9/26/2017. In preparation for the upcoming Halloween season, students began working on Wintercroft paper masks today. This project will take a few weeks to complete. Students were able to choose from 8-9 different mask templates purchased for the club. Students were asked to pay attention to how the masks were constructed with geometric angles, as they will be working with TinkerCad software during spring semester and will be able to design their own geometric objects for 3D printing. Each club member was assigned a file folder in the club cabinets this week to store their continuing project work, and project work leftover from last year was cleaned out and/or saved to the club's "inspiration file" as exemplars of particular projects (e.g., soft circuits, paper circuits). The club welcomed Eleanor Hasse this week, the external evaluator for the project, who observed students and will be writing a summary report for the project's funding agency--Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Dr. Oliver is finalizing the 2016-17 annual report to the Burroughs Wellcome Fund which is due this week, September 30. Students were sent home with "institutional review board" permission forms this week for parents to review/sign, allowing the university staff sponsoring this project to survey students about changing STEM interests and interests in the different technology areas sponsored by the project.
9/19/2017. At the second meeting of the 2017-18 iNEST maker club, students were shown how to make a simple copper foil circuit to power a LED integrated into a lighthouse graphic. Following this introduction, students worked on light-up greeting cards of their own design, following samples prepared by Jennifer and Dr. Oliver. Toward the end of the club meeting, Mrs. Vick helped girls post to the club's FlipGrid board for circuitry projects, providing an opportunity to reflect on their learning from the day. Next week, club members will continue their work with circuitry concepts by constructing a race car from plastic water bottles and other parts (electric rotor, propeller, battery pack).
9/12/2017. The Innovative Exploration of Science and Technology club kicked off the 2017-18 school year yesterday with more than 30 girls in attendance. After a snack and quick overview of the type of projects the club will introduce this year, the girls created SpinBots by wiring a rotor and propeller to a battery pack with alligator clips, then mounting their spinner to a plastic cup with markers affixed to the base. The girls learned how to reflect on their projects by posting short videos to the club's FlipGrid board for robotics, then the whole group had a brief discussion of some of the design variables that impacted how well their SpinBots worked (e.g., placement of rotor, number of markers, balance of cup). A few photos and videos from the SpinBot project are shown below.
|
Purpose:Dr. Oliver's weekly update of activities in the iNEST Maker Club. Archives
April 2019
|