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Mini Snow Machine by Kiwi Crate | Get STEAM & STEM Projects

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Mini Snow Machine by Kiwi Crate | Get STEAM & STEM Projects

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mini snow machine winter crafts winter crafts for kids

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This looks like a fun project for someone to do and bring to the Maker Faire

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Summit's Maker Space: Family STEAM Night

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Summit's Maker Space: Family STEAM Night

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Last week, we hosted our first ever STEAM Night. What is STEAM? STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math.

Over 100 people graced our cafeteria, Makerspace, library, halls, art room, gym and various classrooms. It was a RAGING success! Upon entering, each family received a STEAM Night packet that listed each activity, location, and extension or enrichment questions to help follow up or promote deeper level thinking. We also had a raffle at the end if students showed work on their packet! When planning, we looked at a great blog called Classroom Quests for a lot of inspiration but also used some ideas we've found are fun while teaching in the Makerspace.

The Activities and Extension/En

Challenge: Build a sculpture or structure using the materials provided by Ms. La Grange.

Challenge: Answer the clues and complete the physical challenges to solve the final puzzle created by Mr. Dirkmann.

This was a fun way to incorporate physical movement with mind challenging questions. For example, the first clue was for families to count the number of squares in the picture, add a zero to that number and run to that room number (The answer is 40, so they ran to room 400)

Challenge: Try using a piece of equipment you've never used before in the Makerspace.

Challenge: Show a family member something you've learned how to do this year in the Makerspace.

How would you use this tool/skill/information in life outside of school (a job, a hobby, etc.)?

Challenge: Get a challenge card from the baskets and complete a Lego building or math challenge activity.

What math did you have to use in building your creation?

What would you do differently if you were trying the same challenge again?

All of our Makerspace kits and supplies were out and available for our families to try. It was a great way for parents to see some of the things their kids are actually doing in the space!

Challenge: Use the binary code key to create a bracelet that spells your initials in binary code.

We used a key from the Code.org website that helped us set these up. While it was a fun activity, the idea of "binary code" is pretty advanced and we might want to explain it further during our classes. Compared to all the other fun things we had going on, this station wasn't as popular.

Challenge: Using the materials provided, create a catapult to launch a puff ball.

How far can you get a puffball to launch?

Can you change your catapult design to make the puffball go further?

How does the weight of what you launch affect the distance? (Try launching a small eraser)

This station was a huge hit! We made some examples but we encouraged students to try and make their own design. Then we put graph paper on the floor and let them launch their puff balls and mark where their's landed in comparison to other students. We also provided small erasers so they could see how weight had an affect on distance.

Challenge: Have fun with this mini Cardboard Challenge! Create anything you'd like!

Our first Cardboard Challenge was such a hit, we figured why not set up another?! It's amazing what families can create with cardboard and duct tape! Challenge: Create a Thaumatrope (an optical illusion toy from the 1800s).

What happens with you spin the straw more quickly or more slowly?

Try drawing different pictures. What kinds of pictures work best?

Choose one thing to change (that's the variable) and make a prediction.

This station was fun and easy! Definitely something both young and old can do!

Challenge: Use the Green Screen and iPads to be a news reporter.

What other ways can you think of to use the Green Screen?

Our Green Screen is relatively new and we love showing off all the fun things we can do with it.
Challenge: Go on Code.org and play any coding game you'd like.

This station literally ran itself. We set up our computers and let
Code.org do all the work! Most of our students have been introduced to at least one, if not multiple, activities on the website so we wanted to give families a chance to see how easy coding can be!

Challenge: Go on Code.org and play any coding game you'd like.

This was a craft and also a fun math game. Quiznos donated boxes that worked perfect to make a cash register and we had so much play money, it looked like a robbed a play bank.

Challenge: Meet the members of the various Robotics teams and see how their robots work.

How did the Robotics teams get involved in making robots?

What could you do now to prepare for middle or high school Robotics?

We had two different high school Robotics teams bring their robots, equipment, and videos to share with our students. Our students got to drive the robotics and really interact with the equipment. Some students never left this area! I think we have some future Robotics members on our hands!

Challenge: Examine the archaeological site, also known as "the cookie." Map your "site" and extract any artifacts, also known as "the chocolate chip."

Graph how many artifacts (chocolate chips) you found. How does your number compare with others?

What was the most difficult part of your archaeological excavation?

For this station, students mapped a cookie and then dug out the chocolate chips with toothpicks. Then they graphed how many chocolate chip cookies were in their cookie on an-all school graph. Not only did we do science and math but we also learned that name-brand cookies had more chocolate chips than the generic version! And we got to eat a cookie when we were done!

Challenge: Launch three angry birds and see how many cardboard bricks you can knock down.

Which launcher worked best and why?

Did you have a strategy when launching? What was it?

We (and by "we," I mean our Guidance Counselor Ms. Jens) bought three stuffed Angry Birds from Amazon and we used different launchers from our Phy. Ed. department to knock over cardboard bricks that our 5K rooms let us borrow. Students had to change the angle and force at which they were launching to be successful.

Things we would do again:

Invite as many Robotics members as we could find! The older students were great with our elementary students and their work was inspiring.

We used Event Brite to have families sign up before they came and that helped us to plan enough activities and have enough materials. We will definitely use that again!

Create a packet of activities with extension questions. The night really ran itself once everything was set up.

I'm lying...we had AMAZING staff members help facilitate each station and we couldn't have done it without their support of our school and the Makerspace program.

We are already planning for our next STEAM night for the 15-16 school year. Any ideas?! Let us know!

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Last week, we hosted our first ever STEAM Night. What is STEAM? STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math. Over 100 people graced our cafeteria, Makerspace, library, halls, art room, gym and various classrooms. It was a RAGING success!

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The marshmallow challenge is a classic problem-solving exercise.

On this page, you'll find everything you need to understand the point of this challenge and why kindergarteners can easily win against business school graduates.

Short Summary

The marshmallow challenge is a simple design exercise and team-building activity for small groups.

The groups have to build the tallest free-standing structure from some spaghetti sticks, tape, and string and place one whole marshmallow on the top.

Running the challenge requires about 1 hour and some simple household items.

The exercise teaches essential lessons about the creative product development process and the nature of collaboration.

The challenge was invented by Peter Skillman and popularized by Tom Wujec.

Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash

Rules for the Marshmallow Challenge

The rules are easy; in 18 minutes, each group can use 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of masking tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow to build the tallest free-standing structure with the entire marshmallow on the top.

To run the challenge yourself, check out our detailed step-by-step instructions.

The teams can break the spaghetti and cut the tape and string into any sized pieces.

A team can also use the materials as much or as little as they wish. For example, if they can decide to use all or no spaghetti, the same applies to the masking tape and string.

The exercise should be done indoors, and each team should have a steady table.

This challenge needs to be friendly and encouraging. However, the following three instructions need to be strictly respected.

You Must Use the Entire Marshmallow

The marshmallow mustn't be split into smaller pieces and must be placed on the top of the structure.

Build the Tallest Free-standing Structure

The groups can hold the structure until the end of the exercise. After that, the structure with the marshmallow on the top must stand on its own.

The team with the tallest structure measured is the winning team.

Stop When the Time Runs Out

The exercise is 18 minutes long. Therefore, the teams must stop working on their structure at the 18-minute mark. After this, if a team tries to support their structure, they're automatically disqualified.

Ideal Participants

The marshmallow challenge is suitable for teams of all ages and backgrounds.

It can significantly benefit students, professionals, and organizations seeking engaging activities to enhance collaboration and innovation.

The challenge is helpful for teams to encourage them to think outside the box and brainstorm about a new idea.

It's a highly recommended exercise for teams new to agile project management.

Design Exercise And Team Building Activity

The marshmallow challenge helps the participants to improve their innovative and problem-solving skills by helping to discover the value of prototyping.

The challenge is also a great team-building activity; it improves team collaboration and communication.

The fun nature of the game will create a memorable experience for everybody.

How Do People Perform

Usually, first people orient themselves to the task, talk about it, discuss how it would look, and try to create some hierarchy within their team for who is doing what.

Then they try to create a detailed plan, neatly organize their materials, and start building.

They build the spaghetti sticks into ever-growing structures, taped and bound together.

And just before the time runs out, they place the marshmallow on the top. Most of the time, the structure collapses because of the unexpected weight.

Different groups perform differently based on their background. For example, business school students, kindergarteners, and architects deliver the most exciting results.

Business School Students

Business school students are constantly fighting for power; for them, it's essential to know who the project's leader will be.

Besides that, they are trained to find the single right plan for the task and then execute it.

During the challenge, they focus on breaking down tasks, spending most time planning who is doing what, the structure of the spaghetti, and how the tape and string would hold them together. And when they have almost no time left, they place the marshmallow on the top, and the crisis begins.

They don't try to build a mediocre structure just to see their plan works. Instead, they want to build the perfect one.

Kindergarten School Students

Kindergarteners create taller and more interesting structures than their adult competitors.

Their secret is that they don't fight for power or plan the whole project. Instead, they build and build. Always keeping the marshmallow on the top. They build a higher structure than before.

They are building prototypes, continuously improving their already working structure with the marshmallow on the top. With new structures, they get immediate feedback about what works and what doesn't. This is the essence of the iterative design process.

Architects And Engineers

Architects also tend to overlook the weight of the marshmallow. Fortunately, they still build working marshmallow tower structures.

They understand that triangles and self-reinforcing geometrical patterns are the key to building stable structures to support more weight.

They already have the skills to build good structures.

What Can We Learn From This?

Most teams have a hidden assumption about the weight of the marshmallow. They're confident it's so light that their structure will easily hold it, and they wouldn't need to worry about it. When they try to place it on the top, to their surprise, the building collapses under its weight.

The marshmallow symbolizes the hidden assumptions about the project.

Every project has its own hidden assumptions nobody considers until the very last moment. They can only be discovered by building working prototypes that can be repeatedly improved to reach the best result.

Prototyping Matters

The exercise highlights the importance of prototyping and iterative design.

Successful startups use iterative design to get to the market fast and test their product's viability before shoveling more money and time into useless functionalities.

First, they identify the minimum viable product containing only the essential functionalities of their imagined final product.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Marshmallow Challenge?

The marshmallow challenge is a simple design exercise and team-building activity. The participants are split into smaller competing groups to build the tallest free-standing structure using spaghetti, tape, and string with an entire marshmallow on the top. The exercise teaches an essential lesson about creative product development and the importance of prototyping.

What Materials Do I Need for the Marshmallow Challenge?

You need 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of masking tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow for each participating group. For example, 16 oz spaghetti, 1 roll of masking tape, 1 roll of string, and 1 bag of marshmallows should be enough for more than 20 groups.

What Are the Rules for the Marshmallow Challenge?

The rules for the marshmallow challenge are easy; in 18 minutes, each group can use 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of masking tape, and one yard of string to build the tallest freestanding structure with an entire marshmallow on the top. Check out the step-by-step instructions about how to organize and run the challenge.

What Does the Marshmallow Challenge Teach?

The marshmallow challenge teaches an important lesson to build prototypes instead of trying to build the perfect solution. The participants have a hidden assumption that the marshmallow is light, and their spaghetti structure can easily support it. They only focus on building one perfect structure without trying to build a simple one to test their assumptions. Their structure collapses when they place the marshmallow on the top at the last minute.

Every project has its own hidden assumptions that can remain hidden until the last minute and then ruin the project. Therefore creating working prototypes as early as possible is crucial.

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The Marshmallow Challenge is a simple, and instructive design activity that promotes and teaches valuable lessons in collaboration, innovation, and creativity.

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Crafting Professional Development for Maker Educators | Edutopia

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Crafting Professional Development for Maker Educators | Edutopia

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When you start out embedding making in the curriculum, it is essential to share with teachers the relevance of making as problem solving and the importance of process so that they don't end up with glitter catapult assignments or extra crafty English language arts assignments that turn out more like craft experiments than true project-based learning. Sit down with teachers and look through the curriculum for places where a hands-on project could create learning across disciplines.

Whether you are teaching librarians or teachers, your professional development needs to get all educators to understand that the process and meaning a student gets from making are the most important aspects to making and education. The final product may be faulty, and that's okay. At my campus, I work on explaining to all of our students that persevering after failure is what leads to innovation. Making stuff is cool, but the real learning happens from the meaning you get from making.

Crafting excellent maker professional development should focus on process and creativity, hands-on learning, documentation of process, and reflection, all while helping educators make a reading-writing connection with making. All of those qualities help students in their documenting and reflecting on learning, as well.

My Maker PD

What follows is an example of maker professional development that I lead for librarian educators. As a way for librarians to document their learning for the day, we create maker journals (inspired by Maker Ed) to build in time for reflection. (I use the same journals for student research.)

We make books out of scratch paper with construction paper as the cover. I share examples of other handmade notebook covers made out of upcycled materials (like cereal boxes and poster board), and then we get to the important work of filling up the notebooks with learning.

Exploring and Analyzing Maker Lingo

To start the day, librarian educators explore Jay Silver's article " Invention Literacy" by using a write-around text-on-text activity I discovered on Buffy Hamilton's blog. After reading Silver's article, the librarians analyze, reflect on, question, and add to it by walking around the room and writing their thoughts and opinions on giant pieces of paper.

In the workshop, we also spend time together defining making, tinkering, prototype, iteration, design challenge, and design thinking as a way of exploring the terminology. It's important to remind participants and leaders not to define making too narrowly. After group gallery walks and discussion, the librarians write new definitions in their own words in their handmade maker journals to reflect on this new thinking.

Tinkering With Projects and Materials

The next step is to get practice with maker tools. Teachers and librarians, like their students, need hands-on experience with maker tools and with playing to learn as that helps them build creative confidence.

Documentation and Reflection

It's easy to skip this next step; however, doing so is detrimental to incorporating a long-lasting makerspace in your school. One key to learning through play is to document and reflect on learning as makers go through the process. I've recently added having my participants draw nontechnical or technical drawings of materials because of a conversation I had with Mark Barnett. Mark has his students create technical drawings just like an engineer would when designing prototypes. I find that by drawing the materials, the educators familiarize themselves with the tools in a more intimate way and start to assimilate important information about each maker tool.

To aid reflection, I borrow a prompt I learned from d.lab coordinator Patrick Benfield, who has students test, play with, and push the boundaries of materials as they create material libraries in their maker journals. He asks his students, "What is possible with this?"

So now, after educators in my workshops play with Makey Makey or paper circuits, they spend some time reflecting in their journals on the possibilities they see with their new tools. "What is possible with this material? How can we make curriculum connections? How can this be a great learning tool?"

After Reflection

It's important for teachers, librarians, and administrators to see examples of these materials being taken further. After play and reflection, I share concrete examples of inventions and creations my own students have made either in their free time or during their Invention Literacy Research project:

Next Step?

After your teachers get comfortable with making and tinkering activities, follow up a few months later to see how well they are connecting activities to standards. See where they need more help and offer support to facilitate a long-lasting makerspace.

More Resources

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Crafting Professional Development for Maker Educators | Edutopia

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When you start out embedding making in the curriculum, it is essential to share with teachers the relevance of making as problem solving and the importance of process so that they don't end up with glitter catapult assignments or extra crafty English language arts assignments that turn out more like craft experiments than true project-based learning.

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Spaghetti and glue...it's all students had to work with in the annual Spaghetti Bridge Building competition. Here's some highlights from the event, which also gives back to the community.

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GET INVOLVED AND GET YOUR KIDS EXCITED ABOUT MAKING!

Get your school, teachers, and students involved:

Facilitate a workshop

Host a booth

Showcase what YOU make

Or simply attend for a day of creativity and fun

Complete a Call for Makers form OR complete RSVP form by May 31 to save your booth space.

Questions? Send an email to: educators@makerfaireshasta.com

Student Challenges

We are excited to announce student team challenges that will be taking place at the Shasta County Mini Maker Faire designed specifically for kids. Teachers, bring your class! After school programs, bring your students! Club leaders, bring a team! Kids, get your buddies together and start Making!

Student challenges will be posted here as they become available.

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Educators - Shasta County Mini Maker Faire

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Educators CALLING ALL TEACHERS, EDUCATORS, HOMESCHOOLERS, AND LEADERS OF YOUTH GROUPS! GET INVOLVED AND GET YOUR KIDS EXCITED ABOUT MAKING! BUILD - MAKE - IMAGINE - HACK Get your school, teachers, and students involved: Facilitate a workshop Host a booth Showcase what YOU make Or ...

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The 2016 Stewart MakerFair: Featuring the Awesome MakerCave

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The 2016 Stewart MakerFair: Featuring the Awesome MakerCave

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The 2016 Stewart MakerFair

Every year since we started our makerspace in January 2014, we've held a Maker Fair during the last conference night of the year (See our 2014 MakerFair and our 2015 MakerFair). This year's was even bigger and more awesome. We had more interactive student projects and I had more student volunteers than I knew what to do with, which is an awesome problem to have. My students pretty much ran the show and everything came together fantastically. In addition to a ton of parents, students and teachers, we also had both district library supervisors, a school board member and several media specialists and teachers from other schools visit our Makerfair. Check out the video below to get an overview of the event:

Maker Stations

One of the goals of our MakerFair is to give our guests the opportunity to try out some of the tools in our makerspace hands-on. We setup several tables, each with a different tool, and I had students on hand to help teach our guests how to use them. For our 2016 Stewart Makerfair, we had a MaKeyMaKey setup on our projector with an assortment of fruit, veggies and other conductive materials. We had another table with Cubelets, and there were some awesome helicopters and lighthouses being built. Many students got excited about making lights and buzzers go off with our littleBits and the fan launcher was a big hit with our Snap Circuits.

Make & Takes

Another focus of our MakerFair is to let our guests make something that they can take home with them. The Perler beads were an ever popular station for this - I had the iron on most of the day. (I'm actually planning a post that focuses solely on Perler beads because they're one of my students favorite activities). We had our potholder loom weaving set up, which is another big hit. A new addition this year was recycled book origami. One of my students came up with this idea and ran the station the whole night. We cut out pages from damaged and weed books and put them out with markers and origami instructions. Because origami is way more cool when it's made from books 🙂

Special Guest

As in previous years, we welcomed Tampa Hackerspace into our library for our 2016 Stewart Makerfair. They brought a 3D printer and some other cool gadgets and talked to our guests about the programs that their space offers. I am not anywhere near an expert on 3D printing, but a lot of members of our community are interested in it, so Tampa Hackerspace really helps to bridge that gap for us.

Student Projects

A major part of our 2016 Stewart Makerfair involved showcasing some of the projects that my students created during the year. We ended up highlighting four of them this year, and they're pretty awesome.

The K'nex Roller Coaster

Every year, my students love to put together our K'nex Roller Coaster kit. Yes, it is just following instructions. But they're learning teamwork, collaboration, problem solving, etc while they build it. And they often start developing their own ideas, like the multiple variations of cars they came up with. My group that put it together was so proud of what they created, and several of them stayed throughout the event to share about how they built it.

The Maker Cave

This project will be getting it's own post soon because there's so much to say about it. My after-school Stewart Makers club had been working on this one for weeks. They created a giant cave in-between two of our library stacks, made mostly out of cardboard. Since it blocked access to the books, they had to take it down and reassemble it every week. It was seriously one of the coolest things my kids made this year, and there were students hanging out in it during most of the night.

The K'nex Crossbow

This project is what kicked off our Rubber Band Launcher Challenge earlier in the year (you can actually see several more photos of it there). We launched it several times during our MakerFair and guests were able to try it out as well. If you watched the video above, you'll also get to see the accessories kit that my student built to go along with it - the base of the crossbow is modular and can attach to a scythe and trident. The whole thing has a carrying case to carry all of the parts in - made entirely out of K'nex of course 🙂

Dash vs. Sphero Obstacle Course

This was a huge hit at our MakerFair. My student created a huge, cardboard obstacle course for a game of Dash vs. Sphero. There was a whole story behind it. Apparently Sphero and Dash got into an argument, so now Sphero wants to get back at Dash by knocking Dot of his perch. But Sphero has to navigate an obstacle course first, then avoid being tagged by Dash. He has to knock down Dot and then make it back out of the obstacle course. My students got REALLY into this. We were jumping up and down, shouting and cheering for Dash and Sphero. It was way more intense than you might think it would be.

Our 2016 Stewart Makerfair was an all-around awesome event and it's definitely something that we'll continue to do every year.

Have you held a MakerFair at your school? What types of activities did you have?

Diana Rendina, MLIS, is the media specialist at Tampa Preparatory School, an independent 6-12 in Tampa, FL. Previously, she was the media specialist at Stewart Middle Magnet School for seven years, where she founded their library makerspace. She is the creator of the blog RenovatedLearning.com & is also a monthly contributor to AASL Knowledge Quest. Diana is the winner of the 2016 ISTE Outstanding Young Educator Award, the 2015 ISTE Librarians Network Secondary Award, the 2015 AASL Frances Henne Award & the 2015 SLJ Build Something Bold Award. She is an international speaker on the Maker Movement and has presented at conferences including AASL, FETC & ISTE. Diana co-authored Challenge-Based Learning in the School Library Makerspace with Colleen and Aaron Graves and is also the author Reimagining Library Spaces: Transform Your Space on Any Budget.

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The 2016 Stewart MakerFair: Featuring the Awesome MakerCave & More

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The 2016 Stewart MakerFair Every year since we started our makerspace in January 2014, we've held a Maker Fair during the last conference night of the year (See our 2014 MakerFair and our 2015 MakerFair). This year's was even bigger and more awesome.

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Project Library - Community Science Workshop Network

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Project Library - Community Science Workshop Network

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Project Library - Community Science Workshop Network

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Mini Maker Faires are independently produced celebrations of local maker culture. Our city-facing Mini Maker Faire program provides tools and resources to help others to make a Maker Faire event that reflects the creativity, spirit and ingenuity of their community. Our K-12 School Maker Faire program provides a similar experience scaled for a school community.

The first Maker Faire started in 2006 in San Mateo, California, organized by the editors of Make: magazine. Our Bay Area event completed its 12th year, and has grown into a weekend-long celebration featuring 1100+ Makers and attracting 150,000 visitors. Our other flagship event takes place in New York City, this year with 700+ Makers, and 95,000+ attendees. 30+ larger-scale "featured" Maker Faires take place in cities such as Rome, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, Barcelona, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Seoul, Cairo, Kuwait, Detroit, Kansas City, Milwaukee, and San Diego. In 2017 there will be over 225 Maker Faires in 38 countries around the world, reaching over 1.5 million people in person.
Despite the size of these larger events, the idea of Maker Faire can work at almost any scale.
In its simplest form, Maker Faire creates opportunities for conversations with Makers. Tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students, and entrepreneurs all come together to show their projects and to talk about what they have learned. It is a community-based learning event that inspires everyone to become a maker, and connect with people and projects in their local community. Yet, Maker Faire is a "fair" - fun, engaging, and exciting.

It is a special experience, but the fundamental design of the event is one that can be reproduced almost anywhere. Thus we have built a Mini Maker Faire licensing program where interested organizations and individuals can apply to organize a Mini Maker Faire in their own communities.

To organize a Mini Maker Faire, you must apply for and receive a license. Before applying, please take the time to read through Vision, Planning, Process, Guidelines and Resources carefully. We sincerely look forward to learning more about your maker community, and helping you to celebrate and nurture it.

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Mini Maker Faires are independently produced celebrations of local maker culture. Our city-facing Mini Maker Faire program provides tools and resources to help others to make a Maker Faire event that reflects the creativity, spirit and ingenuity of their community. Our K-12 School Maker Faire program provides a similar experience scaled for a school community.

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Classroom Packs Shine in Bay Area Schools

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Classroom Packs Shine in Bay Area Schools

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One young man placed his LED bling into a small box and proposed on bended knee to a young lady in class. It was touching.

Love emerging in the classroom! Students shining with the glow of learning! We have no idea if the "young lady" accepted this proposal, but it does seem like the dozens of kits Maker Faire sent out to schools were life-changing for a few students whose teachers participated in a pilot program we led this spring to try out some new classroom kits.

As part of Maker Media's changing educational outreach, we prototyped a new school-focused kit we called Circuit Curious, pictured above. We delivered this first version of the Maker Faire Classroom Pack to 16 teachers of 575 students at a dozen schools in San Francisco, East Palo Alto, Oakland, Daly City, and Forestville. Our boxes included materials for groups of 12 to engage in five different, fun basic circuit-related activities.

You can do these activities yourself! You can purchase the boxes' inventory online, from a "dollar store," and from RadioShack.

Additional resources on the activities can be found in the Maker Faire Classroom Pack 2014: Overview PDF and at the following links:

Sculpted Circuits aka Squishy Circuits. Light up your sculpture with conductive dough, LEDs, motors, 9V batteries, and alligator clip test leads. You can mix up the insulating dough using easy-to-find grocery store items. Two students were trying to create Ironman and had the body formed when they realized that by wrapping the red dough around the insulating dough, they could attach more LEDs and make it light up all around.

Scribble Machines. Create a "vibrobot" that draws with the included pens, motors, batteries, tape, cups, eraser weights, and a few fun things to decorate with. One teacher reported that the students "think it is funny that the front window is covered with their scribbles."

Paper Circuits. Students can make light-up drawings with the provided LEDs, clear tape, copper tape, binder clips, and batteries. One teacher reported that "These teenagers were like little kids making their Mother's Day cards, and it was rather sweet. The best part was that they were making circuits, which I felt was totally appropriate for the class." Another teacher said, "I got a lot of really creative drawings that the student made light up. It was another way to create art and have the students get really engaged. It was also great to display for our welcome night."

LED Binder Clip Bling. Students can make wearable light-up accessories using the provided LEDs, batteries, binder clips, foamies sheets, glue dots, chenille stems, and googly eyes. One teacher reported that she liked "how creative the students were. When I did a practice run through at home with my husband, I never imagined how much cooler my students bling would be than mine. They were amazingly creative!!!

Light Up and Paint. If you have a computer with a webcam, you can make light paintings using the great little tool GlowDoodle! Hint: download the desktop version of Glow Doodle and use the "s" key to save your light paintings locally on your computer in the application's folder.

Students loved the activities! Here are some of the things they did and said.

After each day of Maker [activities], my students told me the same thing, "This was the best day of class ever!"

As the scribble machines were up and running, all my students were seen with their eyes wide open and huge smiles on their faces. It was great seeing the pride they had in the machine they had made.

I have many students that don't speak English and often don't participate in class. This activity really made them shine, because they weren't held back by a lack of language. They were capable of figuring it out, and were so proud to show what they created.

"I liked seeing the magic in the battery and the lights, thinking about making my own designs, making my own thing and watching what others made."

I really enjoyed seeing my students working together and helping other team members out when they needed to problem solve. It was great seeing their faces light up when they turned on their scribble machine and saw it in action.

My student really liked making the circuits. They loved being able to play with a variety of lights and batteries and making different connections and exploring what did and did not work. They loved that it was an art activity so they got to create gifts for people and they got to keep the circuits they created.

My students were engaged throughout the whole process and most of them shared it as their good news at the end of the day.

One of my second graders created a sunset setting on the water and sand as his foam creation and lit it up with the LED light. It was so beautiful and carefully thought out and crafted.

One of my students who has had trouble academically and has had behavior issues really excelled with this project. He was the first to get his to work, and he beamed with pride. All of the other students were asking him for help, and I think he really needed that for his confidence.

Three students responded that "The most fun part of making was ...

"... the feeling you get when you make it by yourself!"

"... using something in everyday life and turning it into something completely different."

"... trying to figure out how to troubleshoot if there was something wrong."

Teachers loved the activities! Here are some of the things they said about them.

It brought joy into our Makerspace!

I really like this activity. The possibilities are endless, and it requires that they plan in order to achieve their final goal. The final product is really neat and it can be done at varying levels of challenge.

This was an absolutely amazing opportunity! I have never seen my students more motivated, engaged, and determined. It felt so great to see their pride and sense of accomplishment. I truly love that every student felt success and capable of making something. I also love that everything needed was provided and the guides were awesome!!!!

It is so inspirational to watch my students using their creative and innovative sides when working on these maker projects. There is more to school then just the core content areas and I am glad that I was able to bring these activities to the classroom and plan to use similar activities in my 4th grade classroom next year. A few simple supplies and directions led to amazing learning and problem solving experiences for my 2nd and 3rd graders.

I LOVED it! I am saving the materials that were reusable to continue doing every year with my students. AWESOME activities, very engaging, and very rewarding for our students.

It was wonderful! I work in a low-income school and the materials were all new. Many of the students have parents in construction or mechanics, so building and tinkering are not entirely unfamiliar. However, they have never used materials like this before. I am going to share the activities with the other teachers at my grade level.

I loved that the activity gave every kid the opportunity to succeed. The kids begged to spend more time working on them.

I had a lot of students who struggled with being creative - they are apt to follow instructions and have a tendency to hinge on the teacher telling them what to do. This activity helps them break out of that mold - no instructions on the foam creation, no limits to what you can create!

I liked that they were able to make something actually move. Never in their wildest dreams did they think that they would be using motors in our classroom. They also loved the giant roll of paper that I put out and the time I gave them to play with the machines. They had races, battles and tons of fun.

We'll be looking at all the feedback and improving the kits and getting a new set out in the coming months.

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Classroom Packs Shine in Bay Area Schools | Make:

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One young man placed his LED bling into a small box and proposed on bended knee to a young lady in class. It was touching. Love emerging in the classroom! Students shining with the glow of learning!

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Projects

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The Tinkering Studio is primarily an R&D laboratory on the floor of the Exploratorium, but whenever possible we try to share our projects, activities, and developing ideas following an "open source" model. Learn how you too can enjoy our activities in your kitchen, garage, classroom, and community.

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STEM Engineering Challenge Projects ~ TEN PACK #1 by Smart Chick | Teachers Pay Teachers

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STEM Engineering Challenge Projects ~ TEN PACK #1 by Smart Chick | Teachers Pay Teachers

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STEM Engineering Challenge Projects ~ TEN PACK #1

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STEM Engineering Challenge Projects Included in this TEN PACK: Geodesic Domes Bird Nests Straw Rockets House of Cards Marshmallow Catapults Paper Airplanes Sentence Strips Paper Bridges Cup Pyramids Egg Drop These packets contain all the information you need to make these

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This lesson will involve your students in geometry and measurement as they work as civil engineers to design and build their own bridge.

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Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational: Building a Straw House (STEM activity)

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Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational: Building a Straw House (STEM activity)

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Next time you read The Three Little Pigs, ask you child to make their own house out of straw ... well, rather, straws - drinking straws to be precise!
This activity will really bring out your child's inner engineer.

Plastic drinking straws (bendy ones work but others would be better)
Chenille stems (aka pipe cleaners)
Scissors

Cut several pipe cleaners into 2-3 inch long lengths.
Design. Build. Play. Create.
Challenge your child to build a house ... or anything really. By inserting half of a pipe cleaner in the end of one straw, bending it, and inserting another straw, you can start to make shapes, sculptures, and whatever your heart desires.
Note: You can add multiple pipe cleaners into the end of one straw!

Our six year old son, who loves to create paper sculptures and build with scrap wood, absolutely LOVED this. It was hard to tear him away at bed time, and I was told multiple times that we would continue to work on our house tomorrow. Who am I to argue?

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Next time you read The Three Little Pigs, ask you child to make their own house out of straw ... well, rather, straws - drinking straws to be precise! This activity will really bring out your child's inner engineer.

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Caine's Arcade Curriculum and Activity Kits | Caine's Arcade Caine's Arcade Curriculum and Activity Kits | A 9 year old's cardboard arcade that inspired the world.

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Caine's Arcade Curriculum and Activity Kits | Caine's Arcade Caine's Arcade Curriculum and Activity Kits | A 9 year old's cardboard arcade that inspired the world.

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A free community for kids who are making around the world, online and in your neighborhood. New, fun project how-to videos weekly on our channel.