This week in the iNEST maker club, students were shown new digital badges that Dr. Oliver has set up in the 3D GameLab learning environment, that they can work toward through their project activities. Currently, students can document their project and leadership activities in 3D GameLab to earn seven digital badges as shown in the pic below: soft circuit badge, paper circuit badge, snap circuits badge, little bits badge, hummingbird badge, paper fabrication badge, and the leadership badge. To earn a given badge, students must complete a number of core activities as well as a self-directed quest in which they apply the technology they are learning to an original project or design. Girls were observed this week working on various projects: fabricated masks and Foldify, programmed Hummingbird duo controllers (robotics), soft circuit cuff bracelets, conductive copper foil tape greeting cards, and conductive ink poetry. We were excited to see two girls take their understanding of soft circuits and apply it to a self-directed quest in which they designed light-up pocket books. Toward the end of yesterday's meeting, the eight girls who will be attending the Society of Women Engineer's Invent It Build It Expo in Philadelphia this weekend, met with trip chaperones and their parents in the school library to go over logistics of air travel, packing, and the trip itinerary. The girls will be flying Friday morning and spending a day sight-seeing in Philadelphia (National Constitution Center, Independence Hall, famous grave sites). On Saturday, the girls will attend the Invent It Build It Expo and have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. On Sunday, the group will fly home. Thanks to WYWLA teacher Megan Patberg who is chaperoning the trip, along with parent Mrs. Foust, and to everyone who worked behind the scenes to make this trip happen with negotiating county/parent permissions, booking air travel and expo tickets, reserving hotel rooms, and arranging the trip itinerary.
After a week off for the "Day of the Girl" activities at WYWLA, the iNEST maker club reconvened Tuesday and welcomed Eleanor Hasse, the project's external evaluator, for her bi-annual observation of club activities. Students continued their work on various projects of interest (copper foil circuit greeting cards, conductible ink posters, wintercroft masks), and in particular, several students dove into our new Hummingbird robotics platform, taking on the orientation quest and learning how to program the Duo Controller and sensors with the Snap programming language. Thanks to Catie E. for her work sorting our LEDs into colored bags this week!
This past Tuesday, October 4th, the iNEST maker club held its 5th meeting of the fall semester. Dr. Oliver brought a supply of brushes and conductible ink that a few students promptly dove into to make signs and posters with light-up LED elements. Stephanie and Dr. Oliver created a couple of sample Halloween signs with copper foil circuits and light-up LEDs to honor the upcoming holiday. A few students followed suit and started their own Halloween cards. Also appropriate for Halloween, a number of students continue to work on paper masks, and one student created a great effect this week, placing paper mache tissue paper on her mask. Also in use this week by some students were LittleBits, Hummingbird/Snap programming, and Snap Circuits.
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Purpose:Dr. Oliver's weekly update of activities in the iNEST Maker Club. Archives
April 2019
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