Suzanne Horan and her 5th grade class of gifted and talented students were recently showcased on our district website for an outstanding project they did this year. They each planned, researched, and developed products that could make a positive difference in the world. From a 3-d printed model of a staircase that collapses into a … Read more
If you have been working on Design Thinking with your students, you might want to enter one of two invention challenges that open to children at the moment: The 2016 Annual Invent It Challenge, sponsored by Spark!Lab, invites participants from 5-21 years of age to submit an idea for a solution to a real-world health … Read more
I am not, by any means, an expert in 3D printers. I’ve used two different printers in my life. The first, which was an amazing introduction to 3D printing, worked extremely well for a couple of months. However, it has been out of commission this school year with various issues, and we are hopefully getting a … Read more
Assembly is an iOS app that is particularly suited for those who like to design with shapes. This is ideal for me because I never took a drawing class in my life. In addition, my students have been working with Tinkercad (which is all about combining shapes to create) so I am kind of in … Read more
I feel like teaching children to brainstorm has become more and more difficult as my teaching career progresses. Even my younger students who, in theory, should be less inhibited, barely manage “brain drizzles” until they’ve had lots of practice. It is very hard to encourage them to understand that quantity can be better than quality … Read more
I’ve been talking about using 3d printers this week – how to choose one, how to integrate them into the curriculum, and a website that offers project ideas with tutorials. I didn’t put any of those posts into my Makerspace Essentials list. The reason for this is simple; I don’t think 3d printers are essential … Read more