I have two things to share for today’s “Phun Phriday” post. With our participation in the Global Cardboard Challenge preoccupying me, I have been obsessing about any topic in tweets, posts, or online articles related to making and/or building.
First up is a series of products from “Roominate”, which are billed as “Hands-On, Building, Circuits, and Creativity Toys for Girls!” This was brought to my attention by one of my colleagues in the district, Daryn, who mentioned that she is considering purchasing it for her little girl. As you know, there is a serious deficit of females in the S.T.E.M. field, and products like Roominate and Goldie Blox are aiming to change that. Roominate allows you to design and build a house – or whatever your imagination dreams up – using an endless combination of modular pieces. There is even an “Electrical Engineer Pack” that can be purchased to light up your structure. I might have to buy this, myself, so I can play with it for my classroom 😉
And if you are participating in the Global Cardboard Challenge, or planning in any way to encourage creativity on the part of your students this year (I certainly hope you are!), then you might want to show them the delightful little animated video, “Above and Beyond,” that I discovered via a tweet from @APChainReaction. You can access the link to the video here, as well as a cute PDF of a poster that accompanies it. One of my favorite authors, Peter Reynolds, of “Dot Day” fame (among many other achievements!), is the genius behind this simple, but powerful story that celebrates creativity and collaboration. It was the perfect video to show my 5th graders yesterday right before they tackled their Cardboard Box projects!
