Portfolio Day @ Lighthouse
In our ongoing meeting of Portfolio Development and Career Pathways, we planned a Presentation Day for Middle-School during our School Assembly, and finalized a Portfolio Feedback Day for our High School Students.
Making, Art(s) and Design Career Connections
In the third meeting of the Making, Art(s) and Design Inquiry Group we continued feedback and support on Portfolio and Reflection practices, introduced Career Connections and discussed how these can be applied in a cross-curricular way throughout different grades and classes.
From the screen to the hand: getting started with 3D printing in the classroom
By Aaron Vanderwerff & Christine Mytko Originally published on Autodesk Design Academy. Why Making? Looking for ways to engage your students in deep learning? Hoping to hone your ability to help students truly understand what they are learning? Integrating making into your practice engages students, provides a true context for character development (think persistence), and…
Developing a Maker Mindset
Fun fact: here at the Creativity Lab, Making isn’t just about making things. Making is also about learning to see the world with new eyes, and developing deeper knowledge and understanding of the world around us. One of the ways we incorporate this idea is through using Agency by Design’s thinking routines. Educators can easily integrate these routines into any subject — even those not typically associated with making, like the Humanities. The first routine, called Parts, Purposes, and Complexities, (PPC) is a great one to start with, and is applicable to physical objects as well as abstract ideas and constructs.
Stamp Making, DIY Ink Pads, & Gift Wrap
In a perfect world I’d sit them all in two long rows, facing each other, scissors in hand, able to look up, across, or over for help and we would walk through cutting tightly curved lines. But what world is perfect anyway? Welcome to making with first graders. As a fun introduction for making Making…
Helping Build the Makerspace: Skill Building Without Pressure
I led a group of students in building storage for the makerspace. Together, we built a large rack for storing lumber and a rolling toolbox/whiteboard combo. Obviously this was very helpful for Lighthouse School. The high school makerspace is currently a multi-function room -a common scenario for makerspaces in schools. It is shared by the…
3dPrinting- Make Something Cool: Expectations and Reality
What is the problem? 3D printing looks and sounds really cool. It instantly gets people’s attention no matter what age group. It also takes a long time, is prone to error, is not an intuitive process, and the learning curve for 3-d modeling is very steep. What one can actually make on a 3D printer…
Shaping, Cutting, Connecting for Kids
What do words like woodshop and woodwork bring to mind? For me, it’s always been the hand and power tools one uses that I think of most easily. For kids in some of my afterschool classes, that’s been pretty much the same case. When I asked Kindergartners and 1st and 2nd graders what words came…