LPS Makers and the #HourOfCode

In honor of Computer Science Education Week we participated in the #HourOfCode using our Android tablets and an app called Lightbot : Code Hour. While my makers were on the tablets I was on the Flash web version.

"The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics" - www.hourofcode.com

Fun with Ozobot

Ozobot provided lots of entertainment for our meeting. We went through lesson one from the Ozobot education page. We also played some printed games. My makers made some of their own tracks for Ozobot to test out. We still have to try out Ozobot with a tablet and then try to program Ozobot .....

The Design Challenge

This engineering design challenge was my inspiration for this meeting. I gave my makers pipe cleaners, plastic cups and 8oz weight of stones. Their challenge was to build a structure that can hold the cup with the stones in it.

Building Hovercrafts

For our third meeting, I gave my makers an Android tablet and told them to build a hovercraft. I had them building and racing on an app called Hovercraft - Build Fly Retry

Exploration Continues ...

The LPS Makers Club met again on Wednesday, 11th 2015. For the second meeting, I still wanted to keep things simple, yet give my kids a chance to bring their own ideas forward.

I got the idea of making foam gliders from Instructables. I gave my makers the material they would need and an overview of how it should work and then left them to make their own designs.

LPS Makers making foam gliders

The LPS Makers Club Begins ....

We had our first meeting on Wednesday, November 4th 2015!!!!

My makers club is aimed at grades 5 and up, however I do have a 4th grader in my club too :-)

I wanted to start of by giving my students the opportunity to explore with various materials, tools and technology. So for the first meeting we put together a simple LED lantern, I got this project idea from a digital hub session at the 2015 FAME conference. The template was designed on Fab@School Makers Studio software and was handed out at the conference,

I gave my students the template, LED lights, copper wire, conductive tape, arts and craft supplies and off they went....

We didn't finish our lamps in the club time, so the students took theirs home to complete.

Here is my completed lantern: