11/7/2018. Today the iNEST Maker Club sponsored a STEM field trip for the entire 6th grade of the Wake Young Women's Leadership Academy (WYWLA). 58 girls traveled from the school to the Marbles Children's Museum where they took part in a STEM Exploratory Lab covering four different STEM career tracks (astronomy/space exploration, engineering, meteorology, and energy). After participating in the hands-on labs and taking observation notes in the booklets provided by Marbles, the girls watched "Dream Big" in the IMAX auditorium, with inspirational stories of young people making a big difference in the world through their STEM career tracks.
11/6/2018. Building on the Scratch coding cards the girls worked with a few weeks ago, we returned this week to block-based programming of Microbits. Everyone started with the same "rock-paper-scissors" project available on the Microbit coding web site, and then branched out to try some of the new projects available on the site. We will be working with Microbits for several weeks. It was great to see the girls get excited when their code functioned as planned and turned the Microbits into random generators of rock-paper-scissors icons with which to play the game. Dr. Oliver submitted a "student showcase" proposal to the NC-TIES state technology conference this week that, if accepted, will allow some of the club members to present on their Microbit work at the conference next March.
10/30/2018. Today in the iNEST Maker Club, the girls finished up their soft circuit pins and recorded their reflections on our circuitry FlipGrid board. Next week, the club will begin our new unit on Microbits with several fun projects tied to coding. Next week the club is also sponsoring a 6th grade field trip to the Marbles museum with an IMAX film.
10/23/2018. This week in the iNEST maker club... the girls started the meeting by recording FlipGrids about their Scratch projects from last week and/or commenting on their peers' FlipGrids. Afterwards, the girls worked through a practice sewing activity to learn the basics of working with needles/thread/felt, then moved on to a soft circuit project in which a light-up LED is sewn with conductive thread through a felt cut-out to a coin cell battery pack that provides the power for the LED. Halloween cut-outs were provided in association with the coming holiday. The girls will be finishing up their brooches next week, a day prior to Halloween.
10/16/2018. In this week's iNEST Maker Club meeting, after a club photo for the school yearbook the girls finished up their Scratch coding projects using the Scratch coding cards, with some students showing amazing progress (e.g., original maze games). The high schoolers helped club mentors test out the new Microbits that will be rolled out after Halloween. We're pleased to report the Microbits work with the older Wake County laptops, so we should be good to go in a few weeks with a lot of exciting Microbit coding projects. The next two weeks in the maker club, the girls will be working on soft circuit projects with light-up holiday pins, then we will get back to coding in early November.
10/9/2018. This week in the iNEST maker club, the girls continued learning the Scratch coding language by practicing with the Scratch coding cards. The cards allow the girls to program simple games like pong and catch as they learn about code blocks and coding concepts like variables. About eight to ten different card sets are available, so the girls who finish coding a game or interaction before the club ends can start on a new set of cards. We continue to encourage the girls to record FlipGrid videos, reflecting on each of their coded projects. The girls' new coding skills will be put to the test in coming weeks as we start to work with physical computing platforms, MicroBit and Hummingbird, that will require coding.
10/2/2018. In preparation for our upcoming work with MicroBits and Hummingbird Robotics, the girls today started learning to code with the kid-friendly Scratch program. The program uses drag-and-drop blocks to write common programming functions (e.g., when space bar is pressed..., if x then y...). In today's club meeting, the girls played with the Scratch "starter cards" that teach basic functions. Next week, the girls will be working with additional coding cards that teach them to write simple games and interactions. Ultimately, this new knowledge will be put to the test as girls write their own original programs to activate sensors and effectors on MicroBit and Hummingbird controllers. In other news, today we gave the girls laminated cards with question prompts designed to elicit computational thinking, and asked the girls to reflect on their coding on our programming and robotics FlipGrid board. We have been using reflections and FlipGrid for some time, but this is the first time we've had cards to remind the girls of the question prompts we want them to answer. We are in the process of creating a second set of laminated cards that will remind the girls of question prompts we want them to answer when reviewing and replying to other students' FlipGrid videos. The girls are doing a great job with both FlipGrid reflections and FlipGrid replies this fall.
9/25/2018. In the iNEST maker club today, the girls were asked to play back the FlipGrid videos recorded last week (MakeDo storage challenge) and comment on one another's designs with alternative ideas for applying other teams' storage designs. After their snack and commenting period, students moved on to today's project--copper foil circuits. Several templates were provided for the girls to integrate light-up LEDs into cards displaying lighthouses, space ships, Halloween characters, and more. At the end of the class, students were again asked to record a FlipGrid video, reflecting on challenges and successes in today's work. Attendance was down a bit this week with 34 club members signing in. It seems all 9th grade members skipped the club meeting to work on a pending essay assignment.
9/18/2018. In today's maker club meeting, a record 53 girls finished up their storage solutions with MakeDo kits, learning about fabrication. We were very impressed with their original ideas for storing cell phones, shoes, bathroom supplies, food, water, and more. The images below illustrate some of the design elements the girls integrated into their storage solutions, including: shelving brackets, hinges, doors, latches, and more. The club finished up with the girls recording their FlipGrid videos to show and reflect on their work. We will return to MakeDo challenges later this year, but are moving on to paper circuit projects next week for a little variety. Behind the scenes, club mentors are researching field trip options for the coming year, drawing on the many resources of the NC STEM Center.
9/11/2018. Today we rolled out the new MakeDo kits for physical fabrication with cardboard. The kits are relatively simple with plastic screws and screwdrivers, but support a lot of creativity in building different objects. We challenged the girls in small teams to identify a needed storage solution which they sketched before getting started building their designs. We will probably work with MakeDo for a few more weeks and give the girls different challenges to tackle. As you can see in the photos and videos below, this project generated a lot of interest and excitement. As an aside, we had 46 girls sign into the club today! Wow, a new one-day record! We need a bigger space!
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Purpose:Dr. Oliver's weekly update of activities in the iNEST Maker Club. Archives
April 2019
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