Did you miss any of the past three Digital Learning Days? Here are the archives: http://all4ed.schoolwires.net//site/Default.aspx?PageID=262
What can we learn about engineering and problem solving from a scrubbed launch? Tons. My students and I watched with bated breath hoping for liftoff, but alas there were too many issues with valves and the wind. They asked questions about the speed of the rocket, the cost of the launches, and the role each person plays in a successful launch. Having the students listen in on the mission control discussion about problems interfering with the success of the launch was priceless. We have been so programmed to believe that you identify a problem and your first solution will be successful. This was a perfect, real life example of how the process is messy and requires perseverance. I live for these teachable moments!
In September I created a maker field of dreams and sent a request out to the middle school universe through my class website.
"We need YOU to become a Maker Ambassador.
Ambassadors will tinker around with their projects, help the 4th grade teachers and students at Millstone River, and present at a Maker Faire in the Spring. Ambassadors will be blogging about their experiences and sharing what they learn with the world. Join our Edmodo group!"
There are currently more than 30 makers working within an Edmodo space to learn coding on their own through self-paced units from Khan Academy and tinker around with designs with our littleBits on Fridays. As an enrichment to the regular day, the students receive no grade or designation on their transcript. They give up their studyhall period or lunch to come up to the room and create. The program is open to any student interested in learning more about making and tinkering and I could not be more ecstatic about the response.
What is the maker movement?
Next Generation Science Standards & Common Core State Standards addressed within our program:
"We need YOU to become a Maker Ambassador.
Ambassadors will tinker around with their projects, help the 4th grade teachers and students at Millstone River, and present at a Maker Faire in the Spring. Ambassadors will be blogging about their experiences and sharing what they learn with the world. Join our Edmodo group!"
There are currently more than 30 makers working within an Edmodo space to learn coding on their own through self-paced units from Khan Academy and tinker around with designs with our littleBits on Fridays. As an enrichment to the regular day, the students receive no grade or designation on their transcript. They give up their studyhall period or lunch to come up to the room and create. The program is open to any student interested in learning more about making and tinkering and I could not be more ecstatic about the response.
What is the maker movement?
Maker Resources for Makers & Educators
Harvard X - Computer Programming Self-Paced Course
Code Academy
Khan Academy Hour of Code
Cybraryman Maker Resources
Padlet of Maker Ideas & Resources
littleBits
Instructables
Maker Education Initiative
Code Academy
Khan Academy Hour of Code
Cybraryman Maker Resources
Padlet of Maker Ideas & Resources
littleBits
Instructables
Maker Education Initiative
Next Generation Science Standards & Common Core State Standards addressed within our program:
Asking Questions and Defining Problems
Asking questions and defining problems in grades 6–8 builds on grades K–5 experiences and progresses to specifying relationships between variables, and clarifying arguments and models.
Developing and Using Models
Modeling in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to developing, using, and revising models to describe, test, and predict more abstract phenomena and design systems.
Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Analyzing data in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to extending quantitative analysis to investigations, distinguishing between correlation and causation, and basic statistical techniques of data and error analysis.
Engaging in Argument from Evidence
Engaging in argument from evidence in 6–8 builds on K–5 experiences and progresses to constructing a convincing argument that supports or refutes claims for either explanations or solutions about the natural and designed world.
ETS1.A: Defining and Delimiting Engineering Problems
ETS1.B: Developing Possible Solutions
ETS1.C: Optimizing the Design Solution
Dip a toe in the Maker pool this summer
Chances are you have heard the growing buzz around makerspaces, DIY, hacking, and fab labs. June 18 marks the first-ever White House Maker Faire and a nationwide Day of Making. Maker education helps ensure the United States remains a nation of inventors and innovators. With the advent of new technologies, making has taken on a new and exciting life with amazing potential for the education, but that does not mean your makerspace has to be entirely high tech. There are many low-tech and high yield ways to infuse the maker mindset in your classroom and the next few months provide you with the time research, collaborate, and set a plan in motion. Legos, wood, duct tape, and paint will always have a place in my makerspace, and I hope they will be a part of yours as well.
Summer is the perfect time for us to tinker around with new ideas to breathe new life into classrooms and programs. If you are looking for ways to catch up on making, below are a few tips to get you started. Remember, you don’t have to jump right in. You can dip a toe in the maker pool.
Maker basics:
- Making embraces the 21st century mindset of education through creative and practical problem solving with real-world applications.
- A classroom that infuses the maker mindset is constructivist in nature and appeals to all students on a deep, ancestral level. We were made for making.
- Maker activities engage students in STEAM and inspire our next generation of entrepreneurs.
Don’t:
- Spend thousands on new equipment for a room without a plan.
- Throw away items that could be repurposed.
- Assume makerspaces don’t apply to your curriculum.
- Feel like you have to plunge right in if you are not ready.
Do:
- Check out the maker resources on Jerry Blumengarten’s Cybraryman site.
- Look at what you already have in your school and classroom.
- Connect with colleagues on Twitter who are using the hashtags #NationOfMakers, #maker, or #makerspace for some inspiration and examples.
- Catch up on your summer reading by checking out Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom by Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez, Zero to Maker by David Lang, and and sign up for Make magazine.
- Sign up for a free online course, such as the one offered June 19- August 9 through Coursera on the basics of tinkering brought to you by Exploratorium.
- Consider writing a grant through your local PTA or Donors Choose for some electronic, robotic, and programming supplies, such as littleBits, BrushBots, solder sets, Arduino microcontrollers, Squishy Circuits, Snap circuits, and Makey Makey boards.
- Check out your local libraries, museums, and science centers. Many are offering summer workshops on the maker movement and have makerspaces.
If you have been sitting on the ladder of the maker pool waiting for your chance for some refreshing fun, consider this: Our students will not remember every lab we prepare, every author they read, or every awesome joke. They will remember how we made them feel. Will your legacy be that you made your students feel like innovators? Will you help inspire more makers?
A Reader's Guide for the NGSS is available to help teachers in the transition. You can click here to access the document. This resource is provided by the NSTA.
If you are interested in checking out videos related to your discipline, you can click here for the Bozeman NGSS videos.
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Engineering practices resource:
https://ceismc.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/NARST2012Paper-AssessingS+EPractices%20(1).pdf
Make every day Digital Learning Day
Honest learning exposes our vulnerabilities. We have to admit that we do not know everything. If we are further along on our journey, we might accept that we know very little compared to all that there is to know. For educators grappling with all of the curricula and testing mandates, learning how to focus on the skills and content our students actually need is a daunting task. Without being connected to other educators, and accepting that we need to have those deep connections with others in the trenches to trade ideas and customize them for our classrooms, we are not fully servicing our students.
The one area where teachers across the world are looking to share exemplars of practice is in incorporating educational technology. In my teaching career, I was fortunate to have been supported by administrators and other educators who not only provided professional development on tools, but also helped everyone see WHY the shift was taking place. In visiting other schools and speaking with other teachers, I realized that not everyone was as progressive and many craved the support I received.
Luckily, should you want to find vetted resources and lesson ideas for long-term infusion of technology, one click on the Digital Learning Day website provides access to an impressive array of tools. Here anyone can search for resources and interactive lesson planning ideas to help move forward. There are several teachers, schools and districts ahead of the curve. These exemplars have been sought out and are featured on the DLD site. We can all learn from what they have to share. Review the lessons, take what works for you and make it your own.
Want to feel even more inspired to take an edtech risk? Check out all of the celebrations and digital learning taking place on Digital Learning Day on February 5th! You can sign up to watch the events live from the Library of Congress as experts and dignitaries work to make digital learning happen each and every day. Take the pledge, become involved and make digital learning a common occurrence in your classroom. Serve as a role model for your peers and pay it forward! Make a commitment to yourself, your colleagues and your students to keep learning and trying new things.
We are all vulnerable in this brave new world, but we are also all here to help our students succeed. See you February 5th!
Through a series of events and medical awesomeness, I became the mother of two amazing, creative children who love to build. They are makers. Perhaps it is my science background mixed with their father's carpentry skills, but my kids love to create. Maybe they attended one too many Odyssey of the Mind meetings with my students as babies and caught the bug before being vaccinated. I also put them in art class before they could talk, so that might have played a role in their development and uncanny ability to recite all of the color choices in the 64 pack. I believe the biggest factor in this whole game is that making is fun. They fail, they mess up, but they start all over again and get better. In this maker world of theirs, they learn and become masters.
They started young stacking cans as soon as they could crawl. We have bins full of Kinex and Legos and most nights involve creating something new. Do you have any idea how much those pieces hurt when stepped on in the middle of the night? I often trip over the ramps and tracks for the car races going through our little home and I firmly believe my son has redefined, at lease in his school, the term Angry Bird. The phrase evolved into Angry Birding and, as his structures involved real projectiles, it was quickly banned at school. At home, we use Amazon cardboard boxes, plush Angry Bird toys, and exercise elastic bands for outdoor Angry Birding.
My 3 and 5 year old are exploring the world of littlebits, Makey Makey, and SnapCircuits. In this whole new world, I am learning alongside my children. Sure, I studied physics in college, but I majored in and taught biology. I never used circuits in my teaching. I didn't even begin to think about these things until my little ones came along. Learning this stuff is hard and takes effort. Then, all of a sudden, my professional world and my personal life collided. I shifted from a classroom teacher with a more narrow view to a curriculum supervisor with a district view of science education. I saw the connection between what my children were doing and what the students in our classrooms were not. I saw the joy of creating something new and the pride in making and knew that I had to advocate for students to have the same experiences. All students should be creating, tinkering, building, and making. They should be collaborating, communicating their ideas, thinking critically, and above all else, being CREATIVE!
These experiences are the ones that will propel our students into the readiness category for careers and college and I know that many of students do not have enough making in their day. So now I am tasked with a mission to create minions who see the value in making as well so our students can build, fail, learn, and succeed. If you are a momma, or a poppa, ask your child's principal what type of maker spaces or design programs they are promoting in schools. If you are a teacher, do your research and invent creative spaces in your classroom based on the 4 Cs (http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/4csposter.pdf). Let's build something awesome for the future, together.
We know that we need problem solvers. How can we better develop them in our schools? We cannot believe that standardized testing will be the mechanism for producing the next line of innovators. How can we find ways to integrate creative problem solving and student-directed learning to ensure our kids are prepared for the jobs that do not even exist?
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