After a year off, during which time I transitioned to a new school and helped to build out a new space, Creator's Studio is back in action. Thank you to St. Matthew's (SMPS) for the many years I taught and developed the course there. Thank you to Westside Neighborhood School (WNS) for welcoming this course elective at the middle school.

Images and articles within this site are still primarily from SMPS, but will gradually grow to include experiences here at WNS. In my desire to document all that I possibly can, and to maintain an archive of a diverse selection of student projects, I have chosen to keep everything available. I find there is great value for current students to see previous student work, and for now that means work from another school.

​The elective schedule is a bit different at WNS. Rather than meet three times per 6-day cycle for 45 minute periods, I see the students once per cycle for 2 hours. While the total number of minutes is reduced, the quality of work during that time has improved. We can dive deeper into our projects for extended periods, and clean up happens just once. Students don't feel rushed to start on a project, only to have to clean up a few minutes later.

As my students are new to the space and the tools, I am spending time getting them trained. Our first project is the creation of wooden toolboxes from scrap wood in our Maker Court. These boxes are for our 6th grade to use during the Legends of the Trash Creatures project, and frankly for any future project where groups need to store a small amount of supplies. By building these toolboxes, students learn to use the miter saw, belt sander, band saw, drills, drivers, clamps, square and measuring tape. They learn to take accurate measurements, to plan ahead, and to organize their materials and tools. They learn to respect the use of power tools and to work safely.

The primary project for students in Creator's Studio is a personal one. After training on these tools, and others in the coming weeks, students will focus on a project of their own making. They will select the tools and materials they need in order to complete that project. It may be digital, it may be analog, it will likely be a blend of both. I am eager to see what they create.

This past week, our 5th graders worked with Ms. Sauerhoff on their seismometers for Science class. 

Project Description:
"Ever since people first became curious about earthquakes, they have tried to design some kind of seismograph to measure their intensity and magnitude. In this lab you will have the opportunity to make one by yourself or with a partner."

"Goals: Think of a creative but effective way to measure the seismic waves (shock waves) from an earthquake. Your seismometer must be: 

1. made of common inexpensive materials found in a local store or the science classroom; 
   
2. able to determine the relative magnitude (size) of each vibration it measures;
   
3. able to measure vibrations continuously for at least 30 seconds;
   
4. able to measure even slight vibrations from a shake table."
   

Students spent the first two days doing research about seismographs and developing an initial design. After submitting a materials list and receiving approval for design, students began construction on their seismometers on day three. 

With PIRL Terrace open and supervised, students started construction of their seismometers. While in years past this project involved students working on their projects primarily from home, the new learning space provided access to a more diverse selection of tools and materials, allowing students to expand their thinking and be more creative. They also fed off of each others' design elements. Having the space and time to test out their models on the shake table encouraged further iteration in design. 

Still to come is a formal testing period with data collection, along with a reflection and evaluation piece about the final design. Here are some pics of students at work.

This past week Mr. Cowman's 8th grade science classes participated in the annual Physics Project. Groups of students are tasked with designing a Rube Goldberg-esque device that demonstrates a minimum of seven concepts in physics (force, speed, acceleration, velocity, momentum, etc). 

From the project guidelines: "The project must start with a ball rolling down some kind of a track, but it may switch to other types of objects and designs as long as the physics concepts are illustrated." 

Students can use a variety of materials including wood, plastic tubing, peg board, metal railings and more. The project should be self-supporting, and reliable, requiring multiple trials. In addition to covering physics concepts, students are evaluated on creativity and elaborate design.

This year's projects included water pouring tea-pots, exploding toy cars, match-sticks lit by triggers, and the ever popular Mentos in soda bursts. I've chosen to include this science activity in my course blog because of the impact our new spaces have had on the project build day. While in years past students could work outdoors and share a limited number of tools, this year they had access to miter saws, a drill press, a laser cutter, and a variety of hand-held power tools. PIRL Terrace served as a workshop and toolshed, with students and teachers buzzing about like a colony of bees hard at work on the hive. There seemed to be no lull in the build day, as students stopped only for short breaks or to grab a slice of pizza. 

After a day and a half of building, the 8th graders showcased their work to students in the other grade levels, along with faculty and parents. While not all of the marbles found their proper destination 100% of the time, the amount of time, effort and energy that students put into the process of designing, building, and iterating was clearly evident.

Thank you to Reynaldo Macias for photos and video. 

In the video below, students end the project with Mentos dropping into the bottle of soda. While the final step needed a little nudge, the explosion was wotth the wait!

As a quick follow up to my previous post, here are some photos of student projects in 7th grade history. The topic of study was inventions from Imperial China. As part of their project, students could build a replica of something invented during that period. Here are photos of three of those projects. The wooden stamps and Fu (Chinese axe) were designed in Illustrator and laser cut. The dragon head was downloaded from Thingiverse.com and 3D printed. It served as the headpiece for a wooden rowboat.

This week the class only met once, but we took advantage of every minute we had. The trebuchet projects needed wood cut, so we met in PIRL Terrace to have access to the miter saw. 

After an introduction of some new materials (acrylic sheets and foam sheets) and how to cut them, we all brought our required tools and materials down to PIRL Terrace to continue our project work. In the gallery of photos below, students are seen working on their individual projects in this new outdoor space.

The light cube projects are trying out the new acrylic sheets for the cube structure. It appears to work better than the material we had at the beginning, as cuts are easier and cleaner. The boat projects are using the foam sheets with a glue gun to prototype their models. We also 3D printed some propellers from Thingiverse to try out with the RC air boats.

The trebuchet creators were given a thorough walk through of the miter saw, and then made their measured cuts under my supervision. They also sanded down their pieces of PVC.

One student completed his Boe-Bot project, and in the video at the bottom of this post, you will see that he programmed it to navigate based upon feedback from its IR sensors.

All projects are in different phases of development, as expected. While some have reached a level of independence and flow, I can spend more time supporting those that need the additional help.