As we designed our makerspace, we referenced Invent to Learn, Lucie’s class, standards and things we thought we relevant to our classrooms and differentiation.
We also created a rubric that will help us assess our space.
Makerspace Rubric
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Monthly Archives: August 2014
What’s Consumable? What’s Not?
As we ordered supplies we were mindful of lots of things: appealing to boys & girls, creating a space that works for a variety of learning styles, and having enough supplies for our students to explore with.
One thing we are thinking about is what will be consumable and what won’t? Some supplies are easy to decide, but others aren’t. Projects created with LittleBits and Arduino will have to be documented, disassembled and then returned to our maker space. These are expensive and not consumable. On the other side LED lights, craft materials, wire and conductive tape are clearly consumable and will need to be replaced each year (or sooner?). But what about the items that aren’t as easily categorized as clearly consumable or clearly not?Items like hobby motors, sensors & switches, and Lilypad Twinkle are not as easy to decide. If we do one jitterbug project, that could wipe out most of the motors in our maker space.
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- Consumable
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- Non-consumable
Thinking about this we had an idea. We are going to keep extras of some of these items and offer families the opportunity to purchase them and therefore, not have to disassemble their project. Then we will reorder material with the money we collect. This will replenish our supplies and prevent popular inexpensive (but not cheap) items available for students in our maker space.
We are also going to provide parents with resources to purchase maker materials for their child to use at home or in class. We want to ignite students creativity and imagination and parents can help support this.
Ordering on a Shoestring
Ahhhh ordering…..Finally it was time to order materials for our maker space. We had some idea of what we wanted and needed, but it quickly became clear we would be better at ordering next year once we used the materials and figured out what worked for our students. For example, we were not sure which coin cell battery holders to get; they are expensive and as novices we are not sure how they all work. We got some of each, so we can learn how to use them and be educated on what works best with certain projects.
We began ordering supplies for our new space by thinking about what we explored in Lucie’s course. We came to this course as a group of three, two women and one man. Gregg was not interested at all in the e-textiles while we loved them. We were not interested in creating paper bridges that would hold the most reams of paper, but Gregg was completely engaged. So when we were ordering we tried to consider all learners: both boys and girls. We learned from our week at the Generator, boys and girls are different and approach learning differently. We purchased materials with this in mind.
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- Gregg loved this challenge!
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- Kate enjoyed the eTextiles.
At school Gregg and Aimee both had LINX Kits, stored in boxes in a closet deep in the school. With this course and project, we realized they were perfect for the makerspace. We suspect that boys will be more drawn to these building materials, while the e-textiles will appeal more to girls. The challenge will be to break these stereotypes, so we have some playing to do!
Lucie’s course offered the best variety of materials to create with, and we know its important to have a wide variety supplies. Here is what we ordered:
- LED Lights . . . we ordered a variety of sizes and types of LED lights.
- Motors . . . we decided on basic hobby motors to start
- Sensors . . . we ordered light, motion and sound sensors
- Switches . . . we ordered Lilypad on/off switches and a variety pack of button switches
- Batteries . . . we ordered coin cell batteries for eTextile projects
- Battery Holders . . . we ordered a few types to see which we prefered
- Wire . . . Jump wires, rolls of wire and alligator clips
- Conductive material . . . we ordered conductive thread and tape
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- Spark Fun
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- Amazon
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- Amazon
We still have more to get, but plan on taking trips to arts and craft stores, the dollar store and hardware stores for items like wire strippers, needle-nosed pliers, felt, feathers, and other maker materials. Our teammate, Gregg, got a huge bin of craft supplies for three dollars at a yard sale! We wish we would have found it before him.
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