Creating Makers

I already have a list of supplies I want to purchase for next fall.

Until today, I thought I was doing pretty well with the whole Makerspace thing. I have engineering supplies -- bins of cardboard and recycling (think water bottles, plastic packaging, styrofoam) that my kids can raid with ease. I have on-demand access to crafting supplies like yarn and beads. I have tools (real ones!), even a kid-sized tool bench where my students can happily pound nails in to create...whatever. I have laptops with access to Scratch and iPads with access to Scratch, Jr. I have Lego robotics. My kids could make, tinker, invent...or so I thought.

What I realized today, after reading just the first chapter of "Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom" by Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager, is that I barely have my toe in the water of the Makers' Movement. See, I have all these materials, but I haven't encouraged my kids to put them together in any significant way -- yet. 

We have been dabbling in Making so far, but mostly, we have been modeling. "This is a thing I could build -- someday." "This is what my thing will look like -- someday."

What this book supplies are the ideas, materials and know-how to turn someday's inventions into today's. My kids no longer have to be limited to modeling their ideas. Next year (how I love summer -- that time when teachers can reflect and figure out how to make next year even better), next year, we will Make. 

Yes, with the capital "M."

*If you already have a robust Makerspace in your school or classroom, can you send me some ideas? I'd love the help!

Citizen Scientists

I have loved nature and the natural world for as long as I can remember. My parents nurtured my various fads and interests, from fossils to minerals to flora and fauna. I loved to observe, and even to this day get really excited by things like the annual monarch butterfly migration (as you can see in the picture I took of the very first monarch caterpillar I saw this season!).

I love the idea of the 18th- and 19th-century "Naturalist," the educated gentlemen (and gentlewomen!) who spent their days on long walks, observing nature. I realize I'm romanticizing this (I mean, really, all they had to do all day was wander around?), but I still think it's important to pass on that enjoyment of observing the natural world to our students today.

There are some great websites and tools out there to help. One that I've used with my students is Project Noah, which according to their website is "a tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere." I love their extensive area for educators, which includes lesson plans as well as places to start your own exploring "missions."

Another favorite is Journey North, a website that brings together citizen scientists to study migrations worldwide. At the risk of sounding too nerdy ('cause y'all haven't figured that out already!), I myself have been uploading my own sightings of monarch butterflies and caterpillars this spring. 

If you're looking for a fabulous book study for your kids, which combines history, nature and gender equality issues, I would suggest "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate." This young lady learns a lot from her naturalist grandfather, including a passion for science that clashes with her Victorian upbringing.

If you have any suggestions of your own, please leave them in comments below! And don't forget to keep an eye out during your next walk -- who knows what you'll find!

I Just Can't Do It...Yet

I am not good at math.

Or organized sports.

Or physical activity in general.

I'm not terribly good at drawing, or singing, or dancing.

I can create quite a long list of things I'm not good at, and I'm sure you can, too.

So can our students.

If you think about it, it's the perfect "out."  It's defense of self. "You can't be mad at me if I'm not good at this thing," the reasoning goes, "because I already told you I'm no good at it."

Even (or especially) among my gifted students, I hear it all the time.

"I'm not good at reading."

"I'm not good at writing."

"I'm not good at spelling."

"I'm not good at technology."

It would drive me nuts. How can you acknowledge their fear (they really weren't all that great at those things), while still providing support to make it better -- when they're fighting against you the whole way?

This week, I added a powerful weapon to my toolbox, courtesy of Class Dojo:

"It's not that you're not good at it. You're just not good at it...yet."

Who would have thought those three letters would have made such a huge difference? And yet, isn't that exactly what we needed? An acknowledgement of the truth -- "Nope, you're not good at it." But encouragement at the same time: "Yet."

I was so excited by this ridiculously easy, yet revolutionary breakthrough, that I shared it with the Hubby (a 10th-grade English teacher).  He found out quickly that it works just as well on the big kids.

"Sir, I'm not good at reading," one of his students informed him, a few minutes into a new short story.

"That's ok," Hubby replied. "You're just not good at reading...yet. But stick with me -- we're going to keep working on it, and you'll get better."

Kid grumbled...but went back to his seat, and read.

So...I may not be very good at math, or singing, or sports...yet.

Designing Experiments

I never really played with Hot Wheels growing up -- I was much more into unicorns than cars. After this last month, though, I have to say that these speedy little toys are definitely at the top of my to-give-to-nieces-and-nephews list.

Right before Christmas, a huge box of cars, ramps, loops and connectors showed up at my door, courtesy of their Speedometry curriculum. I figured it'd be good for a challenge or two, a nice break from the routine, but nothing serious.

Boy, was I wrong.

My second-graders have been experimenting with Hot Wheels for the past month -- first designing tracks to see how far they could make one go, then following the Speedometry curriculum's lesson on potential and kinetic energy. Their theme for the year is "change," so I introduced the idea of "variables" -- the parts of an experiment that can change. We did Speedometry's book/ramp experiment -- then branched out to our own.

I created this experiment design page, and my kids have been designing their own experiments with their own identified variables. Questions included "How does the number of tracks in the loop affect the car's ability to go around it?" And "Does the type of car determine the success of the loop?" (As you can probably tell, my second-graders are really into loops!) 

I'm not sure how much longer we'll be working with the Hot Wheels, but I definitely give them two-thumbs up as classroom supplies.