Makerspace Happenings

The past couple of weeks have been busy, busy, busy in the Sappington Library Makerspace! 

 The Scholastic Book Fair has been visiting since Thursday, December 4th and will be here in the library until tomorrow, December 12th. Our friends have loved shopping for their very own books throughout the day, and it has been so fun seeing their excitement for reading their new books. It has been a very successful Book Fair this year, and we want thank all of you who have bought books! The library benefits so much from those sales because it allows us to earn money to purchase Scholastic books for our library. We are so grateful to have such amazing and supportive families at Sappington!!

We have also been plugging away at Hour of Code. Sappington has been working on Hour of Code for several weeks now, but the week of December 8-14 is Computer Science Education Week, During this week the students are being challenged to complete the Hour of Code by December 14th. Students who have exposure to computer science presented in such a relevant and engaging way are more likely to pursue higher education in this area. With computer science and coding driving much of the economy and society at large, it is important for students to know what it's all about. We are so proud to have so many students who have completed Hour of Code already! They are really working hard, and are enjoying it in the process!

Mrs.Czaicki and Mrs.Grebe have also been working very hard on organizing all of the wonderful arts & crafts supplies that have been pouring into the Makerspace thanks to all of your generous donations. We have so many great things to put out at our Creation Station, it will be hard to wait until the Book Fair is gone to restock that center! As always, you may donate items at any time. We have a quick turnover of all of our back stock, so don't hesitate to send in cardboard tubes, shoe boxes, cereal boxes, beads, buttons, glue, yarn, ribbon, etc. Whatever we put out gets used, and in very creative ways, too!

In addition, we have sorted through all of our donated electronics for the Take-Apart Center. We have loads of great items, BUT they won't last long. Any broken or unwanted electronics that you may have we will happily take off of your hands. Some of the items contained in these boxes include: radios, cameras, keyboards, phones, remote controls, calculators, etc. This one of our most popular centers in the Makerspace, and the steady stream we have been getting through donations is much appreciated! Keep them coming!

The Makerspace would not be the success it is without your continued support of this new adventure here at Sappington! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

Robots, Robots, Robots!

Our first and second grade friends started constructing their first robots this week! They were given many different materials to use to construct their robots, and when they completed the building process they were able to add a small toy motor to see if their robot would move. 

If their robot creation didn't move as fast or as crazy as they liked, they had the opportunity to rethink their design to make any necessary adjustments. We have had lots of success with our robots in the Makerspace. 

Some of our friends turned their initial design mishaps into surprisingly creative new designs. A pair of our 2nd grade friends from Mrs.Shamia's class decided to turn their intial idea of one large robot into a family of bots when the large robot didn't move as much as they would have liked. It was awesome to watch the class get so excited over the mini robots buzzing all around the table!

A Hyperlapse video of the mini-bot family some of our 2nd grade friends made

Many of our first and second grade friends have shown interest in trying to create these simple robots at home. For anyone that wants to know what we are using to power our robots, we used 1.5-3 volt offset toy motors. They can be purchased at any hobby or craft store for $2-$3. You will also need a small battery pack, and a weight to attach to the rotating mechanism on the motor. We used dimes and pennies as weights. 

It has been so fun to watch our young friends imagine and create. They have had so much fun in the Makerspace building simple robots.

New Things, Passion Projects, and a Big Thank You!

Recently, we've introduced our newest center  in the Sappingtion Library Makerspace, a Lego building table. It has been a huge hit with all of the grade levels. They are particularly excited to try building on the side and back build plates. Many of the students have never had the opportunity to create with Legos in such an interesting way.

Discovering that Legos don't have to be built from the gound up has inspired some of our friends to build ramps on the side of the table for their Lego vehicle creations to cruise down. It was so great to see the students figure out how to bring their idea to life, and even better was to see how excited they were when after several trials it really worked! We expect our Lego building table will continue to inspire many amazing ideas and awesome creations. It will be fun to see what our friends build throughout the year.

some of our second grade friends preparing to build

Miss Handrahan's friends are busy creating with Legos

Earlier in the year, everyone filled out a heart worksheet about things that they are passionate about, or would really like to learn more about. We brought these worksheets out to give our friends a starting point in choosing a topic or question to research over the next several weeks. Their research will help them narrow thier focus to a particular question they want to explore about their topic. All of their hard work will ultimately result in a project that they will share with the rest of their class.

Passion Project and heart worksheets

This sort of approach is sometimes to referred to as passion driven or maker driven learning, or connected learning. In our library makerspace, we are using the Genius Hour approach. Genius hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom.  It provides students a choice in what they learn during a set period of time during school. It encourages student autonomy, and creates lifelong learners. These are skills that will take them far in our fast paced world!

We would also like to give our sincerest thanks to all of the parents, teachers, and staff that have donated tools, old electronics, cardboard tubes, fabric, paper, and so much more to our makerspace. The Sappington Library Makerspace would not be such an engaging place to learn and grow without these donations. Our makerspace is proof that one person's junk is another person's treasure so please keep the "junk" coming! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

This is just a small portion of the amazing things that have been generously donated to our space!

Book Recommendation: Tinkerlab for Little Ones

We were looking for some great ideas for our younger inventors.   This is a great book to encourage problem solving through hands on experiments and engaging with interesting materials.    From the book jacket:  55 playful experiments that encourage tinkering, curiosity, and creative thinking from the creator of Tinkerlab.com—hands-on activities that explore art, science, and more.  For children two and up.

Lots of awesome ideas for your preschooler and younger children at home, too!

Fall Tinkertime and a SUPER Opportunity

Fall has officially arrived! One look outside your window will be all the proof you need.

While the trees have changed to their beautiful autumnal colors outside, there have have been some fall changes inside the Library Makerspace, too! To celebrate the season, we have addded three tinkertime stations for our friends to explore.

At our Pumpkin Build center the students were asked to build a stucture as tall as they could using only mallowcreme pumpkins and toothpicks. They quickly discovered that in order to make the structure stable enough to add mulitple levels, they needed to add support in the middle. It was interesting to see how students designed their structures with the added support.

Miss Whorton's friends make pumpkin structures at the pumpkin build center

The second fall center was the Spinning Ghost center. At the center our friends were challenged to get their friendly ghost that they cut out to spin and twirl like a helicoptor propeller. They were given a paper clip to attach to the bottom, and then had to figure out how to bend the ghost's arms. It took some trial and error, and plenty of giggles to figure it out, but we soon had spinning ghosts twirling all over the Library Makerspace. 

One of Mrs.Folluo's friends shows off a spinning ghost ready for flight

The third autumn themed center was the Dancing Shapes activity. Students chose from different fall tissue paper shapes, and after they decorated them with markers, were instructed to tape the bottom of the shape to the table. From here, they got to begin exploring the magic of static electricity. Once they charged a balloon with static electricity, either by rubbing it on the carpet, with felt, on their shirt, or on their head, they held the balloon over their tissure paper shape and delightedly watched it "dance". There was even a QR code for them to scan with their device that linked to a video explaining the science behind static electricity. Our friends were amazed!

Miss Whorton's friends trying out the Dancing Shapes center

Finally, we wanted to share an amazing opportunity for students ages 9-12 and their parents. UMSL's College of Education is offering a robot programming class two Sundays in November and a second session two Sundays in December. 

During the class, participants will learn the programming required for at least two different kinds of robots. The best part is that the programming languages used to make your robots do tricks will give you a better understanding of computer programming in general. No experience is necessary, and it is a great way to try something new with your child! 

For more information contact Amber Bell-Christian at (314) 516-4813.

To register for the workshop contact Jennifer Clemente at (314) 516-5994 or to register online click here to register for Section A and click here to register for Section B.

Genius Hour in Ms. Krueger's Classroom

Many of our teachers are engaging in Genius Hour here at Sappington.  Genius Hour is a time where students are encouraged to explore topics of interest and create products to showcase their learning.  During Genius Hour, Ms. Krueger's class was interested in learning about how design an app.  Ms. Krueger hosted a video chat with Kristi, a former computer scientist at YouTube and Google.   Check out this Google Hangout to see how her students learned about designing apps and creating websites.

Museum of 3-D Curiousities

Over the past several weeks, our Museum of 3-D Curiousities has been filling up with some amazing designs!

The 1st graders have been able to choose a design from Thingiverse to print when their name is drawn. They have selected some awesome 3-D designs, and we look forward to printing one for each of our 1st grade and kindergarten friends throughout the school year.

Here are a few of the designs the 1st graders have picked to have printed from Thingiverse:

kitten in yellow by Sydney (1st grade, Porte), giraffe in red by Hailey (1st grade, Boughman), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle in blue by Alex (1st grade, Altmann), Sappington Elementary Super S in green made for Dr.Hamby from all of the students

crown in yellow by Logan (1st grade, Porte), Clarus the Dog Cow in white by Kaylie (1st grade, Fritz), Minecraft pick axe in red by Connor (1st grade, Fritz), and Hello Kitty in purple by Claudia (1st grade, Fritz)

Our 2nd through 5th grade friends have been busy designing their very own 3-D creations on Tinkercad. Tinkercad is the program we are using in the Sappington Library Makerspace to learn the 3-D design process from start to finish. They begin their design from scratch with a blank work plane, and the sky is the limit to what they can create. Each design takes approximately 1 hour to print, so once a student has completed their design they must put their name on the waiting list to have it printed using our MakerBot Replicator 3-D Printer. Our friends who have completed their designs have been very patient waiting for their turn to print, and have enjoyed seeing what their fellow designers have created in the meantime!

Here are a few of the designs that the 2nd through 5th graders have made so far:

house in white by Mia (2nd grade, Hageman), greenhouse in green by Maddie (5th grade, Folluo), pyramid with initials in yellow by Micah (4th grade, Timmerman), lamp in blue by Tamish (5th grade, McArthur), star with initial in purple and blue by Dylan (5th grade, Krueger), nameplate in blue and purple by Elizabeth (3rd grade, Clancy)

 Enderman in yellow by Xander (5th grade, McArthur), Creeper in green by Will (5th grade, Krueger)

egg man in white by Chris (5th grade, Krueger), heart with initial in purple by Alison (2nd grade, Steeno), key chain in blue by Sarah Beth (3rd grade, Skouby), initial rings in purple by Amina (5th grade, McArthur), nameplate with shapes in blue by Gavin (5th grade, Wolf)

It takes some imagination and a lot of patience to complete a design, and we are very proud of our friends that have finished creating a 3-D object so far. We can't wait to see what the the rest of the students will create! 

"I like our Makerspace because there are lots of ways to show your creativity."

-Morgan (5th grade, Krueger)

Digital Makerspace Fun!

The students have been exploring several of the digital tools that the library makerspace has to offer. Specifically, they have been learning how to use several photography and cinematography apps, as well as our new microphones and recording software in our two new recording studios. 

Students were given tips on how to take better pictures with their devices. They learned about the Rule of Thirds, and discovered how just by changing the way you take a picture (up high, down low, tilting the camera, etc.), they can become more interesting images. Then, they were able to edit and enhance their images using a free app called Snapseed. 

Here are some examples of their amazing photos:

They also tried out time-lapse recording on the free app, Hyperlapse, and stop motion movie making using the free app, Lego Movie Maker. The students worked really hard using both apps, and quickly discovered how patient you must be to be a movie maker using both techniques.

students setting up their device to record a timelapse of the traffic outside using Hyperlapse

Below is an AWESOME example of one of the stop motion movies that one of our Sappington 4th grade friends, Logan, made using the Lego Movie Maker app:

friends making stop motion movies using the Lego Movie Maker app

We also had many students interested in making short movies and movie trailers in real time using the app, iMovie. You can purchase iMovie for any Apple device by clicking here. Once again, the students found out that making a movie takes time, and it requires someone willing to stay behind the camera to play the very important role of the movie director. 

Some 5th graders from Mr.Wolf's class made a pretty amazing movie trailer! Check it out!

We also had our 2 brand new recording studios open to the students. Any student that chose to explore the recording studios were able to use our new Snowball microphones, and our new recording software, Voki.

students recording using our Snowball mics and Voki software

It's been a great couple of weeks, and we are having a great time using our new iPads to explore all the digital tools that the library makerspace has to offer!!

Looking for New Photography Apps?

If would like to see what your children are learning during their digital makerspace time, come check out the display outside the library.

   

Exploring Digital Photography and Video Production

Students are starting their next unit on digital photography and video production in the library Makerspace.  They started their lesson with our in house photography expert, Mrs. Grebe.  She gave them lots of great tips on how to take better pictures such as changing where you put your subject and how to let light in to your picture.

Students were given an opportunity to explore taking pictures with the iPads.

They also had time to explore various centers where they could learn about different apps that support digital photography and editing.

Snapseed

With this app, students had an opportunity to crop their photos, alter them in black and white, and sharpen the details of their images.

Lego Movie Maker

Students had the opportunity to explore stop motion photography to create a scene with their legos and then use the app to bring it to life.