5th Graders Sharing Genius Hour Projects

Our Makerspace was on Ch 4 News!

Back to School and Back to More Makerspace Exploration

Transitioning back into our routine following the winter break can sometimes be tough, but our friends in the makerspace are diving right in! As our 3rd-5th graders continue to work on their passion projects to gear up for our Maker Fair in February (details coming soon), our 1st and 2nd grade friends were able to continue their exploration of our LegoWeDo robotic kits.

This week they were able to work in groups and build a  more complex project that performed a pretty cool function! Our friends built a kicking robot that kicked "snowballs" (cotton balls & packaging peanuts).

Students took turns as they made their way through the step-by-step instructions using the Lego WeDo software. It was interesting and fun to see the groups work out the challenges they faced during the build process and to celebrate their victories.

Once the build was complete, they needed to program their kicker to perform its function...kick the snowball!!! The programming portion requires the students to click and drag blocks that each have an assigned function. Before the kicking began, each person was asked to record their prediction of how far they thought the snowball would go, and then they were able test the kicker. After each friend had their turn kicking the snowball, they measured the distance it went, recorded that measurement, and then compared it to their prediction. Some of our 1st and 2nd graders were very close to their original guess, and others were amazed at how much further the snowball went than what they predicted. 

The smiles were everywhere once they were able to see their kickers in action! Some of our friends even created a new program to keep their robot kicking. Some of our friends from Mrs.Porte's class even challenged themselves to kick as many snowballs in a row as possible. It was awesome!

We are also challenging all of Sappington to sign up for the St.Louis County Library Warm Up with Reading program! It is for kids, teens, and adults! With the temperatures outside becoming  bitter cold, what better way to spend your time than to curl up with a good book? Sign up at your local branch, and earn entries for some great prizes including Kindles, Magic House memberships, and Wherenberg gift cards!

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!