Primary and Lower School Makerspace Happenings

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1 Primary and Lower School Makerspace Happenings September, 2015 It was a very busy month in the Makerspace. The children have been working with many varied tools on different projects. Here is the first of our monthly summaries of what has been going on. Makerspace Mascot Grades K through 4 enjoyed working on the first schoolwide project in our new Makerspace - designing our mascot. This has been a community building project where each student (Grades K through 8) has had the opportunity to design their vision of what our mascot should look like. It was also an opportunity to discuss the importance of recycling and repurposing materials. The final design currently being assembled is a compilation of all the drawing submitted. We are going to have a vote to name our mascot and make more enhancements to our design as the year progresses. Stay tuned for more pictures as we finish our final design and name our mascot. A big thank you to the Tetler family for allowing us to visit Winfield and for their generous contribution of parts for our mascot!

2 Kindergarten The kindergarten students have been working on their keyboarding skills using our new Chromebooks. They have also spent some time with beginning programming using our BeeBot and our new Dash and Dot robots. First Grade The first graders have been busy learning about robots and rockets. We talked about how robots can only do what we tell them to do; they cannot think for themselves. Then we made our own straw rockets and discussed thrust and how it affects the flight of our rockets. Most recently, we have been working with our Little Bits kits to learn about circuits. After experimenting with the Little Bits, the students then created designs that had to meet the requirements of either having a moving part or have it light up. Their excitement was wonderful to see!

3 Second Grade The second grade students first project was to solve the real world problem of getting an apple from the top of an apple tree without a ladder. This was a real world problem that the children came up with themselves one day at recess. They were given simple materials like cardboard boxes, yard sticks, cups and tape to make their design. They worked together as teams to design an apple picker that really worked! We all had the opportunity to enjoy the apples that we were able to pick! The second grade is now busy working on creating their own town, Technology Town. This is a project that is an extension and enhancement to their study of community going on in their classroom. We discussed how towns are developed on a grid and discussed the important buildings that every town needs. The students then set to the project of actually designing their own town. The culminating part of the project will be when the students program Mip to travel through the streets of their town visiting the different buildings they have designed. Third Grade The third grade has been studying Maps and Globes in their first social studies unit. To help the students see the distortion that takes place when a globe is made into a flat map, we did some experimentation with removing the skin off a grapefruit. The students noticed that once the skin was removed, diagonal cuts had to be made to allow for the skin to lie flat. After this, the students started making their own paper globes. They had to color the continents and oceans and noticed how much more area of the Earth is covered with water.

4 After coloring in their globes, the students got a first hand experience at making flat pieces of paper into hemispheres of the globe. Make sure to ask your third grader about what our next modification to our globes will be. Fourth Grade Mrs. Corbin s fourth grade class has been experimenting with geometric shapes as an enhancement to their math studies. They have built their own 3D shapes using playdough and toothpicks. Look at all the great figures they built! They were also challenged to make the tallest figure using only raw spaghetti and marshmallows. The students experimented with determining the proper length of spaghetti (Is shorter better than longer pieces?), the thickness of the spaghetti (Were two or three pieces together stronger than one piece alone?) as well as the shapes that were strongest. Our tallest figure was designed by Harry and Tucker and was 27.5 inches tall!

5 To further their study of geometry and physics we have started to build paper roller coasters. This project requires a great attention to detail. While building the roller coaster, the students are learning that the design of the base is very important. It must be built with the proper supports to insure that the roller coaster will not collapse during use. Comparisons to real roller coaster were discussed as well. Upon completion of these roller coasters, we will do experiments to determine the average velocity of the marble as it travels through the roller coaster. Stay tuned for pictures of their finished designs! That s all for this month. We re looking forward to a lot more learning and discovering in the Makerspace in October. We want to take this opportunity once again to thank all the parents and families that have helped to get our Makerspace off to a great start! Your kind donations of time and materials are truly appreciated and we are looking forward to having the children work with everything as the school year progresses! Sincerely, Rose and Chris