Throughout the summer making program, we used several techniques to help students develop their ideas at different stages of making. The processes of drawing, prototyping, and documentation are just as important as the actual ‘making’ of a project. 1. Journals: Initial ideas, sketches of designs, lists, a working book that keeps everything organized. Every student…
Over the last three weeks I have watched one of our regular drop-in makers, Yarely (a 4th going on 5th grader), go from making very simple, crafty, step-by-step projects for kids to making projects that blow away her 7th and 8th grade summer making peers. I bring this up for two reasons. First, when a…
Mr. V was interviewed on Tuesday, June 24th by EDUCATION TALK RADIO about Making and Designing in a Creative Classroom and School. Listen to the interview here: SMARTBLOG AWARD WINNING BLOGGER ON SCHOOL CREATIVITY, AARON VANDERWERFF 06/25 by EduTalk | Education Podcasts.
The 2nd graders at Lighthouse are spending the next few weeks learning about habitats of the Bay area and how animals adapt to live in them. Since we have a weekly making time, we decided to do an integrated curriculum making project. The kids (in groups of two) will build one of the four habitats…
Wednesday, December 18 was not only my birthday, but also the Lighthouse Community Charter School Winter Expo. Parents are required to attend three events each school year and the Winter Expo is one of them. My mind goes to the single parent, exhausted from a 12-hour workday, having then to trek across Bay Area rush…
One of the Creativity Lab’s top priorities is to get our community comfortable with the idea of making things, and perhaps more importantly, to learn to be persistent when things get tough and to learn from mistakes made along the way, whatever the project. Take for example the challenges 2nd graders have faced trying to…
They started with four piles – power sources, simple loads, switches, and complex loads – and by the time their hour of tinkering had passed, our students were expertly connecting multiple circuit elements together, drawing circuit diagrams, and investigating how to make more complicated circuit elements like 7 segment LEDs and potentiometers work. And they…