Last week during the course at Grant Wood we played with Makey Makey, LittleBits, and MakeDo. I had used all of these before, at the Grant Wood Makerspace, and when they were so kind to bring their tools to our school for students to test out.
The LittleBits are my new favorite tool. I just received the 3 Student Steam Kits we ordered and me and one of my 3rd grade students put a little car together in under 5 minutes. It was really fun and so easy!
In a couple of weeks the 4th graders are playing Jeopardy and I am hoping to use the LittleBits to make a buzzer to ring to answer the question. I am hoping to have them use sound & different colored LED lights to buzz in. I also just ordered the LittleBits Synth kit (from the Scholastic store with Scholastic dollars!!), which we could also use to make different pitches with the buzzers.
These little MakeDo tools work quite well in putting together pieces of cardboard. We could have used them the last few months while constructing cardboard Sphero mazes. I purchased a similar product, called Mr. McGroovy's box rivets, but they were a bit more complicated and harder for kids to use. My students didn't have rave reviews about the saw, but the screws work very well!
Makey Makey is a fun tool that makes anything that conducts electricity into a computer key, which makes for some fun when playing online games. We experimented with playing Tetris, and I pulled up a drum kit I had made in Scratch and used with our MakeyMakey at school. I want to use these more during our coding club next year, since only a few kids used them this year.
One of the aspects that I love about makerspaces is that it can take each learner on their own path. It was great that you were able to share your past experiences with others to show even more potential that these tools can have - Like creating the "grounding ring" out of copper tape to connect to the Makey Makey. When you allow others opportunities to explore their own path, it continues to build on the culture of everyone in the makerspace as a learner. So, glad to have you as a part of our makerspace community. I'll be very excited to see & hear about how your students expand on the LittleBits that you have purchased.
ReplyDelete