Welcome 2018-2019 Makers

It's October already.  How is that possible?

September in the Light Lab is normally the quietest time of year as classroom teachers build community, set norms, and practice everyday routines in their own spaces.  While they are busy setting their kids up for a successful year, I focus my extra time on organizing, ordering, planning calendars, and developing project ideas that will eventually take shape in one of the four maker studios.

This October marks the second anniversary of the opening of the Ulmer Family Light Lab, and this September could not be described as quiet.  This Makerspace Director was thrilled to have joyful voices and busy hands in the building from the very first day of school.

Several grades have major projects already underway or most of the way through the planning stages:

Fifth graders finished an engaging goal-writing assignment paired with Scratch programming to animate their academic and social goals.  They used a single point rubric to monitor their progress through the three week project.  They participated in a peer gallery walk before the final work sessions to gather feedback and apply final changes.  Teacher Christie and I will complete our assessment of their program this week using the same rubric.  

Nursery visited the Natural Sciences Studio to chop apples for homemade applesauce.  While it cooked, we learned a little bit about the legend of Johnny Appleseed.  The warm applesauce was yummy on a brisk fall day.

Fifth graders are also beginning their first building session as they focus on green energy and sustainability.  Each group selected either solar, wind, or water power.  They will design and build a working energy model which is connected to their study of society and civilizations. More on this soon!

Grades 1, 3, and 4 became aeroponic tower stewards. In preparation for a new aquaponic system (with fish!), we moved two towers from the solarium into the cafeteria where they will be monitored by first and fourth graders weekly.  The remaining tower, managed by third grade, is now located on the third floor near the elevator.  Since the towers are receiving less sunlight, we added grow lights.  The first leaf lettuce was harvested and enjoyed by fourth graders on Friday.

Both Kindergarten classes brought their mathematicians and readers into the Lab to put their skills to good use.  KA made their very own ice cream shop to buy and sell their homemade sweet treat while practicing money skills.  KB builders explored ramps and structures while working on their custom super hero capes that will celebrate their mastery of reading skills.  

Third graders took a tour of each studio to open their minds to all the tools and materials available.  They explored how electricity travels by building circuits with LittleBits. They loved these cool prototyping materials!  3A decided to spend the next few weeks making cardboard creations that they will wire with simple electronics to light, move, or buzz something.

The entire division participated in the annual Harvest Festival by sampling soup made from our FCS garden ingredients, cutting veggies, and gathering in the courtyard for the cherished tradition a Stone Soup reading by our seniors.  The weather couldn't have been more beautiful as we enjoyed each other's company and sipped mint tea made by Sarah Taylor and our PK/K classes.  Special thanks for Tiffany Borsch for organizing and leading this amazing celebration of sustainability, gardening, and outdoor learning.

1B will begin assembling working water wheels with their buddies this week.  They are using everyday materials like tin pie pans, tape, and coat hanger wire to make each wheel.  Using hammers and drills, they will assemble a sturdy wooden base.  We are hoping to make a larger version of these personal sized wheels later this year for the lower playground space.

The new addition of fourth and fifth grade electives gave me the chance to offer an introductory Arduino class for students interested in learning how to breadboard, build electronics, and code in the Arduino language (based on C).  We spent the first half of our sessions learning the components, following schematics to build models, and altering the code offered through the Arduino text editor.  This week, we will take a closer look at a few creative projects we could build together in our remaining time.

Fall Clubs are underway in the Light Lab with Coding Cafe on Tuesday afternoons.  Ms. Borrero's coders have been working in Scratch to make programs that fulfill specific coding criteria while allowing lots of creative design freedom.  I had the chance to see some of these programs; I was very impressed with the advanced programming concepts being used successfully - lists, conditionals, and functions.  Awesome.

Cooking Club has been delicious!  Aspiring chefs are learning how to cook and bake by focusing on recipes and methods that can be repeated at home.  We've learned how to cook all kinds of eggs (and by doing so, learned which kinds of eggs we like to eat), made moist banana bread loaves, and blended up creamy hummus.  Many families have been enjoying their child's increased interest in cooking at home.

Fall has certainly been productive and joyful.  The Light Lab studios have not only been full of kids working happily on hands-on projects; many adults have utilized the spaces for parent socials, school events, and maker activities that support our community.  It's wonderful to see this resource grow and expand to fill the needs of our Lower School community members.  

Tune in again soon as we explore methods for assessing Maker Ed projects this year.  This topic is one that is being widely discussed in the Maker Ed world.  We are piloting some new ideas that we hope will add to the growing dialogue.

Second Year Summary

In the Ulmer Family Light Lab, teachers continued to develop interdisciplinary connections to classroom content through innovative projects.  Now in its second full year, the Light Lab Studios were busy, productive, and beautifully messy each day. Individual homerooms utilized the spaces for projects specific to their classroom curriculum. Grade partners, book buddies, and Middle and Upper School helpers also joined our Lower School students to work on multi-age collaborations.

Just a few of the many projects from this amazing year:

• Nursery used the Natural Sciences Studio to cook and bake throughout the year. NA made blueberry muffins while reading Blueberries for Sal.  NB made holiday soaps to gift to family and friends.
  

  
• Pre-Kindergarten classes explored food art with US buddies during The Arts fall project theme. PKB drew digital self-portraits that were made into custom rubber stamps using the laser cutter.
  

  
• KA made homemade pasta after their performance of Strega Nona.  KB sewed penguin costumes in between programming BeeBots to travel between the poles on the globe.  
  

  
• 1A filmed stop motion videos after studying A Peaceable Kingdom.  1B started painting a collaborative floor map of India with their book buddies that will continue with next year’s class.
  

  
• 2A was inspired by the real life story of William Kamkwamba and learned to harness the wind to make electricity.  2B made emotive digital music with custom circuits that controlled digital instruments.
  

  

• 3A used power drills to make lanterns and an interactive radial art installation.  3B constructed sophisticated puppets with hand-sewn costumes for the Robin Hood puppet show.
  

  
• Fourth Grade State Festival projects ranged from digital broadcasts to interactive circuit-controlled maps. 4A scaled the United States map in Adobe Illustrator to laser cut each state for the base of a hand puppet in their Scrambled States of America performance.  4B applied geometry concepts to the design of laser cut personal records during fall project.

• Fifth graders used Scratch programming to create interactive math games and built unique green energy systems to light model houses, power fountains, and build sustainable model cars.  They dabbled in TinkerCad to explore 3D modelling and printing. Fifth grade art classes used Adobe Illustrator to design and laser cut templates to fold into their scarves for Shibori dyeing.
  

  

Our tools, materials, and physical spaces all evolved this year as we began to observe patterns of use and identified needs. The Recording Room, a sound-proof space in the Media and Computing Studio, was updated to add a counter and stools for a comfortable place to record custom sounds for coding projects and sound effects during film editing. This summer, built-in workspaces with storage will be added to the Fabrication Studio showcasing hand tools and making them much more accessible. The electrical system in the Solarium was upgraded in order to prepare for a new aquaponic system that will enhance our existing programming around food growth. (We currently have aeroponic towers and hydroponic buckets. This new aquaponic system allows us to add fish which provide nutrients to the plants. So exciting!)

While our Maker Studios provide collaborative community spaces for our students during the school day, they also serve our faculty and staff. Throughout the year, teachers had the opportunity to explore new techniques and technology through a series of workshops in the Light Lab.  We were also thrilled to share our unique space with visitors from other independent schools, public schools, and local organizations.

In the fall, the Ulmer Family Light Lab served as the host site for the Digital Promise and Ed Camp's collaborative launch. Teachers from the tri-state area joined us for a day celebrating Maker Ed with informative and exploratory workshops.

For the second year in a row, we welcomed a summer cohort of Chinese teachers building a new school based in the Constructivist Learning Model. They joined me in the Light Lab to explore our robotics library and experiment with creative ways to connect math content like percentage, place value, and patterns to programming.

Mighty Maker Camp will soon begin on August 13 when we welcome young makers coming into Grades 1-5.  They will have full access to all materials and tools in the Light Lab and the opportunity to construct their own projects.  Blog post and pictures coming in late August!

State Fair

Fourth graders proudly displayed their creative state maker projects during the State Fair this week on the LS campus of Friends' Central.  Students spent weeks working in the Light Lab studios with their mentors, adding details to physical models, 3D designing and printing, editing iMovies and stop-motion animations, and much more.

Laser cut signs seemed a popular addition to many of this year's models.  One student even created an interactive map of the Alamo (also laser cut) using Scratch programming and the Makey Makey.  He chose five places on his map, made electronic buttons, and recorded facts about what occurred in each place. 

Several fourth graders explored TinkerCad to make pieces of their models.  A student designed an Olympic podium and then printed it on one of the MakerBots.  She added the podium in front of an intricate backdrop that she designed using Adobe Illustrator and laser cut in the Lab.  She finished it up with handmade felt flags for the countries who earned the most medals and detailed clay figures for the podium.  When she finally finished her creative project, she stood back to admire her work.  "I really used a lot of different materials and methods," she observed, proudly.

For the very first time, those creative projects stayed right where they had been toiled over for weeks.  In a stroke of genius, one of the homeroom teachers suggested holding the Fair inside the Light Lab and stationing students in three of the working studios, reserving Natural Sciences for all the food and drinks for the feast.  Scheduling challenges made it hard to hold it in the LS Meeting Room as usual, so we decided to go for it.

Teachers and students helped decorate with patriotic paper chains, balloons, flags, and spinners.  It looked so festive and inviting!  Community visitors paraded through the studios on Thursday and Friday, sharing feedback and eventually sharing delicious state-themed foods.  The weather allowed us to open the doors to the lower floor studios and eat in the Light Lab courtyard. 

Visitors are encouraged to engage with the students while visiting, ask questions, and give feedback.  I like to stand back and watch this process. Sometimes visitors will ask me questions they didn't want to ask the children for one reason or another. 

One guest visited the interactive map project and then came over to ask me how much of this idea really belonged to the student.  She explained that she felt it was almost too sophisticated for him to think of on his own. 

I could honestly tell her that the idea was entirely his.  He was absolutely clear on what he wanted to make, how it would work, and what the final product would look like.  He simply needed a mentor teacher to help him think through the materials and steps to make it happen.  He had been a part of the FCS after-school Coding Club which gave him some background in the programming needed.  He had explored laser cutting through a class project earlier in the year.  He had a Makey Makey at home that he hadn't really figured out how to apply yet. He really had all the pieces but needed a little guidance on how to put them together.

He worked step-by-step to design the board in Adobe Illustrator, cut it on the laser cutter, size the map of the Alamo and attach it, drill holes for wiring, record his facts, write the Scratch program, and hook up the circuit board.  Testing all the recordings and securing the wires probably took the longest; it required some fiddling around to make everything consistently work without glitches.  But the first moment he tested his buttons and heard his program activate, it was magical.  He almost couldn't contain his excitement and his friends joined him enthusiastically by patting him on the back and telling him how cool it was.  All the hard work most definitely paid off!

As his mentor, I was there when he needed my help or a little motivation to try something again or differently.  The best part of mentoring is getting to share each child's enthusiasm and pride.  The other mentor teachers serve the same role for students doing projects that require different skill sets.  Our librarian and technology integration specialist work with students using iMovie and green screening.  They help students make newscasts and creative films.  Our science teacher mentors students in stop-motion animation and our art teacher supports children making all kinds of models.  The classroom teachers float to supervise all the projects and lend their own expertise in many ways.

Although the creative projects are my favorite part of this yearly event, the students learn all about their state before they even propose their project ideas.  They spend time in Library and in their classrooms learning about geography, history, and important details specific to their state.  This information goes into a research paper that accompanies the project, complete with a bibliography to accurately cite their sources.

So the hard work and the happy chaos of the State Fair is over.  I'm sitting in the quiet Fabrication Studio this Friday afternoon, writing this blog post surrounded by the projects that will soon be picked up and taken home to be celebrated again by individual families.

 I'm struck by how lucky I am to support the kind of learning that feels so individual and inspiring.  Happy making!

What's Growing in the Solarium?

A quick peek into the fifth space in the Light Lab, often viewed a part of Natural Science but deserving of a quick blog post.

When we brainstormed what to grow in the Light Lab Solarium, we realized that our students are really fortunate to focus on traditional growing methods with our expansive outdoor garden and farm.  Each year they plant seeds, spread compost, weed, harvest, and get their hands dirty outside in all the best ways.   

We wanted to give them a different experience in the Solarium by introducing aeroponic and hydroponic methods of farming.  Our fifth graders tackle the building and set-up in the fall.  The maintenance of our three vertical aeroponic towers in the Solarium is ongoing.  They visit as a class weekly to fill the water reservoirs, take pH readings, measure growth, plant seedlings, replace and tend plants, harvest, and most deliciously, eat!

Most of what we harvest is taken to the kitchen where Chef Wadiya incorporates it into our new food program, Lettuce Feed You.  We grow basil which is added to her homemade pizza sauce for Fridays and dill that flavors her famous salad dressings.  

Swiss chard, arugula, leaf lettuce, and kale make up the hearty variety of greens exploding from the towers.  We have a few climbing cucumbers which have proved great for making quick pickles.  (Amazing student take away:  "You mean pickles are actually cucumbers!") The sweet pepper plants are producing some beautiful baby green peppers that will be ready in the next two weeks.

After finding an avocado seedling self-sprouted in the compost outside, we rooted several more avocados (a lengthy process) and converted some old buckets into hydroponic systems.  We now have four beautiful and healthy avocado plants which after another lengthy period of time may yield some fruits that wouldn't be possible in the Pennsylvania climate.

Our aeroponic and hydroponic systems share many things in common.  Liquid nutrients must be added to the water to nourish the plants.  Each system is soil-less; seeds are sprouted in rock wool pods. 

The hydroponic buckets allow the plant roots to sit directly in the water/nutrient solution to take in both as needed.  Roots are supported in baskets filled with pebbles. 

The aeroponic towers allow the roots to grow out into the air inside each tower column and take in water as it "rains" down from above.  A strong pump in the water reservoir forces the water up to the top where it falls through something similar to a shower head.  This design allows us to make good use of the vertical space in the Solarium.  

Of course, the best part of growing is eating.  Tasting new foods is an important way for our students to practice one of our three Lower School guidelines: Be Brave.  

Their faces are priceless. Arugula was popular with about half the group, but everyone tried it!

It's truly amazing how much easier it is to take a chance on an unknown food when you've helped bring it to life and tended it through the entire process.  Stewardship, one of our Quaker spices, is in action!

The last piece that's been missing in our Solarium is an aquaponic system.  Teacher Tiffany and I have been researching and preparing, educating ourselves on how to add fish to our water reservoirs.  The fish make is possible to close the system, eliminating the need for us to add liquid nutrients for the plants.   

Tune in this spring as our students build an aquaponic system and learn the basics of this new sustainable method.