sets from StrictlyBriks so much.   

7) Mini-Materials 

The team at Mini Materials has really creating something very unique and special.  Avoiding plastics and paint, they have created mini versions of products familar to the contruction world.  Supplies like cinder blocks, red bricks, jersey barriers, pallets and lumber all made the same way their replicated versions are made. Using real cement, wood and nails these are all handmade in the USA. They are fantastic teaching tools for math and architecture.  We even built a sandbox to house the materials and allow our students to build! Take a look at the blue prints they have available too. Check out their Ultimate Sample Set here. 

8) Chalk of the Town 

This Chalkboard T-Shirt from Chalk of the Town caught my eye a few years ago now, and we have had fun with it ever since. While it may be unrealisitc to assume that every child in a school could have one of these, they are perfect for makerspace clubs or smaller groups.  Students can capture who they are as makers, and where it with pride, while at the same time, having the ability to express themselves creatively!  These shirts can be used over and over again, as they are markable and erasable. My son and I had fun with a few too! 

9) Rockwell Tools- Jawhorse

Last year, marked the first year that we got heavy into woodworking in our makerspace.  One of my students even created a shelf for my kitchen!   This portable Jawhorse Work Station by Rockwell Tools, was something my students found that said would have come in handy during that time.  With space being an issue for many educators in their makerspace, and mobility continuing to be more and more of a focus, this tool fits the bill perfectly! 

10) Hands-On Coding

While I understand the conflict of interest by including one of my own products on this top ten list, we are too proud and excited about this product not to include it!  It has been an interesting journey to be able to actually manufacture a product as a member of the amazing Hands-On Coding team!  Being three educators with over 50 years of combined experience, we realized there was a gap and a need in terms of teaching computer science, that we knew we had to fill.  Our Hands-On Coding blocks allow for a screen free way of learning the fundamentals of computer science, while also allowing children to get up and get moving and act out their algorithms.  We believe strongly in keeping the human at the center of the process and have worked hard to put these blocks into the hands of children far and wide.  Our blocks are now in countries around the world and have had a profound impact on many.  We are looking so forward to all that is ahead in 2019!  

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

College and career readiness was popularized in 2009 under the Obama administration's Race-to-the-Top initiative and it is what fuels the Common Core Standards. College and career readiness is the directive under which most government schools have been operating since then. 

The problem is that honoring, respecting, and preparing our nation for college and career readiness leaves two thirds of our nation's adults (according to the most recent census bureau statistics) as outcasts. Unworthy. Disrespected. Less than.

Most of the generation of parents who raised us and the parents of our students did not graduate college. The college and career readiness mantra is a constant reminder that they have failed in some way even if they did not feel like failures before.

Not only that, but the college degree today has become devalued. Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that the underemployment rate for recent college grads was 43.5 percent. A report issued  by the Pew Research Center found that only 46 percent of employed Millennials believe their education was very useful in preparing them for a job or career.

The dependence on college clearly is not keeping up with workforce demands.

At this year's World Maker Faire Ed Forum in New York City speaker Sarah Boisvert author of “The New Collar Workforce" explained to the attendees that educators embracing the "College for All" mindset are neglecting the majority of the population for whom college graduation is not a reality. That doesn't mean given up on students. It means recognizing it is okay if college graduation is not a goal. It doesn't need to be. 

That's because today's workforce has many positions available that don't require a traditional college degree. Instead these are skills students can learn in fab labs, maker spaces, and tinker studios. Maker educator Kevin Jarrett, gives them a more familiar name: Digital shop class. There students make things that matter using tools like laser engravers, 3D printers, robotics, and more. These are relevant vocational skills that can prepare students for what some are calling "new collar jobs." These are jobs operating and maintaining machine tools that look a lot different than the blue collar jobs of the past. Instead they have a new set of required skills. Knowing how to operate the machines commonly found in the digital shop class is key for success.  

In her work with the Fab Lab Hub, Sarah Boisvert is using a different strategy than college to prepare students for the new collar workforce. She is developing a digital badge micro-certification program that provides new collar job training. To do this she and her team spoke with 200 large, medium, and small employers in the industry. These employers said they need people with hands-on experience in making things and knowledge of how to repair faulty equipment. The exact activity that happens in these digital shop classes. 

Digital Badges for New Collar Jobs Include:

• Design for 3D Printing
• Introduction to CAD Design
• Fundamentals of SLA 3D Printing
• Troubleshooting FDM 3D Printers
• Laser Safety in Manufacturing
• Master Badges as 3D Printing Operator or Laser Service Technician are a stack of Digital Badges that certify a higher level of skill.

Digital Badges were developed by a collaboration between IBM and Mozilla. They are a secure platform to recognize achievement.

Boisvert, along with Dale Daughtery who created the World Maker Faire suggested that this college obsession was one of the factors that led to our current president being elected into office. He understood that there was a large segment of the population for whom college is not the holy grail.  He saw these people. He spoke to them. He respected them and told them they were important too. Even if they had not graduated college and even if the old factory jobs were gone, there would be new opportunities available.

Possibly influencing Trump is IBM CEO Ginni Rometty who when he was running for office, advised President-Elect Donald Trump of the importance of this new collar workforce. Her letter expressed what she shared in her opinion column for USA Today which urged politicians and business leaders to not think in terms of white collar or blue collar jobs, but to broadly consider these future unfilled positions as “new collar” jobs.

Rometty stresses the importance of looking beyond the four-year degree and instead looking to whether a potential employee has “relevant skills, often obtained through vocational training.” She explains that there is a current talent shortage in the tech industry. IBM alone plans to hire 25,000 new employees in the course of four years and that’s just one company. Code.org says we have 570,926 jobs nationwide and only 49,291 qualified workers.

A New Educational Model – Pathways in Tech Early College High School

Preparation of the workforce for these new collar jobs, many of which don’t require a four-year degree, is crucial. While the Micro credential certification Boisvert’s Fab Lab Hut is putting in place is one path, IBM has designed a new educational model that many other companies have embraced. It is six-year public high school that combine a relevant traditional curriculum with necessary skills from community colleges, mentoring and real-world job experience. The first of these schools – called Pathways in Technology Early College High School, or P-TECH has achieved graduation rates and successful job placement that rival elite private schools. 35% of students from the first class graduate one to two years ahead of schedule with both high school diplomas and two-year college degrees. 

Your Turn

How are you or your school preparing students for the new collar workforce? In what ways do you ensure all your students have opportunities to develop hands on experience? What type of new learning spaces are being embraced by your school are district? What conversations are you having with students and families about some of the new paths to success that are now available to them? 

Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several booksand her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, Tech&Learning, and T.H.E. Journal.   

Thanks for check out my #MakerspacesAtoZ blog series.  In case you missed it, you can catch my previous posts here: 

A:  Aspirational

B:  Boring

C:  Combinatory

D:  Disobedient 

E:  Enterprising

Thank you to all those who shared their thoughts about those posts using the #MakerspacesAtoZ hashtag.  Thank you also to those who shared their thoughts about Letter F words there, as well.  Letter F words shared included Flow, Fail Forward, Fulfilling, Fun, and more!  Be sure to check out the hashtag to see them all!  So many great Letter F words!

Letter F for me, represents Fundamental.  

I recently came across a blog post written by the amazing Mark Sparvell, in which he used the phrase, "Fundamental, not ornamental."  Anyone who knows my work, knows why this phrase would resonate with me in terms of makerspaces.  My work has never been about the ornamental "stuff," it has always been about the research, the philosophy, the pedagogy related to creating these unique learning environments. (To be honest, this has not always been easy, since some seem more enamored with the ornamental "stuff").  This isn't the only reason I appreciated Mark's post though.  Mark used the phrase, "Fundamental, not ornamental," in referring to social-emotional skills and the potential role technology can play in augmenting, extending and enhancing them.  I follow Mark on social media and his work in Social Emotional Learning (SEL), in addition to this blog post, has inspired me to think deeply about SEL and makerspaces.  It is his work that led my team at Hands-On Coding to launch a #MindfulCoding challenge for this year's Hour of Code. 

SEL and makerspaces is not an entirely new concept, in fact, I recently discovered that it was written about by Jackie Gerstein here, however, it was Mark's blog post that got me thinking about the meaningful, impactful connections between the two.  I think connections between SEL and makerspaces will push some maker educators outside of their comfort zone, but I also think that exploring all it can be, will impact our students in profound ways.  It is an area I will be exploring much further and doing lots of work in, so stay tuned! 

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

 In a previous post, I highlighted 6 GREAT makerspace practices that captured my attention.  Here is another group of 6 that recently caught my eye. 

 Tinkertorium Makers Mosaic 

The Tinkertorium in Toronto offers its visitors the opportunity to participate in the creation of a crowdsourced mosiac, which is contstructed based on answers to questions. This interactive mosaic has each participant map their individuality through pre-defined identifiers. The data Mosaic is a reflection of Toronto’s diverse people representing the interconnecting aspects of their backgrounds, thoughts, hopes and ideas. The mechanics which makes this visually interactive is by asking each participant to choose a color of yarn they most identify with and to wrap it around various pegs carrying relevant statements about their identity, ideas, ineterest and sentiments of attending this event. 

 Artists At Play Seattle Center Playground 

Ok, so this next one isn't necessarily a makerspace practice, however, i think this is a practice that could be very meaningful in a makerspace. In my newest book, The Kickstart Guide to Making GREAT Makerspaces, I highlighted the importance of having a vision for your makerspace and articulating that vision into the form of a mission statement. What the Artists at Play playground has done, takes that even a step further, by telling the story of their space (which is such an interesting one!) and the design that guides it.  It would be interesting to see a similar display in a makerspace, guiding participants through the layers of experiences it offers. 

 Maker Recess 

As a former elementary school teacher and librarian, I can say first hand that in many cases, elementary school recess, both indoor and outdoor, is broken.  A few years ago, I suggested integrating making into recess time, through an outdoor music station, and I am thrilled to see many schools considering this option.  Take a look at the Barrow Media Center's Pop-Up Makerspace here.  For anyone insterested in considering this option, I would like to highlight the book, Maker Recess: Using Design Thinking to Transform School Play 

 ideaX Makerspace 

 Spark!Lab 

Spark!Lab invites children between the ages of 6 and 12 to create, collaborate, explore, test, experiment, and invent. What makes Spark!Lab most interesting though is that it is in the National Museum of American History!  This is especially important for those who are interested in connecting making and the content areas.  Spark!Lab activities are designed around themes that connect science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) with art, history, and creativity!  Visitors can partake in a variety of tabletop activities that offer opportunities to explore invention and innovation in American history and experiment with relevant concepts.  They also have an Invention Hub where visitors can sketch, create, try, tweak, and sell their invention idea. Stocked with a wide range of tools and materials, the Invention Hub provides the platform for visitors to work through the invention process from start to finish. 

Maker Planning Sheet 

Increasingly popular in makerspaces are the use of STEM kits and the use of STEM challenges.  As a result, in my professional development sessions and workshops, I oftentimes focus on working with educators on transforming step-by-step directions into inquiry, as outlined in this post by Ross Cooper. With those same ideas in mind, I love this Maker Planning Sheet, shared by Emily Liebtag, which focuses on student choice and building learner agency.  On this sheet, students can have the experience of working as entrepreneurs and choosing their own products, audience, and materials needed.   

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

In my Fair Haven Innovates, I’ve been using social entrepreneurship to help expose students to design, computer science, engineering, and the digital arts as well as to help them develop the soft skills they need to be successful. In its second full year, student passion is on full display as I’ve given up even more control of the classroom to students as I’ve asked them to grow a business around what they care about with whomever they want. Students haven’t disappointed. Below is a snapshot of my 6th-8th graders businesses. I’ve asked them to share their team name, what they’re making, why they’re making it, and what they’ve learned so far, and why they like class.

FH Gizmos is our 6th grade edcorps where we form product teams that find, create, and sell the solutions to your everyday problems. In FH Gizmos, your problem is our project!
Here is what our 6th graders up to:

Team Name: JMJ Frames
Product: Custom Picture Frames
Why we made this: We decided to sell picture frames so people could have a nice place to hang school photos, graduation pictures, and more.
What you’ve learned: How to use gravit so we can make models of our frames.
What you like most about class: The constant feeling of learning something new.

Cutting Board Team
Custom engraved cutting boards
We chose to make the cutting boards because we thought it was a cool idea and also would make money.
We have learned that running a business is very hard and takes a lot of work.
I like that we can make our own cutting boards in the class and also we can sell them to people. I also like to write up things like product reviews. We learned to work in a team not in sports, how to advertise, how to be more mature and work for myself. We like the freedom.

Just M & L
Custom video intros and outros
We decide to edit videos because we enjoy it.
That teamwork makes things go better.
Working with a team and editing with them.

St. Jude’s Supporters
Beaded leather bracelets that support St. Jude’s Research Hospital.
We wanted to raise money to help support children with cancer by donating to St. Jude’s Research hospital.
That when running a business there is always more to do. I like how we get to work in groups and we have the ability to work on our own and we get to make are own decisions. I have learned that it’s not super easy to run a business. You have to work hard and focus and not goof off.

DJ Music
I make my own beats.
I thought this was fun and people like to listen to it.
I have learned how to do what I love to do by just messing around
I can do what I like to do

Wave Designs
Handmade bracelets
Because I learned how to make bracelets at camp over the summer and I wanted to sell them to others.
I learned how to create a business, send emails, make proposals, and work with having a deadline. Mr. Aviles is a great teacher who is considerate and I like the independence he gives us with our ideas.

Skype Kids
The Skype Bowl and merchandise.
We sell it because Skype is a good thing and we want to make it better.
We learned how to make a website.
I like working with Skype.

Dollors for Dogs
We are selling custom engraved dog tags. You can put any information you want on the front of the dog tag, and then on the back of the dog tags it will say I helped the ASPCA. Some of the profit will be going to the ASPCA to help the animals.
We have decided to sell dog tags because we decided that it is a product that people will want to buy for their dogs. Most people love dogs and animals, so we made a product that has to do with that.
We learned that sometimes you have to pivot on an idea.

ALC Memories.
Custom made Shadow Boxes.
We thought it was a cool idea and we could make a good amount of money with it.
How to make a business and create products and to be professional.
We love creating more shadow boxes.

[Welcome To Fair Haven Innovates]

Monopoly On The Go
We are selling a car-friendly Monopoly travel board with an app to go along with it.
From personal experience, its hard to play Monopoly or board games in the car.
It is a lot more difficult than you think to make an app.
The idea of making our own businesses and paving our own way.

Esports for Edu
We’re making a digital esports package for schools who want to start their own esports team.
We want to sell our virtual esports package digitally of course. We will make a mark on the fastest growing industry as well as taking it to a whole new level. I think we may be able to make a lot of money doing this.
I have learned about how esports work and are currently learning what goes on behind the scenes in the fastest growing industry in the world.
We like how we get to work on fun projects and sell them to make money.

Warrior Wear
We are selling bracelets that are the colors of the military and the profits go to Wounded Warrior Project.
I decided to sell this because my dad is in the military and I never knew how to say thank you, so I thought I would make the bracelets and the money could go towards the Wounded Warrior Project.
I I have learned that I have to work faster. Mr. Aviles call it hustle.
I like being able to make things

The Bean Boys
We are selling an app to make it easier for people to volunteer.
We decided to sell this because my mother is the PTA president and she says that events they host need more volunteers.
I have learned how to do some simple coding and graphic design.
I like this class because I am free to do (almost) anything I want.

Simply Beauty Box
Our group is making a subscription makeup box for girls our age because most girls, when they start testing makeup, don’t know what to do so that’s what we will show them.
Because when I started playing with makeup I didn’t know exactly how to use it so that’s what I want to show them.
I learned how to make a good business plan and pitch and that we can actually invent something useful.
I like working and making the box with my friends.

Simple Spray
Our product is Simple Spray. Simple Spray keeps ticks away!
We were inspired to make this product because one of our teammates sister has Lyme disease. We wanted to make outside activities more fun than worry.
We have learned that making a product requires a lot of hard stamina and focus because you need to be precise when making a product. We have been taking notes and finding our way through the problems that we faced during the process of making this product.
That your imagination can take control and doing what we love creating!

Sweet Relief
A stress relief subscription box for stressed students of all ages. This includes products that are student-focused unlike other subscription boxes that are marketed to adults. Our box is made by stressed students for stressed students!
Lately we have been noticing that some of our peers (and us) have been feeling the common pressure of school work. We were brainstorming ideas on how we could solve it and we came up with finding things that help with with stress relief and putting them into a subscription box.
I’ve learned the steps of making a product: empathize, define, imagine, make, and test. really helped us find our way when we were struggling.
Having the independence to do the business that YOU want not what anyone else wants. Also you get freedom to do things on your own.

In FH Grows, 7th graders learn to be stewards of the environment while leveraging technology to help our garden and business grow. We sell our herbs and produce online and in our student-run farmers market. When we’re not working in the gardens, we are solving the environmental problems of our future.

Growers
We are selling rosemary and basil to local restaurants and people in our town.
We decided to sell this because people needed it especially during the winter.
How to grow plants and how to compost.
We love working in the garden

Squirmy Virmies
We built and maintain our worm farms and sell the castings. We decided to sell that because it is a great fertilizer.
We learned that we need to be great worm parents and treat them well and fun ways to document the journey though video.
I like that we get to see the worms. They’re more interesting than we thought.

Mine Those Tacos
We sell rain gardens. One of our gardens was flooding, so Rutgers worked with us to make a rain garden. Rain gardens also help control pollution since our river is being polluted by fertilizer runoff.
We learned how to build a rain garden and why everyone should have one. We love to go into the garden.

Sister Shrooms
We are selling whitecap mushrooms to our local pizzeria because my group and I decided we wanted to learn more about them.
I have learned how to grow mushrooms and selling strategies.
I like that we have freedom to learn our own passions, but we still are guided well.

Hydroponics Team
We decided to sell basil and spinach because it works well with our hydroponics tank.
We learned that small changes can affect the plants so much. For example, depending how much fertilizer we add. We love testing the PH of our system and picking our produce.

FH Leads is our 8th grade incubator. Here, students can choose from three pathways: they can help grow a local business, create an impact project that makes a difference in their community, or start their own business that we can take with us when we graduate.

Fortnite Friday
My group and I are working together with Umbertos, our local pizza place, to get more people using their new back room. We are helping to get more people in the back room by holding a fortnite tournament.
It is hard to plan an event and there are many things to do in order to make an event successful.
That we get to work together in groups and we get to work with local businesses.

Student Lawn and Dog Care
We are selling lawn and dog services because it is something that we as a group have lots of experience and knowledge in those fields.
We’ve learned how to be an entrepreneur and have our own business and be self employed.
We love making money.

Sister Squad
We invented the School Shack, which is a store in the school where we sell different products.
We decided to invent it because when we were in 4th grade it was opened but then abandoned. It is also an issue in school that people run out of supplies or they don’t have water for a sports practice or class and they wouldn’t have anywhere to buy it.
I have learned so far how to find the best price for supplies online and how to find the unit price so I pay the cheapest for the best quality. I have also learned that with our first business, Pickleroo, that sometimes you try things and they don’t end up working out, but that has to be something that you’re okay with.
What I like most about class that I get the opportunity to try new things that relate to the world outside of school. For example, you learn how to start your own business and how to deal with setting prices and purchasing inventory. Creating your own product requires strategy and a lot of tries and fails that prepare you for an actually job you might get.

Student Lawn and Dog Care
Our group is a lawn care business that can also walk dogs.
We decided to sell that because we thought it would be a good group project since we could also make some money.
I have learned how to create a business and the steps you need to do before you actually start the business. I’ve learned how to price things, how to make flyers.
I like that we have the freedom to pick our own business.

R & E
We are creating a new urban gardening technique. We call it the urban ladder. We decided to sell this because people who live in urban areas may not have space for gardens so this ladder can fit easily along a wall and can collapse and can be moved around.
We have learned that we can work around ideas but also you might need to go back to the drawing board many times if something doesn’t work. From this you learn from your mistakes.
I like making a business and learning and developing entrepreneur skills. Also, we were able to build something which is what I like best especially involving gardens and Urban farming which I think is cool.

Luck For Pups
We are selling an interactive dog toy to improve the lives of dogs at homes and in shelters.
Luck for Pups decided to sell interactive dogs because we wanted to help both lifestyles of dogs, dogs at home and dogs in shelters. Our business helps dog in homes because it gives them something to do when their owner is at school or work all day. Our business is helping dogs in shelters because 35% of the profits go to them and they can play with our toy when they’re in their cages.
I have learned so far how to overcome obstacles by not just staying stuck on one problem and continue to work through them to be productive. I have also learned how make a product and grow a company.
I like most about class creating our business and working ourselves on how to grow it. What I like most about Innovation Lab is how we are allowed to run our own business and do what we think would be right for our business.

Beads for a Cause
Originally we wanted to go work with Riverview hospital and spread joy to the patients, but that didn’t work out. We still wanted to do something good so we decided to make bracelets and donate a dollar to cancer charity for every bracelet we sell.
I have learned how to run a business, especially how to use social media marketing.
I like running this business with my friends.

The Pilates Partners
We are advertising our local business The Pilates Project. We will help them attract more teen customers.
Because my partner and I both wanted to help them gain more teen customers because we are teens ourselves.
We have learned about the health benefits of Pilates and what its like to run a local business.
Being able to socialize with friends as well as local businesses.

I hope my students’ passions have inspired you to wonder what amazing things your students could do if given the chance. Whether you use entrepreneurship or not, chances are your kids want to do something awesome. We just have to get out of their way.

Until Next Time,

GLHF

cross-posted at Teched Up Teacher

Chris Aviles presents on education topics including gamification, technology integration, BYOD, blended learning, and the flipped classroom. Read more at Teched Up Teacher.

I recently launched a new blog series, Makerspaces A to Z. You can read all about the letter A here, B here, C here and D here. Thank you to all those who shared their thoughts about those posts using the #MakerspacesAtoZ hashtag. Thank you also to those who shared their thoughts about letter E words there, as well. Letter E words shared included: Experience, Eclectic, Ethereal, Efficacy, Emerge, Energy and more! Those who know me well, might have thought my selection for Letter E would have been Elon Musk , and while I was tempted…

Letter E for me, represents Enterprising.

I do not read many magazines anymore, but one that I read consistently is Harvard Business Review. Although entrepreneurs are oftentimes written about in their publication, I have been more interested in the pieces that focus on being an enterprising person. What does it mean to be enterprising? There are a number of definitions, including: "Having or showing initiative and resourcefulness", "Ready to undertake projects of importance or difficulty, or untried schemes", "Energetic in carrying out any undertaking", "Having the ability to think of new activities or ideas and make them work".

[Makerspaces A to Z: Aspirational]

Enterprising is oftentimes associated with starting a business, or an enterprise, but really, it has nothing to do with making money. It encompasses a set of attributes or characteristics of someone, such as: adaptable, confident, strategic thinker, innovative, courageous, imaginative, creative, driven, resourceful, original, ambitious, determined, persistent, and passionate. Those people might or might not go on to be entrepreneurs and start their own businesses. What is interesting to me about being enterprising is that it takes entrepreneurship to another level.

Entrepreneurs are enterprising, but you can be enterprising without being an entrepreneur.

So while, yes, fostering that entrepreneurial spirit certainly has become an invaluable feature of many makerspaces, arguably more meaningful, is fostering enterprising characteristics in our learners. Not all students will be entrepreneurs, but all students are capable of enterprising behaviors. Enterprise skills will benefit students no matter what path they take in life (or even what planet it is on ).

How is enterprise activity promoted, nurtured and manifested in your makerspace? Be sure to share your insight at #MakerspacesAtoZ!

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

If you are like me as a science teacher, you simultaneously live the acronym "STEM" and are exhausted by its overuse in nearly every blog, set of state standards, or professional development seminar that comes to town (Full disclosure: I often facilitate those seminars).

That being said, the more I dive into the world of Robotics (second year as an FRC Mentor and long time Summer Science Camp facilitator), the more potential I see in leveraging that which we often write off as "trendy," and that which we hold dear. Tools common to enrichment programs (MakeyMakey, Arduino, MicroBit etc.) can potentially be powerful tools in my/our Biology and Chemistry classes during the school year, while also engaging students in a disciplines they would not normally see embedded in traditional physical and life science courses.

[8 Awesome Inquiry Lesson Cycles!]

Below are links 5 activities I have done, or plan to do, that merge coding/electronics and biology/chemistry. Enjoy!

#1: MakeyMakey Interactive Eukaryotic Cell
#2: Lego Mindstorm Natural Selection Simulation#3: Modeling States of Matter with the MicroBit
#4: Drop Counter Hack with MakeyMakey
#5: Arduino Conductivity Probe

cross posted at www.cyclesoflearning.com

Ramsey Musallam teaches science and robotics at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, with the aim of fostering inquiry-based learning environments fueled by student curiosity. He presents widely on sparking student curiosity and teaching with technology. Musallam is a Google Certified Teacher, a YouTube Star Teacher, and a Leading Edge Certified Teacher. Watch his TED talk here and read his blog at www.cyclesoflearning.com.

My father got a job with AT&T after the military. My dad started out driving trucks and laying phone line. After a couple years, AT&T asked him if he’d like to go back to school to become a computer tech. I was probably four or five at the time. I remember taking apart and putting together computers with him. I remember him teaching me how to use DOS to find and play games. I remember playing Alley Cat with him.

I remember when I was six or so. It was my birthday and my mom called me and asked if I would like to get my Power Wheels fixed for my birthday, or if I’d like to get this thing called Nintendo. The next day, my father and I were playing The Legend of Zelda. I would explore and fight while he filled in the blank map that came in the box.

I remember being in middle school and playing games with my friends. I remember playing Final Fantasy VII and being shocked when Sephiroth killed Aeris. I remember playing Metal Gear Solid: II and being blown away by the fact the Psycho Mantis would read your Playstation memory card and the characters would break the 4th wall and tell you to turn off your game.

I remember being in high school and setting up Starcraft LAN tournaments with my wrestling teammates after practice. I remember being so good, we would enter local tournaments and roll kids.

[Why We Need To Embrace eSports In Education]

I remember playing Counter Strike with a team someone cobbled together in their dorm room at St. Joe’s and the first time we played kids from another college.

What I am saying is when I think about video games, I remember all the good times I had with people I care about. It is all about the experience. That is why the highest form of gamification, what I call stage 3, is using video game techniques to create experiences for students. Specifically, the transmedia, networked narrative that video games do so well. This year I’m applying these narrative mechanics to my makerspace.

Over the summer, I reimagined my Innovation Lab. I see students once every six days in the Innovation Lab. Previously, students could pick a project that interested them from a group of projects and work in teams to complete them. I found that students often forgot what they were working on since I only saw them once every six days. I also noticed that my kids didn’t stretch themselves. They stayed in their comfort zone. Kids who liked coding stuck with coding, kids who liked engineering stuck with engineering, and kids who liked the digital arts stuck with the digital arts. They also only worked with their friends. Things had to change.

After some brainstorming, what I decided to do was make one hour STEAM challenges that students would work on and finish each class. I also decided that students would have to work with diverse teammates in an effort to develop their team work skills. When I started to think about how to package and explain all of this to students, I went back to gamification as I always do. How could I turn these one hour challenges into an experience? I turned The Innovation Lab into a game show. The Innovation Lab presents the world’s most popular classroom game show: The Constraint!

Imagine a makerspace meets Iron Chef: each week student-contestants compete against the clock and each other in one hour STEAM challenges on The Constraint. As the host, I start off by introducing the challenge for the episode and walk students through our design process as they try to complete the challenge. First we define the problem, then we imagine a solution. Finally we make and test our ideas and wrap up with our closing reflection question. All of the fun is captured on four different camera setup around The Innovation Lab.

Like the name suggests, students have to be aware of the constraints of every challenge and have to be innovative in how they approach their solutions as the solution isn’t spelled out for them. My kids’ solutions have come in many shapes and sizes. If my 4th and 5th graders successfully complete the challenge, they earn one point for their class. Our leaderboard shows what class is in first place and who is leading in the grade vs. grade competition.

Two weeks into the game show, I’m seeing better behavior and focus since everything is timed and the kids love that I’m streaming to a private (maybe one day public) YouTube channel. At the end of the six day cycle, I chop the stream up into a mini episode the captures the best parts of the week. Students have loved to see themselves or their friends competing on The Constraint. So far, things have been going well. In a survey, they’ve overwhelming said they are having fun which is awesome because fun is an important part of keeping kids interested in STEAM.

In the future, I plan to turn over the editing of The Constraint to my FH Gizmos students and I’m planning to tap into what students are learning in class and turning it into challenges they’ll face on The Constraint. Right now, the projects are engineering based, but we will eventually make our way to computer science and the digital arts all while keeping design thinking as the backbone of the class.

Below I’ve included an extended cut of our first episode. In this video you can see a little bit more of what the The Constraint looks like incase you want to try this at home.

Two weeks in and after watching the video and surveying students, I see a lot of room for improvement. But, overall, the game show experience that I have created has been a big hit and has helped me overcome some of the obstacles I’ve faced previously in The Innovation Lab.

Until Next Time,

GLHF

Fun fact: you’ll notice I switch from a marshmallow having to be on top of students’ towers to a lego man having to be on top. Students decided to use marshmallow instead of tape to build there towers. The Innovation Lab was covered in marshmallow, so I had to remove them. I should have known better!

cross-posted at Teched Up Teacher

Chris Aviles presents on education topics including gamification, technology integration, BYOD, blended learning, and the flipped classroom. Read more at Teched Up Teacher.

I recently launched a new blog series, Makerspaces A to Z. You can read all about the letter A here and B here. Thank you to all those who shared their thoughts about this post to the #MakerspacesAtoZ hashtag. Thank you also to those who shared their thoughts about letter C words there, as well. SO many wonderful possbilities for the Letter C!

Letter C for me, represents Combinatory.

Although many educators are interested in progressive ideas such as Makerspaces, STEM Labs, Project-Based Learning, Inquiry-Based Learning, and Genius Hour, many are left feeling unsure of how to integrate all of those things into their practice, and oftentimes feel they have to pick between these things, mostly due to time constraints.

[Makerspaces A to Z: Aspirational]

I define a makerspace as a unique learning environment that encourages tinkering, play, and open-ended exploration for all. When planning and creating a makerspace, I think many focus on what to buy for their space, and lose site of the fact that really what they are creating is a unique learning environment. If we think of makerspaces in terms of a learning environment, it can be a physical laboratory in which all of those progressive ideas can exist. There will be times in which you will pull in elements of STEM Labs, Project-Based Learning, Inquiry-based Learning, and Genius Hour, into your makerspaces, combining and recombining characteristics and principles of all of these things, morphing our spaces into something new and unique, when we do so.

This notion is not new. I have long since been fascinated with the idea of combinatory play (and even include some combinatory play activities in my makerspace professional sessions for educators). Combinatory play is what Einstein called putting unrelated thoughts, topics, images, and ways of thinking together to generate new concepts. It allows you to find connections between randomly selected objects, words, pictures, ideas, etc in turn creating new, fun, innovative concepts and ideas.

Combinatory has become an essential feature in makerspaces.

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

I recently launched a new blog series, Makerspaces A to Z. You can read all about the letter A here. Thank you to all those who shared their thoughts about this post to the #MakerspacesAtoZ hashtag. Thank you also to those who shared their thoughts about letter B words there, as well. Letter B words mentioned included brainstorm, break, beta, breathe, build, and more!

Letter B for me, represents Boring! Yes….you read that right….B for Boring! Boring does have negative connotations, but isn't always bad, and it can actually be very good. Growing up as an only child, my house was quiet and I was often bored. Being bored forced be to find ways to entertain myself. My mother recently reminded me that I enjoyed taking toys apart and making mud pies. My house and yard became the playground for which allowed my imagination to run wild. At school, I remember similar experiences, having time to play freely, to write creatively, and to explore. However, this is not the same world as it was then. Children have become accustomed to being entertained every minute.

Makerspaces A to Z: Aspirational

Boredom can be a force for creativity.

Many makerspaces are stocked to the brim with the latest and greatest in STEM kits or technology, project ideas, signage, prompts, challenges, decorations and directions. While all of those things can be stimulating, I think it is ok to let kids sometimes be a little bored in our makerspaces, it happens in mine. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you make, just make it. Boredom gives students the opportunity to figure out what it is that they like to do, to direct their own activities without teacher input, and maybe even motivate them to try new things. Given these opportunities, students will begin to become more independent and to take control of their own learning.

I am not suggesting that we welcome students into our makerspace and do nothing for them, however, maybe think twice about handing too much to them too often. Finding the right balance between meeting their educational needs and having no expectations and just letting their mind flow, is the sweet spot we should strive to find. With a little encouragement, boredom can encourage imagination and provide an opportunity for our students’ creative brilliance to shine.

I would love to know your thoughts on Boring! Share your thoughts with us at #MakerspacesAtoZ!

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

As we embark on another school year, I thought I would launch a new series, Makerspaces A to Z. Throughout the year I’m going to share what I think are the key ingredients to building a sustainable makerspace in a series of short blog posts.

[Can Online Courses Help Fix Teacher Professional Development?]

We'll kick off the series with Aspirational. I do believe in the importance of creating makerspaces that are Inspirational (In fact, that is one of my attributes of a GREAT makerspace) however, in the age of platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram, I do believe we are beginning to suffer from inspiration fatigue. While yes, we do want our makerspaces to feel inspirational, it feels rather shortsighted in that focusing on inspiration alone, might possibly only temporarily stimulate our students to do something or feel something. Aspiration, on the other hand, is more long lasting and meaningful. It involves understanding where you want your students to go next, or where they themselves want to go, and figuring out how your makerspace can get them there. Think through the expansive possibilties of your makerspace and future iterations of your makerspace. You might not be able to accomplish these things now, but it will allow you to see what is beyond. This is easier said than done, but doing so, will ensure that your makerspace is sustainable and will set your space apart from others that are focused on the next flashy piece of technology or spaces that are only visually appealing.

I would love to know what you think makes a makerspace aspirational! Share your thoughts with us at #MakerspacesAtoZ!

Cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

What a wild summer. I took a break from blogging because my summer has been jammed packed. I started out by going to ISTE in Chicago. After I got back, I went on my honeymoon in St. Lucia. Then, it was back to Chicago for the amazing Our Voice Academy. A week later I flew cross country to Seattle to help run Picademy for over a hundred educators and in two days, I’ll by flying to Moscow for the EdCrunch forum where I’ll talk about Gamification and Fair Haven Innovates. Oh, and I also wrote a book on teaching through entrepreneurship that will be published through EduMatch by Christmas. But with the start of a new school year, I’m back to blogging.

Hello. I missed you. Let's go.

Going into the second full year of running Fair Haven Innovates, one of my goals this year is to help parents better understand why a class like Fair Haven Innovates is important and let them know how they can help their children get the most out of my class. Below is a letter and video I’ll be sending home to parents. The video introduces my program and what students will be learning while the letter lets parents know why I made Fair Haven Innovates and how I run the program. I encourage everyone: send home a video and letter before school starts or before back to school night so everyone can be on the same page when it comes to the learning taking place in your classroom. This goes doubly so if you run an innovative program or are an innovative teacher disrupting education. People can’t always imagine learning in a classroom that they didn’t grow up in. Let parents know what you do and why you do it. Here’s mine:

Parents,

Our students are growing up in the 4th Industrial Revolution. Thanks to automation, the workforce of your kids’ future is going to look a lot different than it does today. Studies and experts say anywhere between 30% and 60% of jobs that are around today won’t be around by 2030. The jobs most likely to be automated are the jobs that require predictable patterns of activity or repetitive actions. Jobs in fields like transportation, logistics, and administration are the most at risk of going extinct by 2030. 2030 may seem far off, but it is not. The class of 2030 is in second grade this year.

Don’t worry, though. The reality is that technology replaces jobs, not work. There will still be plenty of jobs for our students in fields that can’t be automated. Fields that require creativity, problem solving, and relationships such as most health and wellness fields, STEAM fields, and (thankfully) educational fields may look different, but are ultimately safe. The careers lost to automation will be replaced by emerging jobs or jobs that don’t even exist yet.

So how do we prepare students for this evolving future? Skills.

Fair Haven Innovates is Fair Haven school district’s 21st century life, innovation, and technology program. In FH Innovates, students are exposed to computer science, engineering, and the digital arts through entrepreneurship. Not only is entrepreneurship safe from automation, it is the best vehicle for delivering the problem-solving opportunities that our students need to hone their skills.

In Fair Haven Innovates, I use entrepreneurship to grow the five key skills our students will need to be successful:

• The ability to use a creative problem-solving process to solve complex challenges.
• The ability to set appropriate goals for oneself and team.
• The ability to persist in problem solving by making effective use of available resources and by taking the initiative to do appropriate research, testing, and troubleshooting.
• The ability to give, find, and use feedback to improve oneself, team, and design to persevere through failure and find success.
• The ability to initiate and contribute to a variety of collaborative discussions and tasks with diverse teammates.
  

[Taking Student Voice Beyond The Classroom: Student Perspective]

Developing these skills requires authentic, hands on experiences in a low risk environment. Students can’t develop a skill if they don’t apply it and students won’t try to apply a skill if they think they will be punished for failure. That is why I’ve built the Fair Haven Innovates program to be a safe place for students to apply these skills. As you can imagine, all of this makes Fair Haven Innovates a unique learning experience. Parents often ask what they can do to help their child do their best in my class. Here is what you can do to help:

Encourage Them To Have Creative Confidence

FH Innovates is student-centered learning. Student-centered learning moves students from passive consumers of knowledge to active participants in the learning process. In a student-centered classroom, the teacher is not the sage on stage, they are the guide on the side. I only do whole class instruction to layout key concepts and expectations. This takes less than ten minutes a class. The rest of the class students are expected to work together to solve their entrepreneurial challenges using our problem-solving process. As the guide on the side, my job is not to do things for students. My job is to empower them to do things for themselves. My job is to guide students toward success by giving my advice and opinion, resources, and direction.

In class I say things like “I can’t wait to see how you solve this problem” “What have you tried?” “What research have you done?” and “Let’s see what happens!” to help students take ownership of their learning. The uncertainty that comes with being in the driver’s seat of their learning can be tough for some students.

You can help by encouraging your students to have creative confidence. As I remind them in class, nothing students do can’t be undone and no risk will be held against them. If they do research and make their best educated guesses, they’ll be successful in my class. By encouraging students to have creative confidence, we can get them to take that first step toward owning their learning.

Encourage Them To Rethink Failure

Choice paralysis exists in FH Innovates. Some students would rather do nothing, then do something and make a mistake. In FH Innovates, failure is a valuable teaching tool. When we fail, reflect, and try again, we learn a lot. Failure is a wonderful teacher and reframing failure as iteration is an important character trait. As part of the problem solving process, I encourage students to fail quickly and cheaply, so they can iterate and make their solution even better. Some students have never been allowed to fail before, so they will go to great lengths to avoid experiencing the adversity of failure.

You can help by helping your student understand that failing is a temporary state of being. Just because you failed doesn’t mean you’re a failure. Failure doesn’t mean the project is over or you stop trying. Failure is great, as long as you learn something from it. FAIL really just means First Attempt In Learning.

Encourage Them To Set Goals

Of all the skills being developed in Fair Haven Innovates, research is showing the ability to be persistent may be the most valuable skill for our kids to possess. In my class, success rarely comes quickly. Through the extended challenges students work on, I’m hoping to build their persistence. Unfortunately, if a task seems too big or too hard, instead of being persistent, some students give up. Giving up looks like goofing around in class, complaining that they don’t know what to do despite my having worked with them to develop next steps, or otherwise using avoidance techniques to get out of working.

Persistence is developed through goal setting. In class, we use (SMART) goal setting to break down big, complex problems and projects into smaller, more manageable parts. Talk to your students about the goals they set for their project and how they plan on meeting those goals.

Encourage Them To Be Empathetic

No one works by themselves. Working as part of a team is a given these days. The same goes for Fair Haven Innovates. Students will work together in teams to complete shared goals, but I know working as a team isn’t always easy. In class, we talk about what being a good teammate looks like and the actions that one should take to be a good teammate. I have activites and feedback systems in place where students will learn how they can grow as teammates.

The most important aspect of being a good teammate that you can help me drive home is empathy. Some students struggle to think about things from their teammates point-of-view. I find when I get students to slow down and think through how something makes the rest of the team feel, the collaboration and end product are much better. When students can predict, understand, and share the feelings of a teammate, it goes a long way in achieving the psychological safety that teams need to be their best.

Ultimately, the goal of Fair Haven Innovates is to expose students to the technology, fields, and careers that are both available to them now and will be available to them in the future while also developing the skills they’ll need to be successful no matter what they do when they grow up. I believe in what I teach, how I teach it, and I work incredibly hard to make FH Innovates the best it can be. I believe every student can find value in what Fair Haven Innovates has to offer and I am committed to guiding every student toward success.

I’m looking forward to a great year!

Mr. Aviles

Until Next Time,

GLHF

cross-posted at Teched Up Teacher

Chris Aviles presents on education topics including gamification, technology integration, BYOD, blended learning, and the flipped classroom. Read more at Teched Up Teacher.

Innovative educators know the importance of ensuring student learning is real, relevant, hands on and fun. That’s why they also understand the importance of a maker mindset. Teachers with a maker mindset help their students do work that is important to them. They aren’t looking for a specific answer, but rather support students in asking the right questions and finding new answers.

In New York City at PS 96, Manhattan Ed Tech Director along with educator Lliana Villiegas helped a cohort of Manhattan teachers discover how to adopt the maker mindset. They shared and modeled the five steps below that these innovative educators use with their own students.

[The Key to Differentiated Learning - Develop Student Experts]

These enthusiastic teachers jumped right on board becoming the makers they will soon model being for their own students. They selected one of three maker challenge cards: 1) Make it play, 2) Make it fly, or 3) Make it spin.

Over the course of about an hour they went through each of the five steps just like their students will when they return back to school and completed their challenge. You can see how they did in the movie recap below.

Read more.

Lisa Nielsen writes for and speaks to audiences across the globe about learning innovatively and is frequently covered by local and national media for her views on “Passion (not data) Driven Learning,” "Thinking Outside the Ban" to harness the power of technology for learning, and using the power of social media to provide a voice to educators and students. Ms. Nielsen has worked for more than a decade in various capacities to support learning in real and innovative ways that will prepare students for success. In addition to her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator, Ms. Nielsen’s writing is featured in places such as Huffington Post, Tech & Learning, ISTE Connects, ASCD Wholechild, MindShift, Leading & Learning, The Unplugged Mom, and is the author the book Teaching Generation Text.

I sure hope you enjoyed that last post on ideas to get you started with that PBL unit. If you missed it then be sure to check it out here. As you know, the web provides us with many possibilities. As you suspect, there are a lot of PBL ideas out there. I often tell people you can begin a search in some of the following ways:

1. Go to google and use key word PBL along with some other keywords… what do you find?
2. Check out Twitter… use hashtag PBL along with some other keyword(s)… what might your tweet uncover?
3. Perhaps there is an online competition that you have used or just come across… how can you turn it into a PBL?
4. You may have found that perfect lesson at your favorite curriculum site… can it be expanded to a PBL?
5. Don’t forget your local newspaper or favorite news outlet( local, national, and world)… what interesting story might engage students and also start a project?

[Part 2: Ten Reasons for Mapping Out PBL… Scaffolds That Makes Project Based Learning Work]

There are also specific sites that are geared toward Project Based Learning. Some provide an entire project. Others will give a lesson or activity that could be turned into a project when mapped out. Let me share some of those with you in the space below. Keep in mind that I am trying to keep it simple so you have a starting place. You may want to consider your subject area and organizations that support that specific curriculum. This will allow you to do your own search. Let’s get started!

1. BIE Tools – This is the BUCK Institute Project Search Database/ Here you will find a collection somewhere around 450 proven lesson plans to set any PBL desire into action. Look at the database but also click on the BIE home tab to view the entire site.

2. PBL Projects – This is a list of PBL possibilities for all grade levels in multiple subject areas.

3. Edutopia –This link brings you to a wonderful PBL treasure chest of ideas, resources, and research.

4. Unit Starter Resources – These are from the Read to Be Ready Program in Tennessee and provide some great possibilities for building a PBL.

5. Sites Supporting PBL – Use these resources for your Project Based Learning and collaborative based teaching. While you are using PBL in the classroom, search here for data sources, biography and inventor topics. Check subject area topics for development like math, science, and weather, and projects on countries and continents. There are projects for elementary levels as well as project ideas for middle and high school. Also listed are Problem Based Learning topics. Please explore them all! You will find great ideas for PBL learning6. Learning Reviews – This website claims to connect kids to learning on the web. It really connects kids to awesome, engaging, rigorous, and relevant projects. It points to numerous websites on the internet that house some great PBL possibilities. Be sure to check out all of the subjects and grade levels.
Here are more than 30 websites with free PBL examples, guidance, rubrics, and templates. To see Project Based Learning lessons sorted by subject go to:
PBL Language Arts Projects by grade level
PBL Science Lesson Ideas by topic
PBL Math Project Ideas by topic
PBL Social Studies Project Ideas by grade level

7. TeachThought – Here you will find a long list of ideas for Project Based Learning. Take some time to explore for inspiration.

8. New Tech – A great collection of resources from an amazing school (New Tech High School). You will find authentic student owned PBL.

9. Google Project Slide Resources Ideas – While not full-blown PBL there are some possibilities fo using Google Slides for presenting a PBL.

10. Seventeen Examples of STEM PBL – Take a look at this list of STEM activities that can be brought into PBL.

11. PBL Math Ideas – This is a wonderful collection of Math possibilities from various location made possible by Thomasville City Schools.

12. Fifteen Classroom Literacy Ideas for Early Childhood – The folks at NWEA have assembled a wonderful list of real literacy ideas to bring your students not just in their early education years, but also ideas that can be adapted for older students. They can also work into a PBL. I like these as a base due to the authenticity possibilities.

13. Fifty Student Competitions – I mentioned competitions and how they can build into a PBL. Take a moment to check out the possibilities.

14. Real Projects – Inspired by approaches pioneered in the US, and developed through a partnership between Innovation Unit and High Tech High in California, REAL Projects are now being used by schools all over England.

15. PBL U – Here are several great project already designed by the people at BIE. Take a look and learn more!

16. Global School Net – This organization supports 21st century, brain-friendly learning, and improves academic performance through content-driven collaboration. They engage educators and students in brain-friendly e-learning projects worldwide to develop science, math, literacy and communication skills, foster teamwork, civic responsibility and collaboration, encourage workforce preparedness and create multi-cultural understanding.

17. Imagination Foundation Cardboard Challenge – Take a break from digital technology and devices and find a way to bring old fashion technology in the classroom such as… cardboard! You will imagine some great PBL possibilties.

18. iEarn – Join this interactive curriculum-based groups where students are creating, researching, sharing opinions and becoming global citizens.

19. Roots and Shoots – Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots is the Jane Goodall Institute’s (JGI) global youth-led community action program, consisting of thousands of young people as they connect knowledge and service with the real world.

20. ePals – This is another wonderful site allowing students to collaborate across the globe. Check out the amazing possibilities for PBL.

21. Taking it Global – Visit one of the world’s leading networks of young people learning about, engaging with, and working towards tackling global challenges.

22. The Globe Program – Take a look at this organization that inspires to promote the teaching and learning of science, enhance environmental literacy and stewardship, and promote scientific discovery.

23. New York Times Learning Reviews – Check out these wonderful and thought-provoking lesson plans that could be built into a PBL. You will be amazed!

24. NASA Search – Take a look at this data base of lessons and activities that could be empowered into some PBL possibilities. Not only might you get the idea for a PBL, you could also get specific lessons to put in your PBL map.

25. Arts Edge – One of my favorite places for the Arts from the Kennedy Institute. You are bound to find some wonderful ideas for a PBL.

26. The Exploritorium Tinkering Studio – Tinkering is at the very heart of formative learning, allowing for iterations that encourage revision and reflection. Kids develop an understanding of how to learn from failure and setbacks in order to experience eventual success. The Tinkering Studio is primarily an R&D laboratory on the floor of the Exploratorium, but whenever possible they try to share their projects, activities, and developing ideas following an “open source” model. Learn how you too can enjoy their activities in your classroom while allowing your kids to Tinker and Make!

27. EGFI – If you are into STEM… than take a look at EGFI and all of its possibilities. Many of these activities and lessons can be scoped out to bring about a PBL. Give it a try!

28. Project Approach – Reading about—and seeing—project work in the classroom provides an excellent way to learn about or enhance one’s use of the Project Approach, a kind of project-based teaching and learning. The projects compiled here are sorted by grade level, with many making use of local surroundings and resources, integrating technology in purposeful ways, raising awareness about “green” issues, and achieving other goals aligned with best practices in 21st-century education.

29. PBL Clearing House – This University of Delaware site provides some interesting possibilities for secondary schools and PBL.

30. High Tech Elementary – Their high school projects are awesome. Take a look at these student projects aimed at the elementary

There you have it! I do hope you enjoy these thirty possibilities. I do plan on adding as I get more resources. If you know of one please let me know at (mjgormans@gmail.com) or on twitter at mjgormans. I wish you the very best as you come up with that new PBL idea. Perhaps you now have at least one from your journeythroug this post. Enjoy the PBL journey!

cross-posted at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com

Michael Gorman oversees one-to-one laptop programs and digital professional development for Southwest Allen County Schools near Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is a consultant for Discovery Education, ISTE, My Big Campus, and November Learning and is on the National Faculty for The Buck Institute for Education. His awards include district Teacher of the Year, Indiana STEM Educator of the Year and Microsoft’s 365 Global Education Hero. Read more at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com.

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* Click here if your are not familiar with the MakeyMakey

• Rather than simply developing video game controllers, empower your students to use the MakeyMakey to create Assistive Technology for individuals with various physical disabilities (Quadriplegia, Cerebral Palsy, etc.) . Click here for an example of a MakeyMakey based Assistive Technology project I implemented in my classroom last school year.
• Rather than building a model of the Cell, for example, out of poster board or styrofoam, combine the Scratchprogramming interface, and the MakeyMakey, to create an interactive cell with touch activated organelles that inform the user of structure and function. Click here to view and Instructable of a MakeyMakey interactive cell created by one of my 9th grade biology students (just one, of many possible Scratch-MakeyMakey projects).

[Flipped Learning: From Early Adoption to Critical Revision]

• Because the MakeyMakey is an extension of a keyboard, controlling only screen outputs (video games, etc.) is an obvious product limitation. Because the wireless mBot can be sent RC keystroke commands directly from a computer via the mBlock software, the MakeyMakey can be used to intercept commands, and thus, used to create unique RC systems. Click here for an playlist of examples from my recent Science Camp.
• Although easy to use, the simplicity of the MakeyMakey can force and over emphasis on discussing material conductivity and circuits, rather than the architecture of the Arduino Leonardo microprocessor and pull-up resistors, that form the foundation of the MakeyMakey. Click here for a past post I made about leveraging the Arduino Leonardo to instill a deeper understanding of the Arduino and MakeyMakey.
• Much like the "Interactive Physical Model" application described in #2, leveraging the MakeyMakey to facilitate tasks in the physical world is a powerful application of the device. In my chemistry class I challenged students to create titration drop counters using Scratch and MakeyMakey as a way of learning more about the titration process and volume calibration. Click here for a post a I made about the drop counter activity.

cross posted at www.cyclesoflearning.com

Ramsey Musallam teaches science and robotics at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa, California, with the aim of fostering inquiry-based learning environments fueled by student curiosity. He presents widely on sparking student curiosity and teaching with technology. Musallam is a Google Certified Teacher, a YouTube Star Teacher, and a Leading Edge Certified Teacher. Watch his TED talk here and read his blog at www.cyclesoflearning.com.

As was most of the world, I was recently gripped by the events surrounding the Thailand Cave Rescue. Aside from the incredible rescue efforts to save the boys and coach from the Wild Boars soccer team, which thank goodness proved to be successful, I was also enthralled by the conversations surrounding engineering a solution to rescue the group from the flooded cave. Most compelling to me was the dialogue I saw unfold on social media between Elon Musk and the wider world. Despite the noise on social media, Mr. Musk is incredibly transparent in his conversations, allowing us all to learn, grow and even participate and contribute. I admire his willingness to consider critical feedback offered by those who have valuable ideas and suggestions. The discourse surrounding the cave rescue began with such comments such as:

From there, the conversations continued to progress into ulitimately the idea of a tiny, kid-sized submarine was revealed.

On social media, Mr. Musk gave us a glimpse, not only into the design of this submarine, but into the testing of it as well. The sub was not needed in Thailand, afterall, but showed great potential for being useful in future situations. He is also listening to feedback on how to improve the design for future applications.

Yes, Mr. Musk is a saavy businessman, but first and foremost, he is a brilliantly talented engineer with a penchant for making this world a better place. As an educator, particularly one who is quite invested in the maker movement, I was captured by his conversations and transparency. Of course there are countless lessons the education community can learn from Mr. Musk and his work, but Mr. Musk's involvement with the events in Thailand, made me think specifically about what we could learn from his approach to design.

Design Thinking is a process that has been widely adopted in education. Variations of this process exist, but ultimately, the approaches to it are fundamentally the same. For the sake of this post, Design Thinking can be briefly defined as a mindset and approach to learning, collaboration, and problem solving. I have always been uncomfortable with the way Design Thinking has been applied in education, because ultimately, especially from my makerspace perspective, I want to see students taking ownership over the design process. (In my second book, I offer suggestions on how educators can support students in being able to do so.)

Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to design, and empathy is especially important in the first stage of any Design Thinking process. Although we do not necessarly know the exact approach to designing that kid-sized sub was, I would assume that in the case of Mr. Musk, that empathy was what drove his desire to design a solution to help those children and their coach.

[6 GREAT Makerspace Practices That You Need to See]

In my quest to learn more, I began to research heavily Mr. Musk's approach to design. Although there certainly are aspects of Mr. Musk's approach to design that explify features of Design Thinking, in all of my research, I saw no direct connection of Mr. Musk to Design Thinking. I am eager to share what I learned about his approach, along with other lessons I learned, with the hopes that we can all apply his thinking to our makerspaces so that our students approach to design will mature and grow. The lessons I learned are as follows:

1) First Principles: While many maker educators and their students use the process of Design Thinking to identify problems and generate/design solutions, Mr. Musk has spoken often about how he approaches his thinking from a physics framework, called 'First Principles'. First Principles is a cycle of breaking a situation down into the core pieces and then putting them all back together in a more effective way. This framework, which involves actively questioning everything you think you already know about a problem, is essentially a way of thinking that allows you to identify problems and design solutions from a different angle. Whille this way of thinking might seem counterintuitive, it can drive innovation and cause you to make potentially better decisions. It is one of the most effective strategies you can employ for breaking down complicated problems and generating original solutions. While many assume that our thinking needs to get more complex when designing solutions to problems, First Principles actually require that you go one or two levels deeper than most people. Mr. Musk himself has broken down using First Principle thinking into three steps:

STEP 1: Identify and define your current assumptions.

STEP 2: Breakdown the problem into its fundamental principles.

STEP 3: Create new solutions from scratch.

I personally only know of a handful of educators that are even familiar with what this means, however, I think all maker educators need to have at least some familiarity and understanding of First Principles. Perhaps this problem solving approach won't replace Design Thinking in education, however, it does offer another way of thinking and for designing solutions to problems, that our students are sure to benefit from, and should have some familiarity with.

For more on Mr. Musk's approach to First Principle thinking, I suggest watching this interview with TED Curator, Chris Anderson.

2) Failure: Let's face it. Mr. Musk works with rockets, and more goes wrong with rockets than goes right, so he knows a thing or two about failure. With failure now being seen in education as essential to learning, many maker educators have embraced failure in their makerspaces, encouraging their students to focus not on the product, but the process. Mr. Musk has famously said,

"Given the options, I prefer to learn from success".

I do feel that sometimes in education, the failure pendulum has swung to far away from the idea of achieving success. Mr. Musk has experienced failures of disproportionate size, and how demonstrated that failure is not a stigma, however, also has demonstrated that we should not just stop at failure, and ultimately aim for success, or at least to fail successfully. As maker educators, we need to emphasize to our students that design is messy and that failure along the way should almost be anticipated. At the same time, we need to coach our students through those failures, get behind them, and work hard at helping them achieve that success.

3) Design Drivers: In a podcast I recently listened to, Mr. Musk spoke about the idea of purpose driven design, or usefullness optimization, which he explained is essentially is driven by asking yourself one question:

Is what I am doing as useful as it can be?

He also emphasized how when designing for functionality, however, aesthetic design should not be overlooked, and how important it is to pay attention to nuances, details of design, shape and fuction and train yourself to look closely and carefully at these things. Oftentimes these are things that are in our subconscious, so as maker educators, we can help our students pull those things out of their subconscious into their conscious thoughts. The more we do this, this will become a habit in our students, and a new way of thinking that will only help them through the design process.

4) Future Predictions:

One of the phases of my makerspace planning process suggests connecting makerspaces to global trends and best practices. This means what is happening in the world today, as well as where it is predicted the world will go. Mr. Musk is often asked about his future predictions, some of which are briefly summarized:

• Computing: both the cost, as well as the ubiquity of computing, specifically AI applications growing exponentially
• Transportation: most vehicles produced will be electric
• Energy: most energy being produced will be sustainable, particularly solar
• Interplanetary Living: creation of a 'city' or a base on Mars
• Cyborg Activity: brain/computer interfaces

I encourage you to share these future predictions with your students and find ways to make connections to them in your makerspace, helping to give your makerspace relevance and sustainability.

How will you apply First Principles thinking, as well as the other lessons I learned from Mr. Musk, to your makerspace? As we head into another new school year, I encourage you to bring these lessons learned from Mr. Musk back to your own makerspaces for your students to learn and grow from. Be sure to share your stories at #worldsofmaking.

cross posted at worlds-of-learning.com

Laura Fleming has been a classroom teacher and media specialist in grades K-8 and currently is a Library Media Specialist for grades 9-12. She is a well known writer, speaker and consultant on next-generation teaching methods and tools, and the author of the best-selling Worlds of Learning: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School

Welcome to Part One of starting a PBL project. In this series, I wish to help educators see ways to get ideas for a PBL unit of learning. I often think that the hardest part in PBL is coming up with an idea. In Part One, I plan on giving you some thoughts that can help you get that idea… and in Part Two, I will provide some valuable web resources. I do hope you enjoy! Also, please take a moment to subscribe to this blog by RSS or email and join me on twitter at mjgormans .

Part 1 Starting PBL: 15 Strategies To Help You With A New PBL Idea

So… you are trying to come up with an idea for that PBL. Like I said earlier, this is often the hardest part of designing PBL. Of course, you have so many questions and possibly not enough answers! Great… you are on your road to coming up with a great PBL. Before helping with these concepts here are some ideas you should consider first.

1. What standards are to be covered? – Remember that whether we are enthusiastic about standards or not, standards probably are a reality we must live with. In some ways is does keep us grounded.
2. Should standards or project idea come first? – This always reminds me of “Who’s on First”. My answer, it does not matter as long as the standards and project align. I have done it both ways. Although, it is sometimes hard to ignore that local authentic idea that is in our community. Can you match it to those standards?
3. How long should my project last? – Many times this depends on how often you spend with students each day. Elementary may be different from high school. You might be in a middle school that teams. I always recommend that the time period should match the standards. To much time spent could cause problems later in the year. Watch out for making the project so big that it engages all of us way outside the standards. Many times we plan something in the summer that we wonder what we were thinking once the school year starts. Start simple and you will find success!
4. Can I use my past lessons in a project? – This is a great idea. Don’t reinvent everything. Please take time to honor those succesful learning opportunities we have provided from the past. That analog file cabinet can be a gold mine! This is actually part of making that project map (See prior series post).
5. Does a PBL have to include more than one subject? – The answer is no… but making connections is good. In fact, in elementary almost any subject can connect to ELA. Sometimes those connections to the real world outside the classroom are more important then to another discipline.

Now that we have defined some of these foundation concepts, we need to look to where we can get the idea for the project. Let’s explore!

1. Borrow from the web or other professionals – This is always a great idea and sometimes a nice way to start. If there are ways to localize it… even better! The next post is for all of those that are looking for that opportunity to borrow from the web! As a side note… make sure you share back!
2. Re-engineer a past project or lesson – So you have just learned about the PBL Gold Standards from BIE. Perhaps you have looked at my A-G Building Blocks. It might be time to look at that old project and consider ways to make it live up to authentic PBL Use or create vetting form based on these elements to determine the area of needs. Decide what elements of PBL that past unit must take on, and the make it happen! Perhaps you have a lesson that can actually be scoped out to become a small PBL. What a great place for those starting to begin their PBL journey!
3. Think world to local problems – Take a moment to brainstorm some of these problems. Consider the skills needed to solve these problems. What a great $C’s connection! What questions might need to be answered to solve these problems? Look at you curriculum to see where this might fit. How can you integrate the questions, problems, skills, and content together to provide an authentic and real world learning experience?
4. Read the newspaper or watch the news – In relationship to “world and local problems” this can be an eye opener. It is amazing what we can see in the news. I often tell people, the more local… the better! Perhaps your students might even come up with project ideas. Once again remember… how does it fit to the standards?
5. Brainstorm Open Ended Questions – With a group, think of open-ended questions that also might integrate with curriculum. List as many as possible and then investigate how these might lead to a project, and an even possible Driving Question.
6. Empower Students – Perhaps you are doing a Genius Hour. Remember that ELA can always connect to that. There could be a unit of study in the near future where students might come up with their own questions, which might lead to their own project. Remember to constrain this to standards.
7. Observe your community – Take a drive, look at Google Earth, read and watch the news, listen to students and community concerns, discover community treasures, find out about unique community and business resources, and find out about area experts, heroes, and common folk. Take a moment to just imagine! Do you see connections with the standards?
8. Connect with others – Get ideas from a conference, put hashtag “PBLproject” (or something like that) into a Twitter search, talk with other educators nearby or far away, check out sites using a PBL as a keyword along with your subject area. You are bound to get some ideas!
9. Go beyond problem solving – So many times we feel PBL must solve a problem. Perhaps the PBL will share an idea, promote a local landmark, recognize a person or people, design an opportunity, serve the public, create a material or nonmaterial possibility, celebrate success, provide a unique story and opportunity, or best yet… bring people together. I am sure you can keep going with ideas!
10. Look at what is being done – So many times I see teachers struggle with PBL while at the same time they are having students create something in a Makerspace, problem solving with Computational Thought, having students create using Design Thinking, inquiring with STEM (STEAM), or having students take part in a local or online competition. All of these are great opportunities to investigate what it might take to transform one of these initiatives into a PBL that is standards based. Perhaps that PBL is already or almost there!

There are my 15 ideas and strategies! Perhaps I could come up with more, but I will leave that to you. After all this is PBL! I hope you can see that in many ways you might be right on the edge of PBL on the road to coming up with another great idea. In the next post I plan on providing some of those PBL resource links, if you have not already found them. After all, I hope to help you start your own inquiry. Getting better at PBL is known to do that. It really is engaging!

[Ten Reasons for Mapping Out PBL… Scaffolds That Makes Project Based Learning Work]

cross-posted at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com

Michael Gorman oversees one-to-one laptop programs and digital professional development for Southwest Allen County Schools near Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is a consultant for Discovery Education, ISTE, My Big Campus, and November Learning and is on the National Faculty for The Buck Institute for Education. His awards include district Teacher of the Year, Indiana STEM Educator of the Year and Microsoft’s 365 Global Education Hero. Read more at 21centuryedtech.wordpress.com.

Cubelets are an exciting concept for a maker tool. They are basically big blocks that in some way have similarities to Legos. You build a new creation with them. The key to it all though is that each of them has some sort of function. You have some that drive, some that are Bluetooth, others that spin, and a whole lot more. The entire goal is to build a robotic creation that you can also code.

[5 Awesome Google Drive Apps]

Anytime you work with Robots you also need a great lesson library to help you in support. Thankfully, Modular Robotics helps you with that! Check it out here.

cross posted at www.bigguyinabowtie.com

David Lockhart is an edtech presenter, speaker, advocate, and coach with over ten years' experience teaching high school social studies. As an Education Technology Specialist with the Iteach Center at Kennesaw State University, he works with a metro Atlanta school district to personalize learning for students with the aid of technology. Read his blog at bigguyinabowtie.com and follow him on Twitter @bigguyinabowtie.

Today LEGO® Education announces that schools around the world are taking advantage of hands-on LEGO learning solutions.

Below are a few of the US schools, from early learning to high school, that are building their students’ STEM, coding and 21 century skills by using LEGO Education STEAM Park, LEGO Education WeDo 2.0, LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 and LEGO Education Simple & Powered Machines.

Barrington 220 School District Amps Up STEM Program (Barrington, IL)

Becky Gill, Director of Elementary Education, and Becky McDowell, K-fifth grade STEM teacher, sought to complement their core science curriculum and considered two offerings with LEGO Education’s learning solutions coming out as the winner. McDowell says, “LEGO Education provided the flexibility to modify and add our own content to it. Because programs and standards and other things change and if there’s not as much flexibility, then over time it’s going to become outdated. We’re excited to iterate and improve upon what we’re teaching each year.”

Montour Elementary School Makerspace Inspires Student Makers (Pittsburg, PA)

Montour Elementary School created a Brick Makerspace powered by LEGO Education solutions. The use of LEGO bricks, digital lessons and hands-on robotics gave students opportunities to design, make and think creatively with standards-aligned lessons in science, technology, art, math, language arts, architecture and engineering.

Making the Connection: Engaging Students with STEM in Title 1 Schools (St Louis, MO)

In Laura Knapp’s K-fifth grade technology class she has limited time and resources. By connecting her students’ projects with their interest areas and engaging them with LEGO learning solutions including LEGO Education Build Me “Emotions,” LEGO Education WeDo 2.0 and LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3, it allows them to move past obstacles in their life as they enter class and ignite their excitement for learning.

For more information, visit LEGOeducation.com.

Microsoft MakeCode

Bring code to life with circuits, robots, Minecraft, and more

Pros: Great connection between code and hardware, easily switch from block- to text-based commands.

[Puzzle App Teaches Coding & Challenges Learners]

Cons: Must buy peripherals/hardware for most uses; core subject teachers may find it hard to integrate.

Bottom Line: Once you purchase the hardware, MakeCode opens doors to an incredible diversity of coding applications.

Read more here.

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education