From the iconic Kevin Costner film, Field of Dreams, comes the now famous line "If you build it, they will come." Over the years, I have heard maker educators use this same line when speaking about their personal efforts to bring a maker space to the school in which they work. There's even a documentary by... Continue Reading →
Our sixth graders are finishing up their work on the Legends of the Trash Creatures project. This interdisciplinary, environmentally focused project tasks students with (among many other requirements) the creation of a 5' tall creature made of trash and embedded with Hummingbird Robotics to allow it to sense the environment and react with sound, lights,... Continue Reading →
What is Social Entrepreneurship? When we hear the word “entrepreneur” we immediately conjure up images of an innovator, risk-taker, and creator. An entrepreneur is someone who sees a problem, develops a solution to that problem, and builds a business around that solution. By a similar token, a social entrepreneur applies these same skills toward problems... Continue Reading →
Introduction For the past couple of months I have worked on a project that has actually been years in the making, at least in my mind. Year after year, I saved up a number of old Altoids mint tins, knowing that I would start a project with them some day. I didn’t know precisely what... Continue Reading →
As the calendar year comes to an end, I write this one last post to share the importance of making and creativity for one's own personal growth and satisfaction. As maker educators, we spend a good deal of time working with students on their journeys into design, building, invention, and exploration. It is equally important,... Continue Reading →
As a previous blog post demonstrates, I am a huge fan of working with cardboard. It is a terrific medium for rapid prototypes and allows kids to experiment, test, make mistakes, and revise with little or no material cost. In that post I mentioned a number of tools and materials that can be used in conjunction... Continue Reading →
Halloween is the perfect time to test out the new Hummingbird Bit from Birdbrain Tech. My plan is to create a remotely controlled ghastly ghost or scary skull, something that can be triggered at a little distance to light up and move. For $6, I picked up a hanging phantom from Target. It's not mechanical... Continue Reading →
I am forever seeking for a new/better tool for 2D design in my work with students. While I use Adobe Illustrator regularly for my graphic design work, the application is often overkill for my middle school students, both in cost and feature set. They need a way to create shapes, modify those shapes, add text,... Continue Reading →
For some years, I have wanted to implement a system for badging students as they learn new skills. I always loved stickers as a kid and, although I wasn't a boy scout, I remember classmates showing their badges and accomplishments at school, and thinking that was cool, but also something they took great pride in... Continue Reading →
Tinkercad recently announced a new feature called Codeblocks. While still in beta, this feature allows 3D designers to use code blocks (powered by Scratch) to create models that they can share, export and even place into their Parts Collection. While coding in 3D design for the average user isn't new, see OpenSCAD and BeetleBlocks as examples, having access to the... Continue Reading →
