The following are a few informational sites that I happened upon in the course of my weekly readings for my connected Learning grad class. Enjoy!
Erika Halverson Kimberly Sheridan mentioned e-texiles in their article The Maker Movement in Education, but I did not know what e-textiles were/are. This link has a simple introduction to e-textiles, electronics that can be sewn into clothes. An example is pictured below.
An article about a 9th grade engineering class in Philadelphia mentioned a Rube Goldberg machine. This sounded familiar to me, but I did not remember exactly what a Rube Goldberg machine was. This website discusses Rube Goldberg machines (they are unnecessarily complicated inventions) and reminds me of an old board game called Mouse Trap (pictured below) that I loved as a child.
I have heard about but never been to the annual Burning Man event in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. After reading about it on their official website I am now even more certain that it embodies many of the elements that are admired most about makerspaces: those of community, expression, and mutual support. The website describes it as a “vibrant participatory metropolis generated by its citizens.” Sounds like the world’s biggest makerspace to me, eh?
I had picked up a copy of Make magazine for the first time last year at an airport and I was impressed, but after Leah Buechley’s statistical breakdown of it’s readers and content I thought I should visit their website in order to form my own unbiased opinion. It’s packed with free information and tutorials that you don’t need a subscription to access, but a unique section spotlights makers like Julia Dvorin, who is featured this month.
Reading articles about creating makerspaces for students got me questioning how one might go about doing so. This article peers behind the curtain and lists step-by-step actions that transformed a school library into a makerspace. In the spirit of other makerspaces, the librarian asked students for input as to what her makerspace should contain.
Little Bits are small electronic parts that magnetically snap together in order to build circuits. Their website has a special section for educators, with suggestions and guides focused on how to implement their use in a classroom. After looking at the prices, I can understand why many schools just cannot afford to purchase them.
If you are not familiar, Arduino is an “open-sourced electronics platform” that is the core of many robotics courses at high schools country-wide. It requires learning coding in order to make it function. Tinkerers are encouraged to submit pictures/video of their Arduino-based projects online as an inspiration to others. The Arduino website also has a section for educators which contains an entire curriculum program that can be uses for secondary education called “Creative Technologies in the Classroom”.
Thanks for reading,
Eric L.